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IeventuallymadeittothemouthofthetunnelwhereIrestedfor20minutes.There
ImetaFrenchcouplewhotoldmethatdeepinthetunnelitwasverycold.Itookaphotoof
my bike at the entrance way and sign board. On the French side, the tunnel opened at 1821
m and on the Spanish side the tunnel opened at 1664m. Luckily, I was heading downhill
and would only need to coast. The tunnel was 3070 metres in length and was the longest
that I have ever been in. Since the tunnel had no lights, I had to rely on my flashlight.
Afterputtingonafewmorelayersofclothing,Ibeganmydescent.Iheldmyflash-
light in my right hand and pointed it toward the curb. When I looked straight ahead, I only
saw darkness and for the longest time, I could not see the end of the tunnel. Talk about a
leap of faith! As I was descending, the temperature began to drop. I quickly became en-
gulfed in darkness. I full attention was placed on the curb and my front wheel making sure
that they were always parallel.
My heart raced every time a car approached from ahead. The intensity of the head-
lightsblindedmewhichcausedmetoalmostcometoastandstill.Iwasthankfulthattraffic
was extremely light. When the cars approached from behind, I would shine the light on me
as if I was taking a shower to help the drivers see me. The lights from these cars allowed
metoseeclearlysothatIcouldspeedup.Assoonasthecarwouldpass,thedarknessswal-
lowed it. And so I kept going. The tunnel exit came into view as a dot of light. Gradually
this dot expanded and I finally came out of the tunnel and pulled off to the side of the road
to rest. The heat of the Spanish sun was strong. I removed some of the clothing and put on
my sunglasses and sun cream. Welcome to Spain!
The first difference I noticed between both sides of the tunnel was the terrain. In
Spain, the terrain was steeper and drier with sparser vegetation. As I made my way down,
I had a very strong headwind which I didn't mind for it helped me to cycle downhill at a
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