Montpensier Hotel Pau

Considered having one last night on the road, cracking our bottle or 9.99 Lidl champers (premier cru!). In the end, we opt to do the big dash & head for home. You reach that point where you just feel ready. Tedious... especially as the winds that blight SE France are blowing in full glory! However, the point has come, we decide, where there isn't much to be gained by staying out any longer. Feels good to be back on 'home' turf - but, as familiar ground ...

... the same statuettes and bottles in which to collect your holy water. It was difficult to feel any empathy with the people there when it seems to us to be little more than a huge sales opportunity for the church. Difficult to like but interesting to visit!

Mike could recognize very little of Pau as expected. It seemed a lot bigger, but it was interesting to revisit the were Mike spent a miserable and lonely month all those years ago

... occurred. My rear wheel hit a rock, flipping the bike out from under me, and I crashed on the road, face first, then elbow, and hip. My left eye socket was fractured, the left side of my face abraded, and my hip dislocated, hitting and shattering my left pelvis.

This was the start of my own personal odyssey of self discovery and recovery, encountering the breadth & depth of ...

... 169m) and the Col De Pinodieta (176m) before lunch.

The walled town of St Jean Pied de Port offers a perfect lunch stop, and then we cycle on to our first proper climb over the Col D’ Osquich (500m). The sign of the small town of Arudy will no doubt be very welcome at the end of this 180km monster day! We get our Raid carnet stamped twice today – we are well on our way!

WHAT I EXPERIENCED:

So, nearly ready for the off! Thankfully, false alarm about arrival of guests to take over house in absence means we have one more day in which to prepare... much needed!
We will just about get there - I think.
Round about now it occurs to us we really ought to have assembled scooter on trailer and gone for little spin to test strapping arrangement, etc... just to make sure it all holds up. Oh well, the road will be a good test of all that... I guess.

... hundreds of tiny leeches and felt like gentle tickling, especially round the toes. Our feet came out feeling better and softer than any pedicure. Our last day in Singapore was all about shopping. It's no longer particularly cheap but great range of anything and everything. A final stop for lunch at Chinatown (Lucy has eaten nothing but chicken nuggets and had to settle for Chinatown's version - fried chicken ...

... signals. Fine, I'll admit I wasn't paying attention, which is probably a bad idea on French roads. This accident sans blessures coupled with the harmless nose-dive I suffered the day before (the leaves along the road obscured the true heighth of the curb) has caused me to question whether or not I am still alive. It doesn't really make sense to me that I didn't receive a concussion when I ran my head into the ground, which forces me to conclude that I am either ...

I'm not going to go so far as to call this travel blog a failure. Let's just say it could have been better. Truth be told, it's a very low priority on my list of " ą faires" . In order to write an interesting journal, one must constantly be on the look-out for interesting things to write about. Egalement, one must also actually take the time to sit down and write an entry, but time isn't the biggest problem ...

... bring in my mind and carry in my heart, for they give me inspiration and insight: - My familly: mum, brothers, dad, and grand parents who are with me all along. - The participants to the chaotic goodbye weekend in Pau: I won't put names or stories here, hehehe... - In Faye: Jacques ...

... A few days in Ulan Bator - Karakorum - Tsetserleg - Setting off ...