Today was 14 miles and 3,400′ of climbing. Totals are 120 miles walked and 7,800′ climbed.

In cycling multi-day races, there’s always one day that is picked out as the most challenging. It’s usually because it has the most climbing or the most miles. Today wasn’t the longest, but it was the stage with the most climbing! And when the climbing came, it was often very steep!

(Tomorrow will also be challenging. Longer stage, slightly less climbing, but a very long descent at the end of the day)

But it was also a beautiful stage! It started with a rainbow.

Then valley splendor.

And mountain vistas

And forest hiking

It really was amazing!

We also learned, both from locals and our own observations that, when it rains, it doesn’t mess around!  We passed this bridge that “used to” cross a gentle stream … until it rained hard!

Not so good!

Remember that muddy path from yesterday?

Okay, last night there was another couple that stayed at the B&B that we stayed in, Jeremy and Cris. Well, they came to that muddy spot and figured, why not? They took off their boots and marched through the mud, then the stream (which washed off much of the mud), put their boots on and continued along their merry way! No problem!  To each, their own.

When we talked about it with them, they said, they encounter those mud/flood obstacles with some frequency in Australia (where they’re from), and that’s the way they deal with them.

That works!

We are now at our rest for the night. The owner said that she’d wash all our clothes for 8€! That’s an easy choice!  We’re now running around in scraps of clothes, because everything else is being washed. What a treat!

Ciao for now!