Cheval-Blanc to La Coucourde

Saturday December 11, 2010

My campsite for the night, on Chemin Saint-François, in la forêt domaniale du Luberon, near Cheval-Blanc, France.

My campsite for the night, on Chemin Saint-François, in la forêt domaniale du Luberon, near Cheval-Blanc, France. 

The massive rock behind my campsite, beside Chemin Saint-François, in la forêt domaniale du Luberon, near Cheval-Blanc, France.

I actually couldn't sleep properly during the night because it was so cold. It's the first time that's happened this trip. The sun was shining, yet it was so cold! But likely a sign of things to come, I figured, as the European winter intensified and as I headed further inland and further North from the equator. My sleeping bag was just a synthetic one, a Roman, rated at zero degrees Celcius and I'd had it for years, so things would get interesting if it got much colder.

It was another rather uneventful day, but I covered quite a few kilometres, despite having a strong headwind for most of the day. And not only was it a headwind - it was a cold headwind, and this made for rather unpleasant riding. And now this is where some better trip planning would have been advantageous. See I was doing a bit of research on my iPhone about a good route to take up to Lyon, and came across a few blog posts written by people who had cycled the Rhône Valley before. As it turns out, there is supposed to be a strong northerly prevailing wind down the Rhône Valley, and I was heading north up the Rhône Valley which meant I was going to be stuck with a direct headwind for the next several hundred kilometres! Ha, great! That was going to make it a tough few days, and would slow me down a lot. The blog posts I was reading all recommended riding south down the Rhône Valley so that you have the prevailing wind on your tail. Too late for that now though. I was actually considering catching a train straight to Lyon, which would only take a few hours, whereas it was going to take several days on the bike! And that would also mean that I might be able to get to Paris in time to see the band Air, who I had discovered were playing a show there, consisting of a first set playing the Virgin Suicides, and a second set of various tracks from their back-catalogue, supposedly. Air are one of my favourite bands, so it would be good to see them. I could still possibly make it by bike though, if I progressed well. And so, because I'm stubborn and wanted to complete the whole trip by bike, I dismissed the train option and continued on the bike.

I stopped for lunch in a town called Orange. I must have been on the late side of lunch (as usual) because there was no-one else in the restaurant other than the chef and waiters, and the three of them were eating their own lunch together while I was. I guess it goes without saying what I ate for lunch - pizza of course, for €8.50. The waiter I think originally thought I was English, but when she asked where I was from, they were all so excited when I told them I was Australian! 

Anchovy pizza for lunch at a restaurant in Orange, France.

Anchovy pizza for lunch at a restaurant in Orange, France.

Afterwards I took an "internet stop" when I found an unlocked Wi-Fi network, and then made a supermarket stop to stock up on supplies. There was a group of young kids out the front after I'd bought my groceries who took quite an interest in where I was from, and what I was doing, and they fired various questions at me before I made tracks.

The view from the N7 road in Momas, France.

At one point I stopped at the side of the road for a quick rest, sucked some sweetened condensed milk and ate a few figs, and the wind was blowing a gale. As I rode on I listened to ABC's AM and PM podcasts to keep up with the news in Australia, and the world. Then a little later on I stopped again and ate three tomato, cheese and salami sandwiches for tea, and I noticed I only had one fingerless glove sitting in my handlebar bag. I realised the other must have blown away in the wind when I took the fig-and-sweetened-condensed-milk stop earlier. Damn, I'd had those trusty and comfortable gloves for years, and I was sad that I'd never see that glove again, it had come so far with me. I took consolation in the fact that I probably wouldn't need those fingerless gloves for the rest of the trip; I was currently using the winter full-fingered gloves since it was so cold.

I took another internet stop in a town called Montelimar, and continued on, keeping my eye out for a good spot to camp. It took quite a while to find somewhere, but eventually I found a suitable enough area of grass beside a bit of a car park beside the road. My campsite didn't provide much shelter from the wind, and it was particularly windy. I snapped the tent pole while setting up the tent, but luckily the tent came with a little piece of repair pole which I taped on over the snapped pole to repair it. It took me a long time to set up the tent because it was so windy and because I was exhausted, so I didn't get to sleep until just before 2 am.

The days route, Chevel-Blanc to La Coucourde.

An overview of my progress from Rome so far.

Ride Stats:

Distance: 128.59 km
Average: 15.4 km/h
Maximum: 33.8 km/h
Time: 8:18:35

Total Ascent: 618 m

Total Descent: 670 m