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Blog 12 - Moustieres-Sainte-Marie to Carpentras

Writer's picture: Mark NarramoreMark Narramore

After a few days in Moustieres-Sainte-Marie waiting for the weather to improve, I was on the move again, leaving the beautiful Verdon Gorges behind me. The next part of the walk was a part that I hadn’t really paid much attention to; I knew I was leaving the high mountains behind but what was next? The foothills! Miles and miles and miles of them. And when I say foothills, many of them are actually at least as tall as Ben Nevis, the highest summit in the UK. Looking at the map I could see the route went close to the Verdon river and another series of lakes. I was intrigued to see these as all of the ‘main parts’ of Verdon were now behind me. My conclusion - the websites have got it wrong! This area of Verdon is stunning. The gorges are nowhere near as high or dramatic as the main gorge but the river is beautiful and calm and every single one of the lakes was stunning and the same wonderful blue of the rest of the Verdon. If you took this section away from the main Verdon Gorge it would easily be an attraction in its own right and I would encourage anyone going to Verdon to spend at least a day exploring downstream. 


I did start to move away from the GR4 in a few places as, once again, it seemed from the map to miss some of the best bits. It went through lots of farmland (including some lavender fields which will be beautiful in a couple of months time) instead of going next to the water in many places so I chose some slightly different paths instead. I was so glad that I did as many of the views were stunning. There was even a nice cave to explore near the end of it.



Along the way there were also a few campsites which I can imagine would be amazing for families with young children. They had so much to do and lots of facilities to keep adults and children comfortable and entertained. I then left the Verdon river and the tall dam at the end of it behind me and disappeared into a sparsely populated area of hills and mountains. These mountains were shaped more like hills as they had large rolling summits rather than a pointy top like you would normally imagine on a mountain. They are also a real haven for wildlife and I saw hares, quite a few different types of deer and loads and loads of wild-boar. There were so many of them around that, when it came to wild camping again, I ended up putting my cubs and scouts skills to use and built myself a little enclosure! You can tell I led my ‘pack’ as this was a solid structure built in a short space of time in the rain.



In amongst all of these hills are lots of wonderful little villages, all unique in there own way but every time I try to describe them they sound just like every other village I have described on this trip… It’s on a hill… it has a church at the top… lots of old buildings…. Just take my word for it - they are all different I promise!



After several long days of walking I have now made it through the Alps and have reached the huge plains in the valley that runs all the way up from the Camargue, by the coast, to Lyon. Across the valley the Massif Centrale sits invitingly, however, I have a problem, a big problem, and one that is going to have a huge impact on this trip.


Over the last month I have started getting quite a lot of pain in my left hip. At first I hardly noticed it, then when I did notice it I ignored it, then when I couldn’t ignore it any more I had a few rest days (proper rest days at that!), and then when that didn’t work I even took myself to a sports massage place. None of it has worked. The most obvious causes for it are:

  1. Walking too much - Apparently, I am doing quite a lot of walking at the moment.

  2. Carrying the rucksack - the weight of the rucksack sits right on your hips and, particularly walking through quieter areas, I have had to really pack my rucksack full at times.

  3. Sleeping badly - when camping, I have a thin mat and I always sleep on my left hand side (the same side the pain is on). I have tried over the last couple of weeks changing this, but even when I have managed to fall asleep in another position I wake up back on that left hip.


Theoretically, the list above is in order of the most likely causes but I have a real strong feeling that the sleeping position on the mat is a strong factor in this. That may just be wishful thinking as I desperately don’t want to come to the conclusion that I am walking too much.


A few other related problems are: I am finding it really hard to get accommodation within my budget, sometimes adding huge numbers of miles to my days to try and get somewhere reasonable; there are hardly any campsites around and in some of the towns you are looking at hundreds of pounds for a night in a hotel or bnb; wild camping is also proving very tricky, there are huge areas where camping is completely prohibited and then there are times when you can walk for miles without finding a suitable spot and when you do it is often in the corner of a field where I know I am probably not meant to be so I end up sleeping whilst feeling very on edge; another problem, especially bearing in mind my deteriorating hip, is that, even if I do find a nice campsite to stay in, when I set up my bivvy bag there is very little for me to do except sit or lie on the mat until I wake up the following morning and sometimes this can be for more than twelve hours! I am more than happy to sit and read a book or something but I am finding I am getting very uncomfortable after a while; I have already described the problems I am having exploring places with all of my gear on my back; and finally, I am getting a bit lonely - the biggest problem for this is the trails I am walking are just completely empty at times (in a two day stretch I saw three other people! One was a runner who overtook me, another walked straight past me and the final one chatted for about a minute and then carried on).


All in all, something needs to change. If I carry on as I am, my hip will not last much longer. I have just done two days where I was in pain for the whole day and that really takes the fun out of walking. I do still however really want to do the walking. 


This has led me to decide to pop back to England to get my van. I am gutted as this will mean an end to the point-to-point walking that I have loved so far. I will have to put up with circular walks or using public transport to get back to my van. It also means driving and I have been really proud of the fact that, flights aside, I have managed to have a relatively green holiday thus far. What I will end up doing is going to a new area, exploring it for a few days and then moving on. I still want to explore the ‘bits in between’ so I am going to try sticking to a few rules:

  1. Avoid the major roads where possible - It is way too easy to just fly past a nice looking place or just not even notice it at all.

  2. If it looks nice, stop and explore. I am in no rush whatsoever with this journey.

  3. As much as possible, avoid more than an hour in the van. I don’t want this to become a driving tour of France.

  4. Trust my map reading skills. So far I have been really good at looking at the maps and working out which areas should be good. It may be finding features like rivers and lakes or looking at the layout of the land by studying the contours. This is how I have known to leave the GR routes and try a different way with very good results so far.

  5. This is still a walking holiday! Couch to 5000k is still on and so I am going to try and keep walking every day and hope that the better camping and lighter rucksacks enable me to carry on.

Despite being a bit down about this forced change I am also going to try and take some positives as there are a lot of luxuries that I hope I will now be able to experience:

  1. I hope this will put me in more contact with more people. Because I can drive a couple of miles I should find it easier to find campsites and this is where I have had the most success in getting into conversations with people so far.

  2. I can bring my camera! I didn’t think of my camera as being something I would really miss but it has been. My wildlife pictures have been shockingly bad so far and I am determined for this to improve. 

  3. A comfy bed.

  4. I can feel more secure about my stuff. Because I don’t have a tent and I have a load of expensive equipment I have been doing stupid things like taking my whole rucksack into the tiny shower cubicles you get at campsites. I have also avoided doing things like swimming in campsite swimming pools as I didn’t want to leave my stuff unattended.

  5. Explore places properly without my rucksack. This was a huge goal for this trip but one I haven’t been doing.

  6. Cook more! I can get a little gas stove and cook some of the wonderful ingredients I have been seeing but not eating so far. I can also store food so things like Saucisson, which sweats horribly if kept in a hot rucksack all day, is back on the menu - another part of my plans which thus far hasn’t been happening.

  7. Sit in a chair! Just try walking for a few days without a seat and you will understand that this is actually an absolute luxury. A few days ago I stayed at a farm and found one of those awful little plastic chairs in a hedge. I took it out, dusted it off and sat on it - I felt like a king!

  8. Not have my rucksack explored every time I go into a supermarket.


I haven’t explained that last one yet but it does lead me on to a slightly funnier ending to this slightly negative blog and gives me a chance to explain why many French people now know what my pants look like… ;)


The Idiocies of Mark.


Here we go again! I started a war against France on VE Day…


Well, maybe not France, but certainly against one French woman!


Those of you who know me, will know that I very rarely get properly angry. I tend to keep it locked up inside and let it out later. When I do get annoyed though I have a bad tendency, not to shout or scream or rage or anything like that, but to become extremely sarcastic instead. I’m ashamed to say: it happened.


When walking around France I have had to go into quite a few supermarkets to get supplies and it is always slightly annoying walking around the stores with my massive backpack on. If there is a place to leave it by a security person then I will but it has far too many valuables to leave unattended and they usually don’t have anywhere. When you get to the checkouts you are nearly always asked to show that there is nothing stolen in your bag which is very reasonable. I normally open it up, explain that I am camping, show that I am very happy for them to look inside and then get told not to worry. 


This wasn’t the case with one lady. There was a big queue of people and she wanted to take a closer look. Not a problem for me - she was doing her job which I completely accept. I took out a few of the smaller bags within my rucksack and let her look inside, which she did, very thoroughly. Then she wanted to check the pockets. All seven of them! Fine, I guess… Then she found some oranges! I explained that I had bought them in another store and, even though they were in a ‘Utile’ bag (another supermarket chain) she was still not happy about this. Then she found a coca-cola bottle. Again, it took me a long time to explain that it clearly wasn’t stolen from her shop as it was filled with water. The people behind me were getting annoyed and so was I. I get vigilance but this was just a bit too much. But it wasn’t the end of it! Then she wanted to look in the smaller bags within my rucksack! And not just look - she was emptying them out! I have one with technology bits inside, a wash-bag, a clean clothes bag… she was busy looking through a bag which has a first-aid kit in when she saw me with another bag. Her eyes almost lit up as she seemed determined to catch me doing something and motioned for me to pass the bag to her. I was now really annoyed and out came the sarcasm: I reached inside my laundry bag, pulled out whatever was on top , held it up and said very loudly ‘Voulez-vous regardez mon linge sal?’ Which translates as ‘Do you want to look at my dirty laundry?’ 


It was at this moment I realised I was holding up a pair of pants!


The man behind me burst out laughing, the lady behind him snorted and started blushing and the checkout women looked angry but defeated and I put the most innocent look that I could on my face to show that it was an honest question! I think she worked out that the crowd were very much on my side. She relented, let me pack away all of my belongings which were now strewn over the till and after that I left. I know it was a bit of a stupid thing to do but she was being an absolute pain and I just had a strong suspicion that she would never have done all of that to a french person. 

How on earth do I find myself in these situations?


Recommendation:


This is a recommendation based almost purely on the hospitality of the hosts. On the GR4 route is a town called Manosque. The town itself is what I would call convenient. The bit that I saw wasn’t particularly exciting but it has lots of useful shops in it (Decathlon for me for my third pair of shoes of the trip!) and it is also wonderfully placed if you have a car to do some exploring as the hills on both sides of the valley are filled with wonderful places. What makes this place definitely worth visiting are Ester and Denis, the two wonderful hosts. They were two of the kindest people I have met in France: they accepted me in at late notice; when I arrived to a warm welcome, they offered me a drink straight away; they knew I needed to get a load of washing done so, as soon as I was ready, they took it away from me and delivered it back dry the following morning; they happily spoke to me in French at my request but reverted to English whenever I got stuck; and they also gave great local recommendations. All of this for just over thirty euros! I have stayed in a few fancy hotels on this trip and had nothing like that kind of welcome.


If you are anywhere near the area, give them a visit!


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