The boys (and girl) are back in town

At the end of the first stage I arrived in Lescun and the first people I met were the American couple, Ryan and Felice, looking for an internet outside the post office. Yesterday I popped into the Office de Tourisme in Gavarnie to find somewhere to stay, and they’d finally found the internet, courtesy of Gavarnie’s single networked PC. They immediately accused me of being Klaas’s friend and told me he was waiting for me at the campsite, which made me feel a bit bad as I’d already decided to stay in a hostel, due to the weather forecast.

I felt even worse about 10 minutes later when, having had no luck with the hostels, I checked into a hotel, but it’s sooo nice to have a bed, sheets, soap, a towel… I’ll never take these things for granted again! After weeks of washing my clothes in streams I’ve also taken advantage of the clothes-washing service - once I’d showered, my clothes felt so dirty I wanted to wash my hands after just touching them! Although I promised I wouldn’t blame them, it’s actually Ryan and Felice’s fault - their idea is to have a hotel for the rest days, which seems like pretty sound planning to me. I’m sure it’ll help the body recover better ready for the next stage.

What won’t help is what happened next. Having finally picked up the iPhone charger from the post office (thanks Mum and Dad!) and sent the useless solar chargers home (no thanks to Powertraveller) I joined Ryan, Felice and Klaas to watch the Dutch beat Brazil. We had a few Leffe during the match then Klaas was overcome with the emotion of watching his team beat the favourites and ended up buying the booze for our meal. The restaurant owner added some complimentary génépi into the mix and we followed that with more beer as we watched the second match of the day on the world’s smallest TV. So much for a recovery…

Today is a rest day, which means food shopping, checking the route for the next stage, and maybe even using the internet if I can somehow get there before Ryan and Felice. It turns out that the reason they’re so keen on it is also a blog, but they don’t have the luxury of an iPhone to post endless updates from the mountains.

Another person making good use of the internet is Mark, the Welsh guy I met a couple of days ago. He’s kindly posted some photos he took of me from Col des Mulets.