Day 13.The stunning Verdon Gorge

The day began with a long climb in the shade of trees and the hillside. The scenery helped offset the continuous gradient. The road hugged tightly the valley side and swerved in and out of minor gullies.
We soon reached an altitude where we could look back at the distant Lac de Sainte Croix.
Leaving the lake behind we entered the gorge proper. 
photos give little idea of the scale of the place! 
The river Verdon. Now a shallow reflection of it's former size. Geological side note. The Verdon in between glacial advances would have been a mighty river of melt water. That plus the continual uplift from the Alpine mountain building period. 

The road cut into the side of the valley 

Brew stop
The road rises and falls with three further "interesting" climbs. My legs decided that they weren't too keen on the last ascent, where I had to twiddle away in my granniest of gears to keep going. I was also wilting somewhat in the heat! 

Fortunately after the last climb the road levels and starts to descend to the lunch stop. Time to recover for the final section, which was almost all downhill (apart from the uphill bits! )

Posed Pic taken by Carlo. Here I'm wearing my new "mount ventoux" cycle top! We should have been heading in the opposite direction. Just seemed like a good posing place! 

More gorge
Road levelling out! 

Trigance. A medieval town that looked quite tempting, but also looked more up hill! 
The ride was a relatively short one of 40+ ish miles, so we didn't want to reach our hotel before we could book in, so we all went for a feet cooling paddle in the river. 

Castellane our destination. We managed to book in just before an impressive thunder storm! 

Butterflies by the river

Cresting the top of the first climb. 
Another view of the gorge 
Drinks at Castellane 

The stats. Second biggest altitude climb. No wonder I felt a little frayed at the edges! 



Comments

  1. Graham28 May 2026 at 10:15

    Wonderful views and terrific photos again Mike. I hope you put them and your blog in an album when you return.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Melas29 May 2026 at 06:13

      Finally worked out how to log in. What a wonderful adventure and an amazing blog and photos. Thanks for sharing. You must either be fit as a flea or exhausted or possibly both

      Delete

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