After breakfast at the campground we started what was to be a mentally difficult and physically very hard ride.
The trip down in to Meyrueis was easy, more of the downhill from yesterday. A quick stop for some shopping, and then follow the Gorges de la Jonte downstream for 25k, hardly peddling or braking the whole way - fantastic stuff.
The gorge we were in was huge, cliffs rising hundreds of metres either side.
This is such an old part of the world
And there are villages everwhere through the gorges
And we finally decided on lunch at Les Vignes
Which was duck confit and chips - in hindsight a bad bad choice, boy did this come back
Why? Because we chose to climb out of the gorge post lunch to get to the Causse Mejean, a plateau to cross over to Florac.
This was 5k of climbing that took over an hour. It was the south face of the Eiger, in the hottest part of the day, on a mountain side with no shade. Each hairpin bend exposed another huge climb, long and steep. As usual Simon beat me to the top by miles but we were both shattered from gaining 800m in 5k - scary stuff.
We saw a sign for a cafe and had to go 1k off our planned course to get there, but it was worth it
Two ice cold Oranginas later and 35k to go, and it's still really hot.
There are some climbs and downs big then we hit a headwind and man its hard work.
Eventually, finally we hit the down hill into Florac, a 6k white knuckle scare fest that landed us a great bed, a great restaurant
In a lovely village. Yes, thats duck two ways and foie gras. We earnt that meal and that bed, like never before.
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