going cycling in the pyrenees...
probably wasn't the best idea for a holiday...

was about 17 or so, went with two other blokes my age, one English, one French.

after the second day i've had enough, so i cycle back to camp (a mosquito infested clearing in some bushes - yay!)

after smoking a couple of Gauloises, decide that hitch-hiking back to the Charente (where my old man is working whilst i'm off dying of exhaustion) is the order of the day, so i write the others a note (largely using English slang) and hit the road armed with about 10 francs and a bottle of water.

over the next 30 hours i probably walked a total of about 50km, didn't consult a map once, spent my 10 francs on another bottle of water and a Snickers bar, got lifts from a variety of mad and colourful French people including the lunatic who nearly had us over the edge on every corner of the mountain road, the chick who had to make a 'pit-stop' at a tavern en route, the mad old man in a 2CV with whom i had a long discussion about the merits of the rear suspension (in perfect French!), the furniture showroom owner who drove me 250kms, cooked me a good meal and allowed me to crash on his showroom floor for the night, then dropped me off at the nearest town after a hearty breakfast - and many other characters.

meanwhile in the Pyrenees it's all gone a bit wrong. English bloke has had some kind of seizure halfway up a mountain and been carted off to hospital. French bloke has come back, found my unintelligible note and panicked as i'm nowhere to be seen. fuck did i ever get a bollocking off his parents.

at some point during my "faire l'auto-stop" i managed to make a phone call to the old man, to say i was alive, and then later that afternoon i was helping him build a house.

so, yeah, aside from the great adventure, a truly shite holiday. i don't do pushbikes any more.

apologies for girth.
(squirrelysquirrel, Fri 22 Apr 2005, 4:07, Reply)