VTT day (again) :-)

The day dawned crisp and clear again today and it was quite an eerily beautiful spectacle first thing, as the clouds started lifting from the valley behind the house. After last week's VTT outing, I had a hankering to get back on the bike again but this time to do a route slightly closer to home. I had been told that there was a route that linked one of the little villages off the Col de Port road with the 'route forestière' that ran from the Col down to Liers (Pat and I did that track a couple of weeks ago and it was fab!), although I had no idea how good or bad it would be with the bikes. The lure of the downhill forest track proved enough of a temptation for Andy, so we set off from Pissou and rode up the Col de Port road to the Col de Caognous from where we picked up the single track road that skirted the hillside at a slightly lower level. All great. Nothing technical and it was lovely to see more of the little communities that dot the hillside around here.

So eventually, we reached the end of the road and after a bit of fumbling around, found the route that would lead us up to the Col. But it was hardly 'bike friendly'! It was the old 'chemin de Boussenac' that was used by the communities way before cars were invented and which has since become overgrown and tricky to negotiate on a bike. And it deteriorated further until we were pushing our bikes up a narrow woodland path that was overgrown with bracken and brambles. It was exceptionally hard work and not particularly enjoyable. I was more than a little relieved when we finally hit the forest track and were able to begin our descent back down into the next valley. We shortly arrived down at Liers from where we were greeted by breathtaking views of the Pic de la Journalade. The views back down the valley towards Massat were also quite beautiful - lovely spot to do some bike tinkering as we recovered from the bone-shaking downhill! This is also where they have transformed a lovely old church into a 'Gite d'étape' or hostel - the bells still remain.From there, it was downhill all the way back into Massat from where we only had to negotiate the hill back up the Col de Port road to Pissou. That proved to be hard going, with Andy suffering from dehydration and certain muscles in my legs giving me trouble. But we made it and rewarded ourselves with a delicious 'mousse au framboise et cassis' that I had collected from Gil le Boulanger this morning - a simply divine patisserie with layers of fairy-light sponge alternating with the best raspberry and blackcurrant mousse that I have ever tasted! Mmmmm!

Oh yes, exercise total for the day, 28.79km, 1177m of ascent (I am dubious about this figure, to be honest!) in 3 hrs 32mins, burning 1517 kCal.