The Pyreneese

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  Saint-Etienne-de-Baigorry, France
Friday, July 25, 2008

Zubiri to St Etienne de Baigorry

Today, in my mind, was going to be the longest, most difficult, brutal day of our ride. Thankfully, I was wrong. The days of climbing have finally paid off! We had about two hours of gentle climb and then a bomber 10k downhill. That dropped from 850 meters to 200 meters. That's almost 2000 feet of drop. Most of which was in the first 3k. I am so glad we weren't traveling in the other direction for once! The only scary parts were once, while hauling ass into a corner which was tighter than I expected, my rear knobby tire started to slip a little. This caused a pucker factor of 8 out of 10 (this is when you try to hold on with your butt cheeks in case your hands aren't enough). The other scary spot was, again, while hauling ass, I came around a corner just as a semi was coming uphill, passing a biker riding uphill, taking the entire road. Brake check

Foot bridge

! Rear tire locked up, front on the verge, had to come to a complete stop to let the semi by as well as clean my shorts. We arrived shortly thereafter in St Etienne de Baigorry where we ate lunch and planned our next step. I had a "quick" errand to run. Before you leave the country for two months, make sure your atm card won't expire while you are gone! This is on my list, but somehow, I overlooked it. Our daily expenses had exceeded our expectations. We were quickly running out of cash. My sisters account was almost overdrawn and, after trying several atm's (non of which pointed out the actual reason my card didn't work), I called my bank to see what the problem might be. They asked if I had received my new card before leaving. Ding ding ding, light bulb! I felt like an idiot! Here I was, riding bicycle across Europe, with almost no cash through towns so small that the one store/bar/eatery in town won't accept a credit card, and I had no access to cash. I tried my visa card but I must not have set the pin so it didn't work either. I called my credit card company. They said all I had to do was go to any bank and ask for a cash advance on my credit card. I must have tried 10 different banks in 4 different towns and they all said I would have to use the atm, they couldn't do a cash advance. So much for visa coming through. Back to the errand: I had to make my way to a Western Union agent in Saint Jean Pied De Port which was 11k away within the next 1.5 hours before closing time. It was hot and there was a big hull between us

View near the top

. I decided to take a taxi which was our only choice given the time and such. We got directions to the only taxi in town. He lives right down the road, next to the ambulance. Leo and I walked there leaving my sister to watch the mikes and our stuff. Of course, the one taxi in town was out taking a fare to a town over an hour away, so the neighbor, sitting out front, grabbed a phone book and proceeded to look up the two other people she knew who ran taxi's in neighboring towns. We found one who have is a 15 minute eta back at the church where my sis was sitting. We quickly walked back up there and met up with her. The ride was uneventful, however, I was in heaven to open the window and have a breeze without peddling hard or going down hill! Upon getting to the post office, the Western Union agent, we paid the bill and proceeded inside. The lady behind the counter had me full out a form. I filled in what I could and handed it back to her. She took one look and said I had to have an address in France in order to receive the money. We stayed that we had just arrived and hadn't even gotten a hotel yet. She insisted. Leo grabbed a newspaper and looked up a random add with an address. This worked. 5 mins later, she stated that we need a local phone number where we are staying. Damn! Leo have her the number to the taxi who had driven is there. She didn't like that number for some reason. Leo then had to grab the newspaper again and search for the same add that the address came from. Once he found and relayed it to her, she was apparently satisfied enough to pay out my wired cash

Looking glass

. Whew. The sweat pouring off of my head wasn't just from the heat! Leo and I proceeded back outside to find a bus back to St Etienne since we weren't under the same time crunch. Apparently, there aren't any direct buses so it was going to take 2 hours to get back going to other towns, out of the way first. We called back the taxi and were reunited with my sis within minutes. Somehow, I missed the decision making process that was to decide where we were going to stay that night. The decision, again, without my input, was made to camp out. Ok, we haven't camped out yet after hauling the gear all over the place, I guess I can deal with it. Cute camp ground, right on the river. Lots of soft looking grass. Decent, clean facilities and besides, it was only 3 euro per person. What a deal! We even found good pizza right across the street. Sweet!

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