Day 5: when everything goes slightly off

Day 5 started with great optimism. The road we took during day 4 had been great, the campsite we stayed at was nice and we had decided to wake up even earlier to save some time. 

 Our first 50 km or so went quite well even though we had to heavily interpret both the EU's idea of a cycling road and Google maps. Here I need to explain that, theoretically, the EU has decided to create some cycling routes, one of which should be capable of getting you from Spain to Greece. If you ever see this advertised, beware. The best thing I can say about this is that it sometimes uses departmental roads, which are quite good for cycling at a good pace, providing you don't mind the cars. If the EU bike road ever recommends going off the departmental (D) roads, take a hard look at your day and see if you have a couple of hours to spend negotiating either incomplete roads or useless detours and climbs.

So, first 50 km go by and we're feeling quite happy with ourselves, stopping in a small but quite nice town called Varages for a quick croissant and pain au chocolat (or chocolatine) and a water refill. However, just as we start to leave, we find out that Sergio's tire is now flat. We stop at a park and attempt to repair it for a while (until we are successful... of course) and Franco starts calling some campsites to see if they're open and have room. As soon as we get the tire installed, Franco confirms there's a campsite available but they're specifically asking for a pass sanitaire, which one of us doesn't have (Sergio, it's Sergio).

This requires us to find a place where we can get him tested. Thus, we continue and start looking out for pharmacies in the next town's. When we finally find one (in a town called Barjols), they tell us they are just closing for lunch and to come back later. We decide to make the best of our circumstances and figure we'll have lunch here in Barjols, since they claim to have, among other attractions, a mushroom shaped fountain. One thing about this town, city center is at the bottom of the hill and the pharmacy is at the top. The hill is also very steep and the temperature is now about 34°C. You probably can figure out the rest but let's just say this was the day we climbed the most.

Some time after, test completed (passing grade) we head up to our camping. I say up because we really had to climb a lot at this stage. This you can also try to imagine but it will be difficult, you really had to be there. After much climbing, through nice scenery mind you, we reach the descent and limp to our campsite.

Scenery wise, I'd really like to make justice to the sights. We crossed wooded hills, crossed channels and small rivers and passed through extremely beautiful towns perched in the aforementioned hills. If you're lucky, there will be some pictures of some of these sights below. Otherwise, you'll have to picture it in your mind from my not remotely competent description and wait until we can upload some pictures.