Etche Zahar, the campsite at Urt, had a lot of character, was excellent value and one of the best so far. The well looked after site was very spacious, set in nice countryside, and definitely felt like a relaxing place in the evening sunshine.

The route east from Urt started off alongside the Adour river and during the morning the temperature was perfect for cycling with little wind and a blue sky. The scenery was extremely varied and included pontoons and boats on the river, period riverfront properties, small villages with few signs of their inhabitants, and many fields containing lots of kiwi fruit, and later orchards and some vineyards.

Early on there were some small hills in the distance to the right, and there was little traffic on the roads. The roads were shared with some fast moving cyclists, many of whom overtook me, and I only saw 2 other cyclists that had panniers, this was a big contrast to the coast where there were many.

I stopped for lunch at Orthez, then continued southeast towards Pau. It wasn’t until reaching Sarpourenx that the large faint grey outline of the Pyrenees would become visible on the horizon. This was a very encouraging sight, which appeared and disappeared from sight on the horizon as I cycled through some of the lower lying hills.

The cycle route that I was following was called the V81 and was much less well defined than the Eurovelo route, with very little signage. Some of the roads and paths indicated on my navigation app didn’t exist, this resulted in some backtracking. Generally the landscape was a lush green colour and there were donkeys, horses and cows in the fields adjacent to the road, sometimes with their offspring, and at one point after the ascent in to the hills the sound of cowbells could be heard.

The style of the houses changed as the altitude increased, with dark, steeply sloping roofs. These alpine looking dwellings were in stark contrast to the surprisingly numerous amount of palm trees in the gardens or in the vicinity. The temperature was now in the high twenties and I wondered how common snow was in the area in the winter.

The approach to Pau went alongside the fast flowing and clear Gave de Pau. The river looked incredibly clean considering it’s proximity to a city and some people were swimming in it.

Distance: 69 miles

Maximum temperature: 28 degrees C

Pont Vieux, Orthez

Bellocq

Urt