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John and Sheila
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  • Germany + Switzerland + France 2015
  • test Germany + Switzerland + France 2015
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The Idea
2021 was most certainly not the end of the Covid19 pandemic. Not only was it not looking at all good for foreign travel, but touring around Britain staying in lots of different places did not seem to be to good an idea either. We had been very lucky to escape with a tandem to Correze in 2020, but were unsure just what cycling we might manage apart from short trips from our own front door.

What we needed was a location where other holiday makers were not likely to flock. Not Cornwall, national parks or the seaside. And a fixed centre from which to do day rides, rather than a moving on tour. What would fit the bill? - Herefordshire. Perhaps rather a hard judgement on Hereford, but it offered us some new cycling possibilities. We had been through Herefordshire on our End to End trip in 2000, but neither of us could remember a great deal of what we saw.

The Plan
1  In fact we ended up booking two centres intending to transfer by car between them. The first was a B&B on the edge of Hereford itself, and the second was B&B accomodation in a rural pub in Worcestershire.
2  Hereford would give us

3  Lots of Cols and Summits finishing off with the Col de Soulor and Col d'Aubisque in the hope of better views than when we were last there in 2013 and thick cloud that engulfed the mountains
Our Tour Itinerary for Col and Summit collecting in the Pyrénées

Day 1
Day 2
Day 3
Day 4
Day 5
Day 6
Day 7
Day 8
Day 9
Day 10
Day 11
Day12
Day 13
Day 14
Day 15
Day 16
Day 17

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By car to Ax les Thermes
Col du Chioula (1,431m Cat 3)
Col
Col de Pailheres (2,001m HC)
Plateau de Beille (1,790m HC)
Transfer by car to Luchon

Col de Peyresourde, (1,800m HC)
Superbagneres (1,618m HC)
Port de Balès (1,755m  Cat HC)
Col de Val Louron-Azet (1,580 Cat 1)
Co;d'Aspin (1,489m Cat:1)
Day off cycling to be regular tourists
Transfer by car to
Sainte Marie de Campan
Hourquette d’Ancizan (1,564m Cat 1)
Col du Tourmalet (2,115m HC)
Hautacam (1,529m HC)

Col du Soulor (1,474m) and Col d'Aubisque (1,709m)

Travel home
Continue journey home - In fact our journey home was not as planned. French fuel strikes meant that there was every possibilty that we would not make it back to the north coast for our ferry crossing to England. Complete re-planning was required and we came back instead via Spain (where there was plenty of fuel on sale) and a ferry from Santander.


The Result
Holiday verdict: EPIC
Total number of named Cols climbed: 10
Total number of summit finishes: 3
Total number of marmots spotted: 0
Total number of p***tures: 0
Total metres climbed and litres of water drunk on the way
No idea, we lost count many days before the end.

(Rather sad that this will probanly be our last mountain tops cycle tour)

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