The Bikepacker: Bikepacking - Capvern to Lestelle-Bétharram

Day #

State of Legs

:-)

	Distance (miles)	Distance (km)	Ascent (feet)	Ascent (metres)	Punctures
Today	37 miles	km	2726 feet	metres	0
Trip Totals	1930 miles	km	76730 feet	metres	0

Today's Route

Route So Far

Travelogue

My next milestone destination is the village of Laruns. It sits at the foot of my planned climb up to Col du Pourtalet and the Spanish border. I'd toyed with the idea of trying to get to it from Capvern in one push today. But, I'm in no rush and I think there's quite a bit of climbing to do to get to Laruns so instead I split the remaining distance into two shorter rides beginning with today's.

So, let's start with today's profile.

Today might not have broken any trip records for total ascent but it was really steep at times!

The day started off almost immediately with an enormous and quite superb descent. About two thirds of the way down, a little voice in my head (a metaphorical one, don't worry) said "you're going to pay for this later!". And sure enough, after the descent ended, the climbing began. There's always a price.

But climbing tends to lead to views. The flat roads and paths of the valleys are all well and good but climbs open up vistas that you wouldn't otherwise see and this part of France is full of grand views, especially to the south where the Pyrenees mountains lie.

There were lots of villages along the way with photogenic streets, houses and churches. And I passed a large abbey too.

Abbaye de l'Escaladieu

The mountains loomed large to my left and one in particular grabbed my attention purely because of its remarkably pointy shape.

The road went up and down, up and down. The uphill sections were sometimes extremely steep. I don't know what the gradient was but I'd estimate at times it was 15% (comparing with a 12% hill I know from home!). I came to the top of one such climb at a junction in a small village and a couple having breakfast in the courtyard of their house opposite the junction saw me. I theatrically wiped the sweat from my forehead and said "foof!" or something. In response, they both grinned knowingly and with a degree of sympathy. They knew exactly what I meant!

There was farmland and woodland on today's route too. And.... drum roll..... it was not blisteringly hot! The sky was cloudy. In fact at times, there were dark clouds and I even felt a few drops of rain at one point. It never actually started to rain properly. But it was thinking about it.

In one of the woodland sections, I was crawling up a long, steep climb in bottom gear and saw an elderly man (even by my standards!) running up the hill ahead of me. I was only just gaining on him! Feeling moderately ashamed that I was empirically so pathetic, I put some more effort into it and caught him a little faster. Pulling alongside, I offered him a respectful "chapeau" and he smiled back at me and said something back. I don't know how old he was but he was in great shape!

At some point, I turned onto Route 81 which I'd cycled yesterday. An old friend that The Mule and I both value.

Update: Homecamper host, Brice has shared this information about Route 81.

Soon I was in the famous city of Lourdes. I was surprised at how small it seemed to be. The centre was full of small hotels and hostels and there appeared to be a very large number of tourists there. It was such a contrast to the amazing countryside I'd been cycling in.

I passed an incredibly thin apartment block. Two women were inside one of the ground floor rooms at the thin end as I went by and I could see that inside, you could touch both walls at the same time with ease.

An incredibly thin apartment block

I stopped at a small supermarket and bought some food for tonight and some food to make lunch with. There had been no pain au chocalat today, nor even a single chocalatine and for once I was in the mood to eat something more substantial rather than snack on the bike hour after hour. So, I bought some couscous, tuna plus something else in a can, some orange juice and weirdly.... because I just fancied it.... a can of pears. The couscous and tuna were mixed together and eaten with my trusty titanium spork. And whilst I can well imagine, the idea of canned tuna with vegetables or rice or pasta might sound revolting, take my word for it. I've had a number of these products from a variety of manufacturers and they've all been very tasty and of course super convenient for those of us without a kitchen or fridge.

Lunch is served

Trust me - very tasty and nutritious

I like to notice the wildlife as I cycle, especially birds. And I like it even better when I can identify what I'm looking at! I have two bird identification apps on my phone. One uses image recognition to identify the species from a photo you provide and the other records sound and has a good go at identifying the species from birdsong. It seems less reliable than the image recognition approach but getting a good enough photograph for the app is also a challenge sometimes.

I'd been seeing large birds of prey for days. I'd assumed they were buzzards but had the opportunity to record one of them making periodic calls yesterday. The birdsong app suggested it was a Black Kite. OK, maybe I thought. But today I got a good enough photograph to use the image recognition app (Merlin) which I trust and it confirmed. It was a Black Kite.

Apparently the forked tail is key to identifying this Black Kite

The remainder of the route passed through more villages and for the last so many miles, followed a river and eventually I arrived at today's campsite.