It was sad to be leaving the Gite, as it had been a fantastic three-night stop. As I said in a previous entry, the scenery was stunning, the owners so very friendly, a perfect base for our few days en Provence and of course Willie the dog.
Our next destination was to be the Gorge du Verdon, dubbed the Grand Canyon of Europe. The drive was long, but the scenery along the winding mountainside roads with glimpses into the perfectly light blue alpine river running alongside the road more than made up for it. We drove to the nearest 'big' town, Castellane, where we stopped for a picnic before heading out to our camp-site. The site was just out of town in the hilly forest past the town. We had booked ourselves a wooden caravan for the night, so we were basically Glamping. It was a fun little caravan, if perhaps a little small!
Right, it was time for the hike, so we headed to the start point of a 2 hour round trip hike down into the gorge. Stunning, stunning, stunning! The aches of the previous days hike seemed to lighten amidst the beauty of the descent into the gorge. We stood for an age at a vertigo-inducing cliff-side and looked in awe at the sheer rock-faces, fast-flowing dazzling turquoise waters of the Verdon river and ever so narrow walkways along the cliff faces. The Gorge slices its way through 25km of Provence's limestone plateau, reaching heights of 700m and lows of 250m, the deep gorge floor is between 8m and 80m wide meaning virtually every part of the gorge is spectacular. We also walked through a 2km series of pitch-black (torch required) large-puddled (soggy trainer alert!) tunnels which were originally excavated in the late 1800s as part of a rather ambitious plan to harness the power of the rapid flowing waters in a hydro electric plant. Before their time! Sadly, they never finished but the tunnels remain and are now an integral part of the Gorge walk.
We ascended back to the car and in search of sustenance. Such exertion is hungry work! We headed back into Castellane, whose highlight is a chapel perched above the town atop a needle-like rock, and picked up a pizza to eat out at the camping ground. A great evening albeit short as we had a very early start the next morning to return the car in Nice. I think we would have happily stayed another day or so in the region. Plenty more hiking we missed out on, in fact more than two days worth in all. Next time.....
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