Day 9 - Freezio

I bought some riggers gloves from the local petrol station as I couldn't even get my hands into my soaking wet bike gloves, They were nice and dry, for now anyway.
I looked behind to make sure Glenn was following as we set off and nearly fell off my bike.
The mountains surrounding us looked like something off Lord of the bloody rings.

It had been snowing overnight. Now I know why we were so cold.
131 KM of snowy mountain road lay ahead, in wet bike gear.
Great fun this biking in Spain malarkey.
We were supposed to be going to see a place called Bardenas Reales, I had planned this route past it and was the only 1 place I wanted to see in Spain., check it out on Google earth.
"Bollocks to that" was my reply when Glenn asked if we were still going there, we were going to get out of Spain, get out of these bleeding mountains.
We beat north up to Pamplona and it rained again.
In the Pamplona there is a very complex multi lane motorway which splits in all directions and you really have to have your wits about you and know where you are headed, Glenn, don't forget has no map. I look back to make sure he is tight behind before I swing into the chaos and .....and......he's bloody gone.
Where is he?
So I stop and wait. This road is a six laner and I can't turn around. I don't want to try to turn back by using the roundabout complex ahead as it is so big I can't see it come back round the other side.
So I wait.
And Wait.
Then, opting to leave my whole world bungee'd to my steed, I get off and start the 1/4 mile walk back up the road until I find him.
 His front brake caliper bolt has come off and the caliper has wedged itself onto the disk, basically slamming the front brake on for him (he didn't ask) and all this happened when he was kerfuffling around with a lorry up his chuff.
Long story and long walk back to my bike, I take a bolt off my bike and grudgingly bolt his caliper back on.
How we laughed.
Cheese sandwich at the petrol station and we are off again.

We passed a place called Thermes, I've been here before with my darling wife, when we were here 8 years ago, on the same bike,  we were messing about in bikinis and shorts (can you picture me in the bikini? can yer?) and having a great time. This time I am frozen to the core and the only bit I was loving, was when we went through the many tunnels, as it gave you 30 or 40 seconds of no rain.

Stopped at a motorway service station, I had Chicken and Chips, Glenn had lawn mover clippings with cheese and on to L'ondres Camping sur lac.
We had made France and the weather was suddenly picking up the further north and the further out of the mountains we got.
Very nice place, we proceeded to get mashed (well, we had a few difficult days, I felt like i deserved something) so the 7.2% lager came out and we had a nice fire and burnt all our olive oil and candles.
Burgers on the barbecue, cooked my socks and it rained again. We didn't care, it was warmer, we were drunk, and we had out hammocks up, life don't get much better (desperately looking for something positive!)