Sam and Dave’s blog

Heading out of the campsite at Fontvieille at 8am. We picked up a pain au chocolat from the handy stall at the entrance of the campsite on the way. Took us a little while to find the right road out of Fontvieille as usual .. our navigational abilities being slightly dulled first thing in the morning. A lovely clear day and a nice flat or slightly downhill ride to Arles about 10 km away, passing the impressive Chateau d’Avignon on the way.

We spent a little time in Arles, a quick look at the Arène (Amphitheatre) and main square, and then to the tourist office to get a list of campsites. We were waiting there at the door for it to open at 9am .. quite strange getting up early all the time. Arles was quite a pretty town, and if I had some time it would be a nice place to pass a day. There was also a Photography festival going on which I would have liked to see.

From Arles again it was tricky to actually get out of the city. There were some confusing cycle routes and a nicely graffitied tunnel under the N453 to get us across the river. After that more flat/slight downhill and with the wind beind us we were easily doing nearly 40km/h along the D36, entering properly into the carmargue park. The landscape reminded me of the Norfork broads.

Turning west onto the D37, we met Manu, a 70 year old cyclist. He goes out riding every day on his racing bike. We cycled with him for a few kilometers and had a nice chat. (I thought I had a photo, but can’t find it). He told us “Vous avez de la merite” for cycling with all our bags, and “Les voitures ne vous donne pas de cadeaux” as the motorists sped past us on the empty roads 2ft away, and beeped us for cycling side by side.

We stopped near albaron at the Junction of D37/D570 to fire up the Tranjia and make a welcome cup of coffee. It was a nice spot looking over a rice paddy field. The only downside was that as soon as I sat down I noticed a mosquito on my arm, then on my leg, then my other leg .. five all at once!

The rest of the ride started passing into Le Bouche du Rhône, with expanses of flat, sandy/salty scrubland, a few windswept bushes and the famous white horses. We stopped finally at the ‘posh’ campsite, Le Clos du Rhône, which cost a whopping 24 euros per night. This was after rejecting the other campsite for being too full and not enough shade. I think we made the right choice as it was a nice place, and right beside the beach. We had lunch at around 2pm and then a welcome siesta.

The campground was sand with palm trees for shade. Later in the afternoon we went over to the bays for a lovely swim in the sea. I wouldn’t say the water was warm, but it was quite comfortable enough to swim in for half an hour.

Later in the evening, we met our camping neighbour Gary Miller. I had been wondering what type of person would be in such a miniature tent (it looked just big enough for one person). Gary is a carpenter and runs a organic market gardening farm on an island near Seattle. He had walked all the way from Bordeaux across the French countryside, and had been camping. Respect! It was nice to sit and chat with him, share a little of our food and wine, and tales about buddhism, life, walking and cycling.

This entry was posted on Wednesday, August 1st, 2007 at 10:54 am and is filed under Diary / Journal, Posts in English. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Responses are currently closed, but you can trackback from your own site.