Day 2 Tours to Orthez

The first job of the day was to junk the old boots and get some new ones. 

So once we left the hotel we went different ways. I had Google Maps which seemed to have no idea that it was straight forward to find and I had a great loop trekking about 4kms when 1 would have been best.

In the end the deal was done. Boots bought.

The first part of the non toll route was in rain that occasionally became drizzle. Today we had two fuel stops.

Sticking to the speed limits or there about produced over 59mpg for the first stop. 

We stayed on the N10 in its various states and departmental names.

Lunch was at a massive truck stop just off the N10. It had stopped raining but we weren't fooled. Waterproof gear stayed on until the fuel stop just after Bordeaux.

We guessed the owners might have been Portuguese!!

I had become separated from Neill as we turned onto the toll free A10. There was a single lane flyover looping to the right and left over the N10. It was nose to tail. Crunch.

Two cars into one don't go. Neill was gone by the time I slipped past and on to the A10. Traffic was heavy at the junction, but freer within a mile or so.

We had already crossed the Dordogne and Gironde rivers. They were both brown!!!

We re-united at the Carrefour petrol station. The mpg worked out at 61 or so. 

For Fuelly I use odometer readings, but use the trips on a fill-up to fill-up basis.

The air temp gauge was showing 29°C. In the traffic after the collision in had briefly touched 30°C.

The last section from the A10 was around 100kms or so on ordinary road. A little bit of dual carriageway thrown in. 

We finally arrived at the Kyriad in Orthez about 6.30pm. Checked in and decided to eat in tonight. The menu of the day €19 each.  The beer Heineken. Easy to drink and not too heavy.

The room is okay and the dinner decent enough.

Tomorrow the forecast is rain in the morning. What's new!!! 🌧️🌧️🌧️

Hopefully the Col du Somport will be okay and provide a decent photo op!!!

After Somport we will cross into Spain and then head to Huesca and Zaragoza before a call-in to see some MotoGP practice.

Our hotel is in Morella. It's the nearest place we could afford to Alcaniz and Motorland Aragón! Unless we wanted to pay up to £900 a night!  

Less than 3 weeks to go...

We have had the routes sorted out for quite a while and the outward journey will be taking the westerly "N10" route nearly as far as Bayonne before cutting inland.

The first stop will be at the Kyriad Hotel in Chambray-les-Tours to the south of the main city of Tours. Claire and I stayed nearby many years ago at a Campanile Hotel.  I don't remember ever staying in a Kyriad before but they are part of a larger chain.

According to the route planning software it should take us the best part of seven hours to complete a non-toll journey of over 310 miles.  

Neill has planned the outward journey and we will follow a route he took a few years back when he did the trip solo.

There is a fuel stop around halfway where we can have lunch at a McDonalds. I don't tend to use them when away, and rarely at home, but they are good for free wifi and of course a McPee.

Day two is also a long day in the saddle. The planner shows it as 316 miles and another 7 hours in the saddle. The second overnight is still in France at another Kyriad in Orthez. 

I am hoping there ae some good cheap restaurants on both nights. As I have said I am not a great fan of dinner at McD!  But we need to try and keep costs down.

But before all that I need to make sure that Vera is up to the trip. She needs a good clean and the chain adjusted and cleaned.  Careful maintenance in the year since I bought the bike means that I have not had to adjust the chain myself. It was done when the new tyres were fitted.

On that front there should be plenty of life left in them and they may need replacing after I get back. The same goes for a service. I have done a little over 4000 miles in the last year and the interval is 7500. The trip to Spain will be about 2000 miles return.

This time I will take less with me as well. On the Czech trip many of the t-shirts and a pair of jeans had a round trip of 2000 miles without being worn or even removed from the bag!

You Tube Video Somport

Outward Journey - Hotels Changed

I have cancelled the Première Classe hotel in Joué de Tours and the Campanile in Bayonne in favour of Neill's choice of a pair of Kyriad Hotels.

His Kyriads are a Chambray-les-Tours and Orthez.