On Saturday, Laurent and I went on a motorcycle trip through French Basque country. His
friend Romain organized the outing and there were five motorcycles all together. The idea was to go to the top of a particular mountain on the French-Spanish border. The roads twisted and turned through the mountains and hills spotted with picturesque (read: touristy) Basque villages. Despite the beauty of our surroundings, we couldn't help but worry about one of the members of our group who was particularly daring, which translates to 'particularly dangerous' when on a motorcycle. Every time we stopped, the guys would 'jokingly' tell him he took a turn a little too fast, or passed when he really didn't have enough time, or tell him 'hey man, the road's not a race track!' The day went on like this, we ate a nice pic-nic by a mountain stream and met plenty of other motorcyclists who wanted to chat about their bikes, their experiences, this or that. It was fun!
The five riders Saint Jean Pied de Port
Our pic-nic area at lunch time
A dam with graffitti that reads "we've reintroduced beavers (into the wild)"
Then, five minutes from the summit, BANG!
Julien, the daredevil, passed a car too fast on a curve, hit a rock, and continued in a straight line where he should have curved with the road! He was so far ahead of the rest of us no one saw him fall except the car he passed. When Laurent and I got to the scene, we saw our buddies waving their arms indicating that we should pull over. When we stopped, there were several men with a rope pulling a motorcylce out of the ravine. I didn't understand what was going on, I thought it was someone we didn't know and we were helping out an unlucky stranger. But no, it was our friend who had skidded across the the scenic viewpoint and over the edge! He and his motorcyle only fell about six feet before getting stuck in the mud. He was extremely lucky- he walked away with some scrapes and a broken toe.
Pulling Julien out of his predicament.
Looking up from where the motorcyle and rider landed
The unfortunate state of the bike; post crash
Coasting down the mountain
He was shaken up, as were the rest of us, but we had to do something about the motorcycle. Even with all the damage, they were able to put it into neutral and he rode back down the mountain to the nearest town. Julien's brother-in-law came with a trailer to load up the bike.
Apparently this guy had bought this motorcycle one month earlier after wrecking his last one, and it was his third time falling after having his liscense for only a year! Some people never learn!
After this exitement, we went home, never making it to our destination, just five kilometers past the crash sight. But you just don't leave a man behind!
