Over the hills into the clouds

Day 6 Xertigny to Munster

Over the hill into the clouds.

The next morning is looks as grim as it did the night before. The only real difference is that the down pour has slightly abated. Everyone looks hilarious stooping around in rain pants and booties and big rain coats. Don, Jim, Curt, Clare and I all start out together and set off at an easy pace. We only have 88 kms to do and there is one big hill to climb into Munster. After about 20 kms the rains start in again and there we are grinding away in the rain. As we head up the valley to Munster we get closer and closer to the clouds, and the rain gets heavier and heavier.

At the base of the hill the five of us all went into a grocery store and got some provisions which we ate in the parking lot. The hill was 10 kms long and gained 1160 m. It wasn’t evenly spaced out and so there were some really steep parts and some not so steep parts. Lunch was about 3 kms up the hill and then there was a hot beverages for us at the top. It was so foggy at the summit you couldn’t see 30 feet. You would be standing drinking a hot tea and another rider would appear out of the mist. It was all very surreal. After the summit it was an 18 km gluide down into Munster. It was quite treacherous as the road was wet and you couldn’t see very far. Don burned the brake pads right off his bike. You could see how they had melted and pieces came off.

I had been hoping that once we got to the other side of the mountain the weather would be better. WRONG. It was the same old thing. As the 5 of us pulled in I could see that we were the first group in, which was great. Don and I hustled around and got our laundry into a machine in the camp ground right away. Jim and I walked back into town and we got some beer and walked back. Munster is a very quaint little place and it looks quite touristy. The supper was leg of lamb with a bean stew and boiled potatoes. Excellent meal! The chef is quite good. Jim got put on supper pot duty so I helped him as it looked like one of the others on dish duty wasn’t doing too much. The staff bought four new chairs as the others are quite bad. They gave one to Curt.
By 7:30 pm it was raining quite hard and it poured rain all night long.

Thanks for visiting and thanks for your comments.

On the road again!

Terry