Gorge de Regalon, Petite Luberon

I have been in France for six months now, but hadn't really explored further afield than the local area. Public transport had served me well and there was a bit of a deep-breath required for the next stage. Last weekend I plucked up the determination and went and hired myself a car. Idiosyncratically, in Marseille, hire cars are cheaper from the airport than within the city. To the point that I paid just over half the price at the airport, oh and being a British 'resident' I got a cheaper rate than as a French resident(!!).

So Saturday morning saw me heading off into the wild driving a car on the right side of the road for the first time in 18 months and the first time outside of a little Greek island. My goal was the Foret du Luberon between Avignon and Pertuis in Provence. More specifically I had identified a nice region for walking and this was the second goal of the weekend after practising my driving. One hour or main and secondary roads, umpteen roundabouts and no near misses I arrived at the parking area.

The Gorge de Regalon (here) is quite a popular destination, but was previously unknown to me. I just picked somewhere nice looking from the map i had bought the evening before!

 
Maps:
Carte de Randonee IGN 3142OT - Cavaillon (1:25k)
or Carte de loisirs de plein air IGN 'Balades en Foret du Luberon' (1:20k)

Time: 3-3.5 hours

Moderate walking, rough underfoot and a need for boots and to use your hands. Don't go after heavy rain as the gorge is likely to be impassable!

Water flow

I can't find a good representation of the route I took online, so in brief I went North from the parking area following signs to Gorge du Regalon (ignore coloured marks, these are wooden signs). Once past the obligatory 'this is a hazardous place' sign and slightly more ominous depth of water indication I was into the gorge itself. The narrow file through the rock (limestone I think) is generally wooded with deciduous trees and ivy common. The path and floor of the gorge shows signs of considerable water movement in places and you come across various cave openings at intervals. Gradually the gorge narrowed and I was using my hands to balance along, including using stepping stones in places. At one point the path appears to go into a large cave entrance, which is actually a short tunnel.

This IS the path, with 5cm of water
on the ground, but stones to step on.

The path continues along a narrow passageway which isn't actually dark, but gloomy and open to the sky. Claustophobic people who can't cope with something just over shoulder width wouldn't be happy, but I didn't have to take off my bag or go sideways at all. Gradually the file opened up and went back to wide gorge, large caves and scrabbles up rocky steps.

Eventually the path splits at a sign post. I took the left side heading for Vallon de la Galerie (top of the google map). Ten minutes later a wide forest track is joined (turning left again) and the path is followed up the twists and turns of this valley to the Galerie.

From Vallon de la Galerie

Vallon de la Galerie climbs slowly from gorge level up to the foot of the higher peaks behind. The path climbs up and gives a wide view over the surrounding landscape. It does feel like a wilderness with few or no roads or buildings in sight.

At the northern tip of the Vallon the track doubles back on itself and climbs up to reveal the view. A signpost at the top for 'Le Mayorques' shows the southerly path back over the top of the plateau. The farm at La  Mayorques itself appears to be a centre for groups to come and learn about traditional farming, but also has a room for hikers to spend the night. There are several places like this within the Luberon, most marked on the map.

From the farm the path is marked across a rough scrubby area to the plateau edge. Here a view over the Durance valley and a steep winding path take your down through the forest on sandy paths and then back to the car.

Across the Durance Valley with a break in the clouds

It was a pleasant walk and good to stretch my legs. Back to Marseille is a 1.5-2 hour drive from here through scenic wine country. A young French lad benefited from a lift to Aix-en-Provence too.

Concurrent thinking?

What drives the need to blog? Why blog? What is your reason for blogging or reading blogs?

I suspect that the requirement comes from a need to record things, to write them down, to share. So does that go hand in hand with writing a diary or take the place of it? For me arriving in Marseille was a huge step and the need to write, to record and to to tell people about what I was doing was there. The result was both a diary and multiple blog posts. So why now when I am becoming more settled has the diary dried up and the posts died away? Do I not need to tell people about what I am doing any more? or are there other outlets? Here I seem to be talking to friends online and on the telephone more often. I don't know if this has gone hand in hand with the decline, but this is possible. Just as likely though, is that I have relaxed and so the need for an outlet is not there any more..

Despite the apparent relaxation I am not just drifting along, oh no! In the past week I have undertaken six dives in the sea, my first in France. I have gone deeper than I have ever been, been onto my first wreck (and inside it!), past some stunning scenery (and this is after diving in the Red Sea earlier in the year) and seen my first Seahorse in the wild. Little Nudibranches (search for images to see why!) are getting my attention and the more time I spend down there the more I want to do more! The result is that I am eulogising into my dive log and telling people about what I have been seeing, in French and in English, the former to a certain extent! But they haven't yielded diary entries and this blog is the first for a while.

The mind is a strange thing and inexplicable.

And with that I shall depart trailing a line of ascending bubbles as I head to the next beautiful dive site for another 73 centimes (64p)/minute dive. Its worth it, come and join me!

Provencal Pizza

Pizzas in the south of France are not like pizzas from the UK. First of all you only get one size - large; and secondly you only get one thickness - thin. I think this is as close to a traditional pizza as I can image, as you would expect close to the Italian border...
Pizza is also as readily available as a take-away as a kebab,  burger or fish and chips is in the UK. There are even Pizza vans on the corners of many streets selling slices of pizzas rather than whole pizzas, complete with an oven in the back of the van.
The thing I have been really impressed by is the quality of the ingredients, take tonight's four cheese pizza. A British one might use Cheddar, Double Gloucester, Cheshire and something else, but this one had Mozzarella, Rochefort, Goats Cheese and Emmental (I think) on it. Very tasty. And to round it off I was sat on some rocks by the sea, watching the sun go down, the air temperature was still around 25 degrees and it was comforatble in shorts and teeshirt.  The only downside was seeing all the smog in the air and the very red sun. Still I can't complain when I know it is dull and dreary at home!

Silly Rhymes

These rhymes were from the end of my PhD when I was a month away from submission. They have been sitting as a draft for a long time, but I found them today and was amused. I can't remember the context for all of them. Does it matter? I think not. I hope you enjoy them too.

My friend is away
the pictures are done,
maybe if she knew
back she would run,

but in her absence
a letter or a note,
I think I should send,
delivered by Goat!

(c) Martin Lilley 15/3/10
---

Holidays are coming...
For you and for me
For one, the Mountains
For the other, the sea

Why have a British holiday
When Greece you could go?
It really depends if you need
The sun or the snow!

(c) Martin Lilley 15/3/10

-----

You are ignoring

my questions to you

Maybe I should leave them

to ponder and stew.

Were they important?

Was I remiss?

Should I interrupt

my state of bliss?

(c) Martin Lilley 17/3/10


----


It is hard to find
sense in prose,
when rhyming my brain
is all that it knows

Try as I might
I can't seem to find,
Sense or Structure
of Any kind.


(c) Martin Lilley 17/3/10

----

To space your repetition
for the pleasure of thought,
A good rhyme costs money
and needs to be bought

(c) Martin Lilley 17/3/10

----

Ribbons are great

fun to twizzle,

particularly curled
with scissor or brizzle!

Now I have bubbles

to clean my glass;

drinking wine

and feeling class!

Martin Lilley 18/3/10

The Return of the Explorer

Dear Readers,

Those of you who read this blog will probably be aware that I returned a week ago from my travels. I have a notebook recording my thoughts, written each evening, thanks to the prodding of an acquaintance before I left. While I could post a standard day-by-day account of my travels, I'll leave it until I see you to provide the details. Instead here I think I'll write about some of my experiences, the odd photograph and recommendations to anyone else trying similar.

Heading for Striding Edge,
Helvellyn

Starting at the beginning, the western highlands of Scotland are a very long way from South Wales! Six hundred plus miles is only 10-12 hours of driving if you keep up a constant speed, but that doesn't take into account the slower roads in the highlands, weather, breaks and how tired you get as a driver, particularly on your own. I spent an afternoon and evening driving up to the Lake District before I slept. The following morning, as forecast, the weather was nicer and I was able to spend half the day climbing Helvellyn and exploring a few of the peaks in the eastern Lake District from Patterdale. It was lovely to stop and an ideal location to have a break.

High Bridge, remains

The afternoon and early evening were again spent driving and I called it a day near Perth. In each case I had had at least one good, long break in motorway services, but still I was exhausted and driving further wasn't sensible. Driving onwards up the A9 and across towards Fort William, I took a rest in Spean Bridge and a walk down to General Wade's High Bridge crossing Spean Gorge as the water flowing out of the Great Glen makes its way down to Fort William and the sea. The A87 road to the isles is stunning and I became a tourist stopping in a number of locations to take photographs including the iconic Eilean Donan castle at Dornie. By the time I reached accommodation on Skye the majority of a third day had passed. Despite this I had aggravated my knee from driving and it plagued the rest of my trip.

Eilean Donan Castle

The knee - Listen to your body, injuries take time to heal and it is worth resting them completely for a few days to let them get better. Instead I persisted in exploring each day and despite a pair of walking poles my knee complained constantly until I got home and stopped driving. Unfortunately I didn't realise it was the driving and thought it was twisted through walking. Particularly if you are away for a number of days, you Can afford to stop and rest.

Skye's weather - Skye is magical. The weather changes constantly and horizontal rain and gales force winds can moderate by the afternoon to leave a damp atmosphere and plenty of potential for exploring. It was rare for a day to go by with no rain at all, it was October after all!, and I lost count of the number of rainbows I saw. For me the Misty Isle or Winged Isle would be better known as the Rainbow Isle.

The scale - Skye is HUGE. Ignore the fact that it is technically an island and treat it like a county. From the bridge to the top end of Trotternish is over 70 miles, half of it on single-track roads and to try and stay in the middle and explore all over is ludicrous. If you do you'd spend an hour or two each way driving to the place you wanted to visit and use quantities of fuel. As with all the islands fuel is at least 10p more expensive than on the mainland. The scale of Skye means that you may find yourself using a quarter of a tank of fuel each way on some of the longer drives. Be aware, particularly as the garages are not numerous (Portree, Broadford, Dunvegan, possibly Uig)!
I can however recommend treating each region or peninsula independently and basing yourself for a few days exploration, before moving onwards to the next one.

The time of year - October is outside of the main tourist season. Many of the campsites and hostels shut at the end of September, despite the Scottish two week half-term holiday in October! The weather is unpredictable, and you can expect to see autumn, strong winds and the first frosts of the year. Despite that I was blessed with a high pressure system over the island for five days of glorious weather. To my knowledge Uig youth hostel was shut, as was Staffin and Glen Brittle campsite. The tourist information in Portree are able to provide a reasonable list of open and closed places. However Dun Flodigarry hostel (recommended), Kinloch campsite in Dunvegan (very friendly with free hot showers!), Sligachen bunkhouse, the BMC hut in Glen Brittle (for associate/members only) and Ashaig campsite near Broadford (open all year) were all open. The campsite at the Sligachen Hotel was officially closed, but well used by campers and campervans every evening I was there. Facilities, including beer ;), were only available in the nearby hotel. Wild camping appears to be accepted, although pitching late and striking the tent early is probably worthwhile to avoid making your site too obvious. The advantages of October include few people, even on popular walks, few midges and days which are still long enough to do a good days walk in if you get up fairly early.

Macleod's Maidens

The walks - There are numerous really good low levels walks on the island without encountering the Cuillins themselves. A small distinctive green and orange paperback book for under £3 lists 30 of the walks complete with grades and can be used by itself, although a map is recommended. I would particularly recommend a walk out to Idrigill point from Orbost to view Macleod's Maidens, a circuit of the Quiraing, Fairy Pools, Ramasaig and Lorgill (although the climbs are steep) and the Coral beaches near Dunvegan. It is also well worth taking the time to go further than your car-driving tourist who wants to bag the sights in a couple of days.

The Table of the Quiraing

To explore the Table of the Quiraing is spectacular, for instance, and a good circuit can be made from Flodigarry without driving at all. The further you go the more likely you are to see wildlife and I was treated to numerous groups of red deer, sea and golden eagles flying low over my head, otters and many species of birds including a migrating Brent Goose. Magical.

The (black) Cuillin - ... is something else! To someone who is happy to scramble the peaks of Snowdonia and the Lake District happily, the Cuillin ridge is not necessarily hard and the rock is generally firm and grippy gabbro, but unforgiving. There are a number of sections which certainly require rock climbing skills and equipment, and even on the easier scrambles the odd step is encountered which taken the wrong way leaves you shaking. A good guidebook is essential, and a guide wise, to understand which side of the obstacles to turn them. Even then following clear instructions I ended up scrambling up a damp gully on little ledges with a large drop beneath me, down-climbing was not really a pleasant option and continuing scary. Determination succeeded. Anywhere else you can usually find another route from an impasse, but here options are limited by vertical drops on either side. Take care, take great care.

Scree in the Black Cuillin

The Cuillin is also riddled with long steep scree runs, or stone shoots as they are known. These take their toll on knees and a pair of walking poles is recommended. Ascent of these is the classic two steps forward, one step back, while descent is just unbalanced! I would also suggest taking a scrambling rope and rack for the various ridges and to escape from situations. A climbing helmet is also highly advised, particularly for the stone shoots.

All in all I had a great time. I met new people and visited old friends on the way home. I explored many situations and feelings which I had either not encountered at all or not recently. I was able to forget work and the south and become totally absorbed in my surrounds. The result being that I became aware of an active brain once I had visited the friends and reminisced, suggesting that I hadn't actually given it a good break in a very long time! The island is beautiful and I feel that the two weeks I spent there gave me a greater insight into it than most my fellow tourists. Of course I was a tourist, but by going that bit further you can really appreciate the landscape and the situations. Travelling home, with no deadline to be back for was wonderful and I visited friends, three museums and had a walk in the border hills. I can see the attractions of "What shall I do tomorrow" of a road trip, but the constant search for accommodation and planning food takes its toll, as it does on holiday unless you find a base for 3,4,5+ days at a time.

Finally, I feel that I really gained insights into my vehicle. Skye performed beautifully and was very economical, particularly as I was able to experiment along the motorways driving at different speeds and comparing the economy and her behaviour. May she perform healthy and reliable service for many years to come.

The explorer returns, job secured, life restarts. Has anything changed? I think so - my appreciation of life, the universe and everything in it. Live for today, but keep what you value close at hand in case today is the last opportunity you can appreciate it/them.

Au revoir, until next time.

Things Desired

To many this poem will be well known, to others it may be the first time they have come across it. A friend sent it  to me yesterday and while some of the lines were familiar, possibly from television dramas(?), most of it was new to me. I really understood a lot of what Max Ehrmann appeared to be saying in Desiderata and went back to it this morning for another read. If you haven't read it before here it is. Enjoy, absorb, think and relax.

Desiderata

Go placidly amid the noise and haste,
and remember what peace there may be in silence.
As far as possible, without surrender, be on good terms with all persons.
Speak your truth quietly and clearly; and listen to others,
even to the dull and ignorant; they too have their story.

Avoid loud and aggressive persons, they are vexations to the spirit.
If you compare yourself with others, you may become vain and bitter,
for always there will be greater and lesser persons than yourself.
Enjoy your achievements as well as your plans.

Keep interested in your own career, however humble;
it is a real possession in the changing fortunes of time.
Exercise caution in your business affairs,
for the world is full of trickery.
But let this not blind you to what virtue there is;
many persons strive for high ideals,
and everywhere life is full of heroism.

Be yourself. Especially do not feign affection.
Neither be cynical about love;
for in the face of all aridity and disenchantment
it is as perennial as the grass.
Take kindly the counsel of the years,
gracefully surrendering the things of youth.
Nurture strength of spirit to shield you in sudden misfortune.
But do not distress yourself with dark imaginings.
Many fears are born of fatigue and loneliness.

Beyond a wholesome discipline, be gentle with yourself.
You are a child of the universe no less than the trees and the stars;
you have a right to be here. And whether or not it is clear to you,
no doubt the universe is unfolding as it should.

Therefore be at peace with God, whatever you conceive Him to be.
And whatever your labors and aspirations,
in the noisy confusion of life, keep peace with your soul.
With all its sham, drudgery and broken dreams,
it is still a beautiful world.
Be cheerful. Strive to be happy.

Max Ehrmann, 1926
source http://www.poetseers.org/the_great_poets/misc/desid/

The Worm

A trip to The Worm comes fraught with peril,

be you in Scarpa, Nike or Merrell.

The problem you see comes not from the sky

but the live-giving blood of fish, and fry.

To cross the rocks, they must be clear,

Swim you must not; or Die, I fear.

Coastguards watch close, advice for all

“Come back in good time, or chopper we’ll call”

Rough seas, horses of white

Algae on rocks, black as night

Jellies hidden, somewhere near,

To the South maybe, view unclear.

Peregrine male, whistling past,

just a quick glimpse, going so fast.

Guillimott are here already, thinking of nests

Little ledges and tight corners, for them they're best.

Scavengers are searching for meal of chick,

mobbed by crows plunging like a brick.

Wings flap, waves crash,

eroding the rock, naturally - Smash.

Gulls call, guns fire,

sounds contrasting, may conspire

at the tip of the Worm, mark this wild place

where sun and rain, in turn, sculpt the face.

The Worm it lives, of that I’m sure

–        I’ve seen the breath, heard the snore.

So take a trip to The Worm, with my blessing go

For memorable it will be, in sun or snow.

Some things are natural, we must accept

For memories of this place ‘ere be kept.

© Martin Lilley 2010

Solitude

At moments like this one at Rhossili the other week I really empathise with these surfers.  Peace, space, solitude and a sense of sharing with any companions.  Does everyone need a time like this or is it just me?  I think this is what draws me to the hills, to sea and to islands. To have a chance of being at one with nature - Bliss.