😱 I'm beginning to think we're cursed...

Mr. WB and I have a curse which sadly occurs far too often. Whenever we drive anywhere specifically to go up a mountain, this seems to happen. And now it seems that we were cursed again on the Col de Tourmalet in France. As Tour de France fans we'd wanted to drive up this incredibly famous mountain for years. After spending two gorgeous days at the breathtaking Cirque de Gavigny, here was our chance. The only problem was the weather gods did not seem to agree. The day started in bright sunshine and our drive to the start of the road was easy with hardly any traffic. We came from the west via the Luz Sans Sevoir but we didn't stop to explore the town as most places were shut due to the Covid restrictions. There are several eateries and accommodation options on the route. It is a major tourist destination after all. So in normal times there are plenty of places to stop and explore if you want to, as well as places to park up and hike without blocking the route. Tourmalet. June, October. Oh, it's a horse sled. What gear are we in? This is third gear. Height, 2115 metres. Is that what it is? Is that long or high? I don't know. Got one on every bend. Do they do that just to piss you off? When you're cycling? Once we started to climb, we couldn't believe how steep it was to drive up and crazy people cycled up this mountain almost every day. The gradient averaged 7.1% with the steepest being around 9.7. Normally in summer there are hundreds of cyclists whizzing past. You need to keep clear of them, especially on descent, but luckily there didn't seem to be many around. In fact, there was hardly any traffic at all. As we got about halfway up, we realized why. It's a good hairpin bend. As we climbed higher, we realized the curse had struck again. Within minutes we went from enjoying the stunning views to being surrounded by very, very thick cloud. In a motorhome, on a very narrow road with very few passing places, we couldn't see if anything was coming down the mountain that we needed to wait for, or if there were any cyclists we needed to let pass before we swung out into the road to go around a hairpin bend. It was actually kind of scary. Oh my lord, you've got a really sharp hairpin bend coming up here. God, they cycle up this. I'm just going to say that a lot. Are you seeing it? No. Just staring at the white lines. That's all you've got to do. If I get one, I've got white lines on the road. You want those whites? Yeah. I think I've heard someone else scream. We kept climbing and climbing and the fog kept getting thicker. And then, suddenly... See what it is? It's called a tourmalet. Yeah, stop. This is the stop. Stop here. This is the top of Tourmalet. Honest. The view was so good, we decided to stay the night. There's a great parking area just past the summit if you're going from west to east. It's just a gravel car park and thankfully it was completely empty. So we could take our pick of where we stayed. We woke up the next morning to find that the clouds had cleared. Mac was utterly fascinated by the sheep and the cows that roamed the mountainside. Although the bells on their collars are kind of annoying in the middle of the night. Still, we were pleased to see that we even got some sunshine and we were able to take some nice photos. If you're ever up there, play Hunt the Wandering Bird sticker. You'll find it on the board. After spending the morning enjoying the hard-earned views, it was time for the descent down the other side. I'll be honest, it was much nicer being able to see where you were going. But there was still not a whole lot of traffic. If you're planning your own motorhome or campervan tour of France, then this playlist is perfect for you. There's all sorts of information there that you'll find useful. If you're new to our channel and you'd like to see more of our adventures, then by all means hit subscribe. And don't forget to grab your free France motorhoming checklist. The link is in the notes. Thank you very much for watching. I'll see you on the next video.