Loumarin

Day 13: Tuesday 25th September

We had a fairly challenging morning today, so we set off at an early hour. We went first to the markets to buy some lovely fresh produce straight from the farmers! Yum! We rode up out of Apt towards the hills. We had lovely riding (though up a gentle incline the whole way) with views over the town and valley and mountains beyond. We stopped a few times and didn't push ourselves. We made it to our big hill and pushed through it (it was steep enough that Selina had to stand up on her pedals just to get them around - her bike only has 10 gears and the low one is just not low enough!). We were very pleased to get to the crest of the hill, but even more so when we realised the absolutely fantstic long descent that we were to find on the other side of the hill. A beautiful gentle valley with lavender fields and gorgeous trees starting to turn autumn colours - wow, it was simply glorious riding - no effort involved, just had to restrain from taking the hands off the handlebars and leaning into it! It didn't take us long to arrive in the (very) small town of Bouux - there are only about 10 houses here! We sat on a stone wall overlooking the valley filled with orchards and Lavender and had morning tea - well deserved and enjoyed!! We topped up the water bottles and then cruised onwards down the hill. We rode downhill through this valley and then another for about 2km and then we joined into the main valley through the Luberon Ranges, which goes for about 6km - all downhill windy roads - sort of like Belair Road but surrounded by cliff faces on either side... not bad!! We stopped about 2/3 way down for lunch and then continued riding to the town of Loumarin, which has a lovely castle in the centre of town. We locked up the bikes and had a quick wander around the castle, then had a coffee in a small town square (which happenned to have wifi - we manage to find these places everywhere, and it's great - that's how we've been updating the blog so regularly, we've only paid for one internet cafe in the entire time we've been travelling). We have decided to stay in Loumarin as the other option was a 7km ride which would have been uphill. We set up in the campground and tried to get dinner (we'd had a big day and were hungry) but couldn't get in anywhere until 7:30!! But we managed ;-)

Day 14: Wednesday 26th September

Today we caught a taxi to the nearby town of Cuceron. This is the town where a walk starts which we thought sounded pretty good. The walk is detailed in a great book that Michelle gave us before we left - the Lonely Planet guide to walking in France. It's a great book! We got to Cuceron and had a quick coffee before walking up the hill. We walked up through the town, then through orchards for about 30minutes before reaching a small church on the hillside - a stunning view here! Then we continued up the valley another 1.5 hours (a small wrong turn but it didn't matter) to the summit - Mont Mourie Negre. The views were _absolutely stunning_. Not exaggerating, we could see to the sea, to the alps, to the massif central and all the valleys and mountains in between - it was just amazing! Unfortunately the Mistral was against us all day, making the walking pretty challenging. For those who haven't been to the South of France, the Mistral is the wind in this area that is wickedly strong and unforgiving. As we sit in a cafe this evening my face feels windblown and all day we have been hardly out of this very very strong wind (50km/hr gusty). Being on such a high peak the wind was rediculous, so we only stayed long enough to eat lunch (in a semi-sheltered position) and then fought our way back down, being force-fed air as we went! Pretty amazing. We then walked along the ridge-top for about 1.5hours before walking down another valley to the town of Vaugines. We then walked the 4km back to the campground, but were very tired by the time we got back!! We had a lie down for about an hour (to get out of the wind and cos we were both very tired and a bit sore! - the walk was about 21km). We are just now sitting in a small cafe and have had a coffee, about to head out for dinner. Another great few days!!