Early this morning Vincent and Liesbeth left with their E-camper for the Netherlands. There are four of us again, the base team. On this moving day we again pack everything to go via Saint Francois Longchamp, where the tree bike is at sixteen hundred meters, to the new location. While descending from our log cabin, Richard notices that something is not right with the brakes of the black car. Scratching and squeaking. We park the trailer at the Inter-Marché and look for a garage nearby. Moments later we drive into the yard at Garage-2M in La Chambre and in my best French I explain what is going on. It soon becomes clear. The brake pads AND brake discs of the front wheels both need to be replaced, and the tires are also really too bald. We explain our project and the garage man is very helpful, he orders the necessary parts and can replace it this afternoon. Totally awesome. We leave the car and move the bags and batteries we need today from the car to the camper and the four of us in a full camper drive up the ‘Col de la Madelaine’ to the tree bike we want to cycle to the top today, another five kilometers and about four hundred meters up. Daan is cycling along and Richard and Sanne are driving the van and taking photos, film and drone shots. It is going well above expectations, maybe the slopes are a little less steep than the first part of the climb the day before yesterday and of course the bike has completely cooled down, the effect is that the tree bike just, without pushing actions from Daan, slowly but surely cycles up, through the tree line to the top. We hand out a few more tree saplings to be planted on this tree line. How beautiful. When we arrive at the summit we get applause, Leo and Vera are also there again. I don’t think a tree has ever cycled up the “Col de la Madelaine” before. After a cup of coffee and a sandwich in the grass, we super proudly take some pictures of the tree with the team. Great, we made it! Since we agreed to meet at the garage at five o’clock, we still have just under an hour to descend towards Albertville. At double the speed of climbing, we descend with our hands on the brakes. We try to stay within twenty kilometers per hour, and that’s a good thing because after about four kilometers of descending I feel the oil pressure on the handbrake decrease. What is this? Too hot? We stop and I don’t see any oil leaking anywhere. Better not descend any further without a rear brake. Is today perhaps International Day of the ‘non-working brakes’? It looks like it. We leave the tree bike and bike neatly by the side of the road and Leo and Vera take us over the mountain back to La Chambre, to the 2M car garage. It is just about five o’clock and the car is fixed, great. We check out and pick up our trailer and then drive to our lodging in Talissieu-Ameyzieu. We leave the mountains behind and drive along the Rhone. Quite a long drive, but again to a beautiful place. Along the way, I consult with Cargo Cycling on how best to handle the brake. It will not be clear today, tomorrow we will call the specialists. We got over the ‘Col de la Madelaine’ today, what an achievement. What you do notice after such a day is that the hassle with the brakes of the car and the tree bike, as well as charging the camper, does affect our trip. It is part of it but actually requires too much attention. We have to put up with it. Meanwhile, of course, we do enjoy the beautiful landscapes, the nice encounters and the achievements such as the “Col de la Madelaine.