ED Memories: July 31, 2023

Monday, July 31, 2023

I clearly slept soundly, as the room was nice and cool and it was dead silent and I don't remember a single thing. 

Grabbing a simple breakfast, it's time for some route-planning and car-packing reorganization. As it happens, Andrew has the bulk of equipment that needs charging, etc., so I'm quite happy that my setup is rather simple. Once again, a little bit spoiled.

Next up it's time to navigate down this uneven piece of road very carefully again. No scraping please! It's a touch easier because we have gravity on our side this time, less tricky work with clutch slip! Andrew leads the way while I wait for radio guidance. We take it in stages, Andrew going down to the first challenge and getting through it, then getting to a point where he can pull over in case anyone comes the other way, which would be tricky! He then comes up and guides me down through the challenge. Then I park and wait while he negotiate the next one, rinse, and repeat. It's nerve-wracking, but we just go slowly and let gravity do a lot of the work.

Obviously, the car is a bit confused by what we are doing as, when balanced on two wheels at one point, the 'parking brake in service mode' light comes on. This kind of makes sense to me, as it's related to the rear wheel, but once all four wheels are back on the ground it goes away. All seems good now. We are past the challenges, and heading down into town where a little bit of a spray wash for our dust-soaked wheels will be most welcome. 

Gotta say it irks me a little bit that I'm the one experiencing these little warning messages, the maintenance reminder, the windshield chip, the front lip scrape. I mean come on!!

The next phase has us winding up through an extremely tight road section and at some point some kind of crazy break squeal happens with my front right wheel! Really? Really? Am I cursed? This is more disconcerting stuff that I am not a fan of. Sounds like it could be just dirt or a rock or something stuck in the brakes, so we are going to find a spray wash and give it a good rinse.

We carry on, but after a few hundred metres there's another strange 'sproinging' sound, and then no more brake noise, so perhaps whatever was stuck in there has cleared itself. I'll still have a good look at the spray wash. I read up on it in the forums and other people  describe the same thing, something getting temporarily caught in the brake cooling shield and then clearing itself. I could do without these sorts of things happening to me though.

All good at the spray wash. The cars are cleaned up and looked fantastic, and there are no more horrible brake sounds.

We cross into France and find ourselves at a delightful B&B with a lovely hostess named Pascale. She's a horse lady, and runs the place all by herself. She's Belgian, and I think used to teach people how to ride without any gear, just the person and the horse (my French is barely passable). Amazingly, she moves her cars out from under shelter, and lets us park there instead. She gets us!

We walk the 2.5 km into the little town close by for dinner. Feels great to stretch the legs, but it's a hot walk as there's no cover from the relentless sun. I'm dripping, and luckily the patio is in the shade when we stop to eat. I chow down on some overpriced chicken and basmati rice, but the G&T is absolutely delicious. The waiter is pretty rude though!

I take my sweet time walking back. Andrew has to go to the washroom so he rushes off ahead, but I don't mind. I'm definitely finding I enjoy being alone with myself and my thoughts on this trip. It's nice to walk along alone and just soak up the place. The dusk is falling and things are cooling off, though I can feel the heat coming off the road from the scorching of the day. I definitely need a shower!

We plug in all of our stuff to charge, and I grab a nice long hot shower in an attractively-tiled bathroom. It's a lovely change from some of the rifugio showers that have just been little stalls. I jump into the queen size bed, super comfort and luxury that I claim for my own! Ahhhhh. 

I drift off into sleep, happy and content.

~ Luke

p.s. You can read the full, no-holds-barred accounting of this day at gtschronicles.com.