Day 6: Slugs, why did it have to be slugs?

Shortly after I pitched my tent last night an almighty thunders storm rolled in. The rain pounded noisily against the fabric of the tent, but fortunately this irritating sound was largely drowned out by the thunder claps.
Giving due consideration to my dwindling supply of dry clothing I had no recourse but to remain in my tent until the worst of it had passed, which took until late morning. By the time I had broken camp and completed various bits of pre-col maintainance it was early afternoon before I left the camp site, in a nasty drizzle. I completed the remaining 10Km to Lourdes fairly quickly, although I was still plagued by my slow puncture.

During the rain, a huge number of slugs crawled into my tent, my kit and placed I thought impenetrable

Spent a few hours looking about Lourdes; it was very beautiful (despite the rain), but it bustled with Tourists in a quite unnatural fashion. Also bikes are not permitted in the grounds of the church there, so I was unable to complete Mark's directive to sprinkle holy-water on it.
I chatted with an Irish family for a while whilst I changed the inner tube in an effort to rid my self of the slow leak in my front tyre. Their seven year-old was very precocious, and asked many insightful questions about my trip so far, gear and plans.


Big churchy pilgrimage site thingy in Lourds.

I was offered accommodation on several occasions, so I must have looked quite beleaguered, but I was none the less determined to make an attempt at the Col-de-Tormalet. It was around 17:00 when I finally got rid of the last of the slugs, which had been hiding in my cool bag, eatin' mah fruit.

It had rained all day and I had a fresh puncture in the new innertube which I had to stop and attempt to patch a few times.
I received many cheers, got accosted by a Belgian fellow who insisted I stop for a beer, where I joined fans from Germany, France, Belgium and the Nether-lands for a drink (mine was a coke). I got an "oh lah lah" from a French lady, and a couple of people running along side in the traditional manner (a couple were even kind enough to push me)

I regrettably decided that the sensible thing to do was to camp some 2Km (by road, approx 150m vertical) from the summit. I had been in sodden riding kit all day and with the sun down and a brisk mountain wind, temperatures were becoming seriously low. When I got into the tent (still sodden from the previous night's storm) I decided this had been the right choice; my feet were pruned, pale and had seriously poor circulation from having been in wet socks all day. I got into my sleeping bag in an attempt to warm up, and after much shivering and raspy breathing I eventually got almost comfortable.