5 hrs 7 mins. A tough day. Into France. Eventually.

An extremely long day. Hugh was due to start on a bridge in San Sebastian with the film crew with Jonny and I meeting them outside the city rather than navigate the narrow streets with the motorhome. There was an idea to change the first bit of the route to avoid a busy starting point and seeing the value of an off beaten track we arranged to meet them later. They had filming to do after all. Unfortunately this track ended up being up a mountain. Cyclists had painted their names at various points on the road, marking points of achievement and limits of their endurance, well before the summit. Vegetation ceased to grow above the apparent snowline. The carcasses of beasts lay strewn upon the moonscape, vultures circling. Poetic license but not much.

The problem for Hugh is that he then had only done 10 miles when we finally caught up with him - virtually all uphill by early afternoon and he now felt under pressure to get the run finished. For the remainder of the day he got his head down and concentrated on running along generally flat roads, back on the route and finished with Jonny at the lighthouse at the far end of Le Grand Plage. He had made it from one beautiful Spanish city to an equally splendid French one. It wasn't supposed to be so hard for him though, but typically he made it. Biarritz is on a dramatic coastline and this provided a fitting backdrop for more photography. Tim and Toby were unfailingly enthusiastic and great fun during their few days with us and fortunately the weather held for some atmospheric filming.

Later that evening a monsoon style rainstorm heralded the next day's drama as waiters rushed to close the restaurant shutters. This had been a long and stressful day with everyone trying to keep track of everyone else and get their various jobs done. Hugh did his with the usual aplomb in an exhausting environment. He needed sleep and everyone needed to let off steam wh ih led us to a karaoke bar (a new song called 'Day 27' may have been improvised although it's unlikely to be on general release) followed by what appeared to be a predominantly trans-sexual nightclub. Filming throughout but I imagine (and hope) a lot will end up on the floor of the editing suite.