Le Trayas Supérieur to Bormes-les-Mimosas

Wednesday December 8, 2010

My campsite for the night, on the Route des Calanques near Le Trayas Supérieur, Saint-Raphaël, France.

I'd set the alarm for 7:30 am, but turned it off and dozed until 10, such is my inability to wake up early! My excuse is that I'm tired from all the cycling.

Anyway, I packed up and set off, and rode along the coast again, until I found a place to stop for breakfast, which I ate while listening to an AM podcast to keep up with the news and current affairs in Australia. The scenery was impressive again, with fantastic red rocks and soils everywhere.

On Route de Trayas, just past Le Trayas, France.

On Route de Trayas, just past Le Trayas, France.

On Route de Trayas, just past Le Trayas, France.

On Route de Trayas, just past Le Trayas, France.

I stopped in a little town called Saint-Raphaël for Wi-Fi and sent lots of emails to organise the pennant squash teams. Then I ate a delicious pizza for lunch, for €7.50, and was on my way again.

Pizza for lunch at a restaurant in Saint-Raphaël, France.

I came across two young French blokes on touring bikes at one point, and was keen to stop them for a chat, since I hadn't had much contact with people recently, and I wanted to hear about how they were traveling. They were friendly enough and their English was okay. They weren't experienced bicycle tourists and didn't have the best equipment, but that didn't worry them, they were young and adventurous. They were taking it easy and typically not doing much more than 50 km's per day, on their way to Spain, through the temperate Mediterranean climate. I thought to myself "what a good idea, I should be riding to Spain with the better weather I would encounter, then I could catch a train back to Paris or London or something to get my flight home before Christmas." It was never a serious option though, because I was keen to ride all the way back to the location I'd set off from, and make it a round trip entirely by bike (and ferry). However, if I'd had more time, I'd certainly have taken a detour across to Spain. I rued that I lacked the time to do that. After 20 minutes of chatting to the young fellows, I let them go and kept going. Unfortunately I forgot to take a photo of them to include here. Here are some other shots I took passing by a body of water and a bay though.

The Etangs de Villepey, from the Av. de la Corniche d'Azur, France.

The Etangs de Villepey, from the Av. de la Corniche d'Azur, France.

The ocean, from the Av. du Général Touzet Duvigier, looking towards Sainte-Maxime, France.

The bike path under construction. I wasn't willing to back-track 5 km so I ducked under the bunting tape, avoided any wet concrete and waved to the construction workers before exiting at the next opportunity.

By late afternoon, I'd gotten another puncture, and lost count of the number of punctures I've had (blasted stock tyre!) So I had to stop and fix that before continuing. 

Fixing the nth puncture for the trip, where n is an integer greater than 30. Near Cavalaire-sur-Mer, France.

It soon got dark, and the terrain became quite hilly. I stopped in a town called Le Levandou when I found some Wi-Fi (bit of a drag having to organise the pennant squash teams, but the deadline was tonight). Then I stocked up food supplies at the supermarket and cooked cous cous with the Trangia for tea, and finally finished with the squash teams. It was almost 2 am when by the time I set off again. Luckily it didn't take too long to find a beauty of a camp site with lush green grass, just near a secluded bike path and in front of a block of apartments. Still, it was after 3 am when I could finally lay down my weary head. I had been hoping to get to Marseilles by the end of today, but I'd accepted at the end of yesterday, considering the distance left to travel, that I would instead split it into two days of riding, so I would get to Marseilles by the next night and stay in a hostel, comparative luxury after all the stealth camping I'd done since leaving Rome. 

My route for the day, Le Trayas Supérieur to Bormes-les-Mimosas, France.

Overview of my route so far from Rome.

Ride stats:

Distance: 101.93 km
Average: 20.8 km/h
Maximum: 46.2 km/h
Time: 4:52:42

Total ascent: 534 m

Total descent: 501 m