F & S Day 9 08/09/11 - 35'C Century Day

Warmer start to the day today being further south and closer to sea level. Last night we decided that we didn't want to head along the coast through the big cities such as Montpellier; but instead we would do some extra climbing and mileage and head inland back into some hills.

Most of the day was pretty uneventful really. We started off down a tree-lined road and were clocking up some serious miles averaging about 25mph for the first hour.
After passing through Beziers though, the wind turned against us and it was quite a slog along the road.

By lunchtime the temperature was well up in the 30'Cs and we were heading through vineyard upon vineyard, in the dry, dusty plains.
After finally finding a supermarket to stop and have lunch at, we gratefully refueled, before hitting the road north again; now in even stronger sun and heat.

It felt a bit like we were crossing a desert at times when we were climbing up what was apparently a Col, even though it was only 330m elevation. It might not have been as hard as the Tourmalet, but in that heat it was still a real effort.

We finished the day coasting down into the town of Ganges, and found a stunning wild campsite on a river bank, where we washed ourselves and smelly kit.
To top off a good end to the day Ben cooked a great pasta meal and we began to feel satisfied that despite the slog across the desert like hills we had made the right decision to head inland.