It had been a tough ride yesterday and re-reading the given directions it was 17 km from Moustiers-Sainte-Marie comprising 5 km on main road and 10 km on the track, I'm no mathemetician but even I can tell something doesn't add up.
This morning there is local lavender honey on the table so I inhale its menthol lavender fragrance only to met by a flat floral fragrance with a slight rancid note. I am confused until I cycle off and breath in the fragrant but slightly rancid smell of yellow flowering broom which grows in abundance here.
The 5 km into Moustiers-Sainte-Marie is cycling heaven being a sweeping gradual downhill. Sometimes you get what you hoped for; this is a hopeful journey. This is Moustiers-Sainte-Marie nestled in the hillside.
Resting in touristy Moustiers-Sainte-Marie I notice a woman walk by with a bike with floral patterned panniers and a matching saddle cover. It reminds me that I find it disappointing that bikes these days are all fairly monochrome and uninspiring as if the manufacturers have reverted to the Henry Ford adage that you can have any colour provided it's black. It is not hard to find an example and with such scruffy packing.
On Ventoux I did notice someone who had customised their bike with pink spokes and pink cable sleeves to match the pink decals on the bike. Yes, you can get powder coated spokes in your choice of colour.
Contrary to the post title I am actually staying 5 kilometers before Balcons de la Mescla as that is where the accommodation is and otherwise it would have been a long day. It allows me to savour the Gorges du Verdon.
Photos from the Gorges du Verdon.
At this point a young woman pulls up in a car and asks for a photo of her with the view in the background. I try and act all nonchalant as if climbing mountains is something I do every day. She clearly isn't fooled. Luckily she doesn't hang around as I actually feel slightly nauseous from the climb and it takes some time to get my heart rate down.
Naturally the photos don't do the ride justice but take the dramatic nature of the Ardèche Gorge, the sheer beauty of the Gorges de la Nesque and the climbing effort of Ventoux and that is how I felt after the Gorges du Verdon. Never on an adventure have I been so close to tears and so grateful for crisp white sheets.
I read the guidebook to see what I should have been looking out for today. The most notable point is that today was a category 1 climb, complete with full camping gear.
I also get to see the actual road ahead with my own eyes. There is a sheer cliff face 3 km further along the gorge. The road could traverse the foot, it could ramp up over the top, but due to the overall geography the road chooses to slice a path through the edge of the cliff itself via short tunnels and pillared galleries. It is, from this angle, quite terrifying. Luckily I will be riding on the right hand side of the road hugging the cliff and not pedalling perilously close to the vertical drop.
