I have proved myself correct: What is the point of this adventure? To see the bits in between. I have seen some of them now and I tell you they are well worth seeing. Unless you are far better at French Geography than I am, I doubt there are many places in this particular blog that you will have heard of. And yet it feels like I have really started seeing what France is all about.
I started off with a day exploring Le Revest. I hinted in my last blog that I loved the place and I still really do. The problem is, I am not entirely sure why it is standing out so much. I think it is all to do with the mountain atmosphere that the town has, along with it being quite a charming green village and having a good dose of history and architecture. All around the town there are signs that there is a lot of water in the area, from the river, the lake, the fountains and just the tropical feel of the place. There are so many interesting plants around and, after coming from the Calanques which were incredibly dry, this place felt amazing. It is also quite quirky in the way that the streets swerve in seemingly random directions, presumably to follow the hillside. And finally, it is the sort of place I can imagine being able to fit in with daily life. There are walking groups, there is a lovely cafe in the middle that always has people sat outside, there is a big tennis club and a nice looking school. Not necessarily tourist attractions but the sort of things that make you able to imagine yourself living there. I really would strongly recommend this place as it is wonderful and some of the local walks are great.
After my stay I headed into the mountains. After climbing my first summit on the way to Le Revest, I quickly added about six or seven more in the couple of days that followed. I was walking through the Parc Naturel de la Sainte-Baume, a region that has easy to walk mountains which are more like giant rolling hills with stunning views from the tops and lots of different types of woodland. It really felt like I had stepped properly into the wilderness again as there were very few other people around but lots of nature happening everywhere you looked. I saw some deer, birds of prey, a few red squirrels and wild boar. I really wanted to see a wild boar on this trip but I have to admit I was very nervous about them. You hear scary stories about what they can do and it plants a seed of doubt in your mind. I knew they were about when I was setting up my bivvy for the night as there were a few tracks and also signs that they had been digging up the ground in the area. I drifted off to sleep listening to various different rustling sounds but fairly comfortable and calm. And then at about 1am I woke up to a squealing sound very close by. I opened my eyes and, through the bug net, could see one stood right next to me. It was massive! I felt particularly small as I was wrapped up in my sleeping bag unable to move my arms of my legs, like a giant red slug as my dad described me. It towered over me and it just gave off an incredible sense of power; the big males can apparently weight up to 200kg!! I didn’t have the time to check this one’s gender as I was just lying there and trembling! Luckily I composed myself and decided I had better do something, just to let it know that I was there and I was awake. I shifted ever so slightly in my sleeping bag and it scarpered. Ran away very quickly. And just like that, I completely relaxed. From that point on I was confident that the majority of things I had read about them only bothering people if they are threatened were correct and some of the horror stories you hear are probably either when people get between a boar and its young or if they do something to annoy it. I actually slept surprising well after that.
The next morning I had the beautiful experience of waking up, walking the the top of a 850 metre summit and eating my croissants whilst watching the sunrise. If you ever get the chance to do this then just do it. It is such a nice way to start a day. The weather warmed up as I went through the day and I started heading east once more having spent a couple of days walking North. I have since continued heading east for the last three days through a bit of France that I had given no thought to at all.
The blue dot above shows where I am now so it the stretch to the left of that that I am talking about and where all of the pictures above are taken. It is a lovely mix of small towns, lots of farmland (mostly vineyards), rivers, small forests and the occasional lake. And it has been delightful: the town of Carces is really lovely and if you ever get to go there on a market day then you definitely should; the waterfalls running from Lac du Village are well worth a visit; nearly all of the vineyards in the area are stunning and (presumably) well worth a tour and a tasting session; and the rivers that I have crossed several times a day are beautiful and very refreshing if you need to cool down.
And boy have I needed to cool down. We have had some unseasonably hot weather where it has been 25 or 26 degrees most days with no wind at all and not a cloud in the sky. Sounds lovely, but when you are walking twenty miles a day it makes it really hard. Particularly if you are me. Those who know me know that I have two shades of skin colour: I am either very very pale or very very red. Sometimes that is from sunburn, sometimes windburn, or sometimes just when I am hot. And carrying a 15kg rucksack in the open sun for several hours makes you very hot. I have however noticed a bit of a pattern emerging in may days in my attempts to deal with the sun:
Touch wood, so far I have actually avoided sunburn on this trip but the last few days I have had other problems to deal with. I first noticed a couple of days ago that my tummy was feeling a bit weird. Not ill, but it was telling me something. Luckily this was the morning that I was walking through the market in Carces. It was craving something so, as I walked, I listened to it. I walked past all sorts of foods but my gut feeling (literally) was alerted when I saw some potatoes roasting underneath a rack of chickens being cooked. I promptly ordered a bowl of them and sat down by the fountain and ate a massive bowl of potatoes at 9.30 in the morning. Quite what the locals thought of this I don’t know and don’t really care as I needed that. Part of the problem is I often lose my appetite when it gets warm. Normally that is ok as I definitely do need to lose some weight but when I am burning almost 5000 calories a day I need to be careful. Today I actually ended up changing my plans and finding a cheap bnb for a couple of nights as I just felt really weak from doing this for several days in a row. I have walked 103 miles in 5 days, a couple of those walking in the mountains. As I walked today I realised that my pace had dropped massively and I was only managing about 30 minutes between needing to sit down and rest which really isn’t like me. I need to have a little rest, eat lots of carbs tomorrow and then hopefully be in a better place by Tuesday when the temperature is forecast to drop back down to the usual pleasant 18 degrees (sorry/not sorry). I still have weight to lose but it is important to do it properly so that I can stay strong to keep walking.
Recommendation:
I got a little bit stuck a couple of days ago as I was struggling to find a place where I could camp without trespassing on private land or camping in forests that are full (and I mean heaving) with wild boar. After a very late phone call I stumbled across a little piece of luxury in a town called Lorgues. Run by a lovely couple with lots of stories to tell, with beautifully comfortable rooms and a swimming pool, the Villa Azur is such a nice place to relax and would be a great base for a longer holiday as you can easily get to places like the Verdon Gorges or the Mediterranean Sea. I was sorely tempted to stay for a few more days but had to get on with my walk, but it is always nice to start the day with a refreshing swim. I was also sorely tempted to hire one of their Vespas which they keep for guests to explore the area - maybe next time!
