Scary pass

We left early - though the journey was only 260 miles we knew it would take some time as there were numerous passes to climb on narrow roads.

After coming off the free motorway up through the Massif Central we had a good new road in the Lot Valley then we worked our way across and climbed up over a col to 10km of 10% descent (and endless Z bends) - to the headwaters of the Ardeche. After 4km I mentioned to Mr C I could smell the brakes. As he felt they were fading we went down in 2nd gear. This was followed for another 10km is Z bends but not quite so steep.

After crossing the Rhone we had a lovely drive up beside La Drone River. To shorten the route we took a D road - spectacular but scary - but the Gorges des Gas were incredibly narrow with overhanging cliffs which meant, being high, we had to drive in the middle of the road. There were tunnels on blind corners so we used the horn a lot! Finally we reached the Col de Grimone from where I took the blip.

Over the Col we had pretty views of the Vercors area. We are stopped at Gresse en Vercors where we hope we to spend two days walking in the mountains - hopefully the weather will improve as the cloud is right down and it is decidedly cool.

Our journey took almost 9 hours - we are having a gin and I'm making sn aubergine, chick pea and mushroom curry.

#2 daughter phoned to say they had been removed from their Ryan Air flight - no James was not the culprit! - engine trouble and an engineer was coming on a private jet to fix it. They were given €5 to buy food and water but the cheapest food was £4.50 for a sandwich. They have been at the airport 8 hours - it is having work done so the temporary place has everybody from all flights is in one small area with no windows and not enough seats - no fun with 2 and 4 year olds.

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