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

Bordighera to Le Trayas Supérieur

Tuesday December 7, 2010

My campsite for the night, in Bordighera, Italy.

Today was a very enjoyable day on the bike, due to the stunning scenery and seemingly unusually mild and sunny weather. Maybe I was riding into a different climate zone? Well when I say sunny, I mostly mean it wasn't raining - it was cloudy, with patches of sunlight every now and again. But after the cold, windy and wet weather I'd experienced for the past few days, I was very grateful.

I was hoping to get away for an early start, but alas I woke up naturally at about 10 am again. Tomorrow I'm going to have to set my alarm, so that I can make the most of all the beautiful scenery; it seems a shame to ride through it all in the dark.
So after stopping a few kilometres down the road for breakfast in a town called Vallecrosia, it wasn't until after mid-day that I properly got going. Then I just cruised along, taking in the scenery as I went, and crossing the border from Italy and into France.

The view from the coast in Bordighera, Italy.

Looking towards the mountains from the Corso Francia, in Ventimiglia, Italy.

The coast in Menton, France.

On the Av. de la Côte-d'Azur, Roquebrune-Cap-Martin, France.

On the Av. du Trois Septembre, Costa Plana, France.

Some creative artwork on a speed-hump sign, on the Bd Maurice Maeterlinck, Mont Boron, France.

About to descend into Nice, on the Bd Carnot, France.

I passed through various towns, including Ventimiglia, Menton, Monaco, Villefranche-sur-Mer and Nice. Navigation through some of these towns was difficult because I'd been having trouble finding Wi-Fi, and therefore I hadn't been able to download much detail in the maps on the iPhone. 

On the descent into Nice, I was almost taken out by a car. I was riding down the hill at about 50 km/h, going quickly because there was a truck behind me that I didn't want to hold up, when a little yellow car coming up the hill in the opposite direction turned right in front of me into a drive-way. I braked and swerved and narrowly avoided a collision, but it certainly got the heart racing. When I got to the intersection at the bottom of the hill, I looked back at the truck driver behind me, and he gave me some hand signals and a thumbs up; I think he was saying "I saw that car almost take you out, you did well to avoid it!" That made me feel a little better.
It was mid-afternoon when I got to Nice, and I stopped at the McDonalds to send some emails (on their Wi-Fi), mostly to organise the squash teams for the Melbourne University squash club, which my replacement pennant chair, Steve, wasn't doing a good job of. So it wasn't until about 5 pm that I was back on the bike, continuing along a nice bike path alongside the coast. 

A bike path in Nice, France.

It was here I came across a French cyclist who was up for a chat. He told me a lot about himself. He said he has done lots of tours around France with a back-pack, that he knows lots of special routes, and he was interested in my equipment. His equipment was interesting though, because instead of panniers, he would carry a large back-pack which would rest on a bit of a platform that was attached to his seat, and would take most of the load. 

Running into this French bloke worked out well because he was kind enough to lead me some of the way, as his commute home from work was in the same direction. He took me further than his house, and gave me lots of advice on the route to take further up the road when he let me go. I was grateful, good on him!

An indiscreet shot of the French bloke that helped me along my way, in the back-ground, he'd just turned around to ride back home. Here on the Route du Bord de Mur, near Les Baumettes, France.

I rode well into the night time again, and stopped in a town called Cannes to organise the squash teams more, and also to download some more map detail and some podcasts.

I eventually continued on, but was finding it difficult to find a camp site. Unfortunately it was too much to ask for the rain to hold off for a whole day, and drops began to fall as the clock crept towards midnight. The terrain also became quite lumpy, which made finding a campsite even harder. I thought I'd found a spot beside the road on top of a hill, on a well-kept lawn beside some kind of building. I unpacked the tent and began setting it up when a man came out of the building and indicated that I wasn't allowed to camp there. What a drag! So I packed up and continued on. Eventually I had to settle for a sub-standard spot hidden in amongst some trees a little way off the road-side on some rather rocky ground. Considering it was almost midnight though, I wasn't being fussy, it would do just fine.

My route for the day, from Bordighera in Italy to Miramar in France.

An overview of my route so far from Rome.

Ride stats:
Distance: 101.86 km
Average: 17.6 km/h
Maximum: 45.5 km/h
Time: 5:46:35
Total ascent: 682 m
Total descent: 712 m