Day 48 Gabarret to Le Moulin de Saint Laurent - the final stage (almost!)

We've basically completed our planned tour and are now at the lovely campsite at St Laurent, a mere 20km along the Canal Latéral de la Garonne to Agen, where we need to be by 20.00 on Saturday to catch the bus home.
3,200km of hilly riding - it's been an amazing experience!
Today's ride was pleasant and took us through the lovely bastide towns of Barbaste and Vianne, before meeting the Canal Latéral de la Garonne.

Tomorrow we'll rest, swim in the pool here and explore the area a little.

Gabarret to Saint Laurent- 57km, 400m ascent.

Day 47 Aire-sur-l'Adour to Gabarret

Pretty villages, undulating roads and vinyards led us through Armagnac. Clearly, given the local industry a wealthy area, with beautifully kept villages.

 The church towers in this area all seem to be octagonal.

It was more overcast today and not quite so hot in the afternoon. We've come to the Camping Municipal at Gabarret after a gruelling 10 kilometres on a very rough Voie Verte. A good way to make a nice cycling surface on a voie verte is to wait until it is very muddy, then drive a tractor over it. Let it dry out in the sun and cyclists will really enjoy the ruts and bumps! The Municipal Campsite here is  the cheapest campsite of the tour at €8.00 and is clean and pleasant. What is more it has loo paper. Last night we paid €16.00 and had to use our own!

Aire-sur-l'Adour to Gabarret 59km, 450m ascent.

Day 46 Ousse to Aire-sur-l'Adour

It's been unbearably hot in the afternoons, so we got going early today, to avoid having to ride much after lunchtime. Fortunately we are only aiming at 50 or 60km a day now as we have plenty of time.
Our route was mainly on tiny roads and tracks through a pleasant rural landscape. Everywhere there were fields of young sweetcorn and sunflowers.

The Pyrenees were visible in the distance behind us for most of the day, but a lot of our ride was flat. Just a few times the foothills threw up a nasty, steep ridge in front of us including one that even Ben had to walk up. I have walked up a few of the steeper ones over the last weeks, using the bike as a sort of Zimmer frame! Ben has more pride....

We're camping in a peaceful spot by the river.

Ousse to Aire-sur-l'Adour  - 59km, 350m ascent.

Day 45 Laruns to Ousse

We left quite late and had a lovely ride through beautiful countryside out of the high mountains, but with spectacular views back towards them.

It seems strange to be in France after all this time. Strange too how the character changed immediately after crossing the border.

France, certainly in this area has a more affluent appearance and is certainly neater and better kept.

Also, importantly, you can buy a croissant without sugar on it!

We didn't have to push ourselves today and in the heat of the afternoon have stopped at a small campsite in Ousse, near Pau.

Laruns to Ousse - 50km, 300m ascent.

Day 44 Senegüé to Laruns - over the Pyrenees to France

At least our rather unexpected hotel stay last night enabled us to get away earlier than we do when we have to pack up a tent. Breakfast was excellent and suitably fortified we were off towards the Col de Portalet.

Heading for the high mountains in the early morning

The route was beautiful and not too arduous until the last few kilometres. There was quite a bit of snow around.

We've been in Spain for over six weeks now, so it's exciting to be back in France!

We've had a great day in the beautiful Pyrenees and are now at a very peaceful campsite in Laruns.

Yesterday's train journey has put us well on target to be in Agen for our bus home on Saturday as well as getting us over the hot and rather boring plains north of Zaragoza. We now have more time to enjoy the mountains and the northern foothills.

Senegüé to Laruns - 70km, 1500m ascent.

Day 43 Zaragoza to Senegüé mainly by train - eventually

Today is our 45th wedding anniversary and we spent it in a strange way - mainly on a train.
There are only two trains a day from Zaragoza to Sabiñanigo and we had booked the one at 15.41 rather than the one at 06.00.
It is the first time we've been able to enjoy a leisurely morning without rushing either to cycle or go sightseeing, so we had a lengthy breakfast and packed slowly. We bought a picnic lunch on the way to the station and arrived in good time for the single carriage diesel train. It was quite full and we were pleased to get the bikes on and safely stowed. The train set off on time and stopped a few hundred metres outside the station. After about 15 minutes it returned to the platform. There was a problem - we aren't sure what, but the train certainly looked and sounded quite ancient. Everyone disembarked and after a while we gathered (we have a serious language barrier) that another train would come, but it wouldn't arrive for another hour.
It arrived and we hoisted the bikes on board again. Off we went - our ETA apparently now being 19.50 instead of the original 18.40. OK, we thought, still time to ride the 8km to our projected campsite.
At 18.50 we arrived at a town called Ayerbe, where the guard informed us that as this was a single track railway and there wasn't another passing place until Sabiñanigo (our destination), the train would wait for over an hour, so as not to delay the train going in the opposite direction.
We duly left Ayerbe at 19.55 and finally arrived at Sabiñanigo at 21.00.
This meant that the journey which should have taken three hours actually took five hours twenty minutes.
We headed off to the campsite after buying some food in a supermarket en route. A spurious sign took us on a totally unnecessary detour up a steep hill and down again, so at 22.00 as it was getting quite dark, we arrived. The site was full!
Out with the phone and onto Booking.com. There was a rather expensive room available at Senegüé, a village about 1km back along the road. There was nothing else for miles around. So here we are in quite a nice village hotel which is full of cyclists involved in a race.
There was a little complimentary bottle of some sort of liqueur in our room, so we have been able to celebrate our anniversary after a fashion!

Zaragoza to Senegüé - mainly by train (150km)

Cycled 15.

Day 42 Zaragoza - bike repairs and sightseeing

We were at Ciclos Richi soon after opening time and they were happy to supply Ben with a new front derailleur and chain.
While this was being done we took the opportunity to visit the Aljaferia palace and enjoyed seeing some more Moorish architecture and learning more about the Reconquista and the Reyes Catolicas, Isabel and Ferdinand, who added to this palace later. Katherine of Aragon was their daughter and I find that knowing more of Spanish history helps me to understand the strength of antagonism between the Catholics and Protestants in England in Tudor times. How could Katherine and her daughter Mary have reacted differently coming from such a background?

We struck lucky for lunch with a restaurant near the cathedral which had a help-yourself buffet; for a fixed price you could eat as much as you liked from a huge variety of great salads and other mains, as well as trying a superb selection of desserts including a chocolate fountain. Ben certainly did it justice - we stayed there a long time!

Oh, and the other thing we did was to go to the station and book a train ticket to take us 150km into the Pyrenees.

Basically we are pretty tired; we've now cycled very nearly 3000 very hilly kilometres, it's very hot (mid 30s) and we haven't so much time in hand. We will get off the train at 800m and will still have to get ourselves over the Col de Portalet at 1800m and into France, so we don't feel too guilty about it!

Zaragoza - 10km to bike shop from campsite and back.

Day 41 Saviñan to Zaragoza

It's quite a shock to have arrived in a more populated part of Spain after the emptiness of the Moncayo region that we have been cycling through for the last few days.
The roads are busier, the villages have more people around and there is quite a bit of industry.
It wasn't the most exciting ride today and the heat (36° this afternoon) made it quite gruelling.

The most frustrating thing was passing an area where the old road has been drowned by a new reservoir and a new road has been constructed, but isn't open. The alternative is a dirt track which drops into a deep valley and up again. A new viaduct has been constructed for the new road, saving a descent and ascent of at least 100m.

There are still some quiet parts and the line of castles on hills continues.

We are now in Zaragoza. Camping Ciudad de Zaragoza is quite nice for a big city campsite, though it is quite noisy.
We'll stay here two days and try to get Ben's bike fixed as well as doing some sightseeing.

Saviñan to Zaragoza - 96km, ascent 300m.

Day 40 Reznos to Saviñan

There is a campsite at Saviñan in about 60km, so we decided to aim for that today, leaving another 85 or so to Zaragoza. We should be able to camp all the time from now on.
Our host Willem provided a lovely breakfast and we set off through the area that he had told us was the least populated in Europe. It certainly seemed it. Though there were cherry orchards (we only picked a few overhanging the road) and fields of crops, we hardly saw anyone and the villages seemed half abandoned.

Looking back to Reznos

Aranda de Moncayo

It was very hot and the road undulated a lot. We were constantly changing gear and suddenly Ben couldn't do so any more. A quick inspection showed that his derailleur had sheared.  Oh dear! He has been able to ride by pushing it manually onto the desired cog and when not too steep he can stay on the middle cog, but this isn't ideal. We hope to get it fixed in Zaragoza.

Today's shortish run has allowed us to relax in the shade at the campsite during the searingly hot afternoon and to get some much-needed washing done.

Reznos to Saviñan - 60km, 300m ascent.

Day 39 Berlanga de Duero to Reznos

It is 240km to Zaragoza where we turn north and head over the Pyrenees into France. That should divide nicely into three days of 80km, but after passing through Almazan in 37 km there were few accommodation options. Basically the choice was between a hostal in a small village after 60km or a B&B slightly off route in 100km.
Our ride took us upstream alongside the Duero, then through the nice town of Almazan.

 Viewpoint over the  Duero

Almazan

The journey today was almost entirely on tiny roads and we hardly saw a car all day.

We decided on the longer option and the latter part of our route took us through a line of pretty, but almost abandoned villages. 

We arrived up the steep hill into Reznos to be welcomed by Willem, our host who with his wife has restored an old village house. He made us a lovely supper of home-grown asparagus and salad with creamy pasta. Superb!

Willem, who is Dutch told us that Reznos had a population of seven and the previous village, Sauquillo only one - a shepherd....

Willem and his dogs at tonight's lodging.

 Berlanga de Duero to Reznos - 101km, 500m ascent.