Excited for the first day of our trek, we got up at 6.45, locked and moved the van to the place where we'd been told we could leave it, put our rucksacks on and left the campsite. We walked to Mont Dauphin station to get the 8.30 bus to St Veran, stopping to visit the... Continue Reading →
11th August: Preparing for part 2 of our holiday
Tomorrow, we leave the camper van parked on the campsite and start a 6-day trek, roughly following the highest sections of the Tour de Queyras, staying in mountain refuges and Gite d'etapes. Therefore, today we're draining the waste tank and refilling the clean water tank, emptying the toilet, bins and fridge, and locking the bikes... Continue Reading →
10th August: A perfect paddle
We both agreed that today's paddle was our best ever. It even beats the sea paddles when I've seen seals and caves, I think! We thought we'd missed the opportunity because when I woke and looked at the clock it was 9.48 and we'd agreed to leave at 10.00. John got dressed and dashed to see... Continue Reading →
9th August: Crete de Vars hike up, jog down
We had a great walk up Crete de Vars today. It was quite cloudy when we left the campsite but at least that meant it was cool because we had quite an ascent ahead of us. We set off through the forest and the path zigzagged up hill relentlessly. We could see rain clouds on... Continue Reading →
8th August: SUPing and cycling
We had a lie in today after our busy day yesterday and, although we had planned to go walking, decided to have a day on the campsite. We did our huge bag of washing and read for a bit while it dried, then borrowed Dan's stand up paddle boards and went to play on the... Continue Reading →
7th August: Ubaye Trail Salomon race
Today was race day. We woke early, partly because the marshals seemed to be meeting where we'd parked, before heading off to their checkpoints, partly because of pre race nerves. The marathon started at 8.00 and the half marathon at started 9.00, shortly before our 12k at 9.10. We were very apprehensive because this was... Continue Reading →
6th August: Barcelonnette via Col de Vars
Our race is tomorrow in the Ubaye valley so we prepared the van for a night away from the campsite and set off. We headed up numerous hairpin bends, with beautiful views, to Col de Vars where we were meeting the Moorcroft family for a walk. The walk was a gentle bimble around the hillside...... Continue Reading →
5th August: Run around Rue des Masques
We are doing a 12k trail race on Sunday so today we had decided we need to do some training. We had planned a walk to get used to more altitude, but it rained in the night and, when we woke up this morning, the hills and mountains were hidden in the clouds. It was... Continue Reading →
4th August: mountain biking versus relaxing by a pool
John packed the bikes on the back of the van to go mountain biking from Puy St Vincent today, 30 minutes up the valley. The plan was to get the ski lift up and bike back down. Matthew's young children, Evie and Ollie were doing the easier blue run so we thought it might be... Continue Reading →
3rd August: Paddle on the Durance
I was brave today. I went paddling. John, Dan and Matthew, took vehicles to the get out point 10 kilometres up the river and, when they were back we got on at the campsite. I was really apprehensive because I haven't paddled for a while and the river looked quite fast to me. However, Dan... Continue Reading →