Today's ride was a trip to see the dunes. Dune du Pyla are huge - taller than the pine trees - and all research told me a trip to the west coast should always include a visit, we booked a night at one of 5 campsites situated along the length of the dunes. Coming from inland, we had a much hillier day today. Many tough climbs in the morning on the way to Biscarrosse Plage. The path is also narrower on this section and more lumps and bumps. A sign even warned of uneven surfaces on the cycle path. We stopped for lunch overlooking the ocean before the last few miles of the journey, definitely the toughest, up and down hills to date following the main road along the dunes. At least our campsite is the last in the row, so hopefully not too many more hills tomorrow! The children coped very well on the hills. Tom was definitely King of the Mountains today and made it up every single one. Emily struggled as, having the older style Islabike, she finds it hard to change down into 1st gear in the grip so had to walk until I stopped and changed her gear for her, meaning that I then had to start again on a hill :-( Hannah took everything steadily, but did have to walk on some of the steeper sections towards the end of the day. They were happy walking along chatting to each other until it was flat enough for them to get on again and catch us up!
The campsite is in a lovely location, although our pitch is dreadful, despite costing over 70€ - the price of a hotel room! It is obviously for a camper van with wooden sleepers down each side, only just big enough for our tent. The ground has sand on top, but presumably so the vans don't get stuck, underneath layers of gravel which proceeded to bend most of our pegs! It is also opposite a group of lads playing music loudly. When we wandered to the dunes later, there are some lovely sand pitches still free for tents right under the dunes. I can only assume they are reserved for people staying more than one night.... Shame.
After a dip in the pool to cool off we took three very excited children up to the dunes. Now, anyone who knows me knows how unsteady on my feet I am, as well a having a weak Achilles. I was a little worried about how I would get up the ridiculously steep sand slope. There is a ladder set into the sand to help you up, but it felt really unsteady under feet to me and I got a third of the way up before deciding to come back down. I was disappointed I hadn't seen over the other side. On the other hand, Tom has scaled the whole ladder in the time it took me to climb a third. Hannah was very nervous but conquered her fears and reached the top. Adrian took them over the top to see the view of the Atlantic Ocean and they started to go down the other side to the water, before deciding that coming back up without the help of a ladder on that side (less steep) would be too hard. Back at the top they then proceeded to run, hop and jump their way back down to me. The joy in their faces... They had loved every minute! Climbing sand dunes is not something you get to do every day! We decided due to the lack of anywhere to put a picnic rug on our pitch and an absence of any picnic tables on the site that we would eat out. We had pizza, salad and chips at the bar which were very tasty. We watched a bit of the entertainment a 'guess the film music', before heading back to the pumping dance music and our tent! Think I will be needing my ear plugs tonight!... Scrap that - they seem to have noticed young children going to bed in the vicinity and turned it off.
17.61 Miles cycled today and climbed 1100ft!
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