The beach was huge but not many people. This time of year is the off season, but the weather and Mediterranean are still very warm. Now here’s a bunch of cyclists with their classic cyclists’ tan. We paid good money for that tan!
In the afternoon Dick returns to beach and rest of us drive around and end up in Perpignan. We do some shopping and urban wildlife watching and return to Banyul for local product shopping. We had dinner at different hotel, unfortunately it wasn’t one of the best so I won’t write about it. More drinks, talking, cigars at hotel pool and we get to bed very late.
The next morning we pack up bikes, bid adeiu to sea and drive off to Toulouse. There was a nasty thunderstorm overnight (surprise, surprise), and the temperature in the morning was very cool — 15 deg. This was very different from yesterday’s 30 deg. The drive to Toulouse very, very windy. I can’t imagine trying to drive a mini-van loaded with five guys, their gear and five bicycles on top for 340km back to Toulouse. Thanks Robin and Dave.
We check into the same hotel we stayed at as we prepared for this trip. Interestingly enough the hotel manager was in a very good mood and wanted to know all about our trip. We retrieved the bike boxes and car seats from the storage houses (they’re still there!) and pack up bikes and remove car rack all in two hours. It threatened to rain again! Consequently we were motivated to finish the packing and get back to the relaxing portion of the trip.
We provided “the shelf” an appropriate memorial for its tireless work – before it got dumped into the trash…
After we finished packing and returning the van seats to their upright and locked position we headed off to Carrefour and InterSport for some shopping.
I had hoped to purchase some Campy equipment for the next season of riding (chain, cluster, etc.). But, unfortunately, no Campy chains or cogs, bummer. The clerk said they didn’t stock much high end equipment in the off season. Makes sense. So, we just bought some Isostar and other gifts and headed off to dinner.
The mood and events that evening seemed somewhat anti-climatic. We all felt we should have been celebrating our (con-)quest, but we were all rather worn and ‘knackered’ so we just sort of relaxed, drank (again) too much wine and beer and talked of running off to Andorra…
The next day was air travel day. Robin and Terry had very early flights out, then Dave, then me, and finally Dick. All arrived home safely and no damage to their equipment.
All in all, this was yet another fantastic trip. Other than a loose mounting bolt on Dave’s taillight and my TSA fiasco, we had no mechanical problems – not even a flat tire. We had no personal blowups, not even a dustup. We kidded each other for gaffs, but then bellied up to the bar afterwards for beer and wine.
Next trip? Hmmm. Tuscany was mentioned, Dolomites were mentioned… But we’ll save that story for another year.
End of days 11 and 12. Statistics:
Start: Banyul
End: Toulouse
Distance: 340 km (by van)
Climbs: on and off the van a few times
Total gain: 3m