France

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29 June

A cooler night, we decide not to do too much today. We will stay here for a few days as there are some good mountain bike tracks and a Silver Mine that Calum wants to see. Brian goes for a cycle with Albert (our French neighbour) while Calum and I do some work. Another hot day but there is a storm due tonight and we listen to the thunder as we watch the black clouds roll in over the mountains. Some new neighbours arrive in a White Volkswagen Transporter Van and Brian has a flash back to the days when he was a proud owner of such a beast! Hope you are still looking after it John! Paul and Jitka join us for a glass of red from our 5 litre Italian stash. Couple of hours later we eat and by the end of a lovely evening we had managed to work our way through it all (a lesson learned - consumption is directly proportional to procurement!).

Next morning (with surprisingly clear heads all round) we head into the village of L’Argentiére la Bessée to book a tour of a local disused silver mine. After arranging a tour with Lisa the guide for the next day we head to Brançon to buy some shoes, cycling shorts and mountain bike tyres so we can explore the hills around the campsite, really looking forward to getting out on the bikes again. When we are in the shop we hear the rain, by the time we leave there is a river where the car park used to be. We decide to make a run for it and a couple of minutes later we arrive at the beast soaked but at least it was warm rain. It is still raining when we get back to the camp luckily our neighbour has put our chairs under his camper so they are dry.

Up early next morning and off to the Silver Mine, we pick up Lisa our Australian guide and drive the 3km uphill to the Silver Mine. At the car park she tells us that a car was broken into 2 day ago - not a warm fuzzy! Nothing much we can do about it we set off for our tour. Down into an amazing gorge, we explore the silver mine and find out about how silver was mined in the middle ages and then again in the 19th Century. It is only us three on the tour and Lisa is a Science Teacher so we get lots of interesting information and she manages to answers all of Calum‘s questions. He is really enjoying this!

All too soon the tour is over and it’s back to the camper to find everything safe. After a quick lunch it’s off for the trauma of another hair colour this time in a French hairdressers. Slightly less stressful than Greece but I’m thinking about a wig! Note no photos!!!!

It’s another hot day as we head for the hills on the bikes; Brian with his new knobbly tyres, me with my new shoes and Calum with his new cycling shorts (budget what budget, Lewis there goes what’s left of the inheritance). We cycle 6km to Valoisse some and stop for a cool down with a coffee, lemonade, ice cream and a couple of pain au chocolate. As we head back along a different route Calum gets his first taste of some off road tracks as we get to the first downhill he is off with a yahoooooo and has been showing me a clean pair of heels ever since. It will not be long before he is giving his dad a run for his money downhill.

We did some technically challenging cycling and Calum thoroughly enjoyed himself, he was so excited when we got back to the camp site. This is huge for us because we can now enjoy mountain biking as a family. It was great to be back cycling off road again, can’t remember the last time we were. Totally awesome. That afternoon Brian buys Calum a Speedo for his bike and he does another 16km round the campsite before bed, he is on such a high it is difficult to get him into bed and to sleep.

Next day we set off a bit later than planned and take a picnic lunch with us. We cycle back to Valiosse looking for another track but can’t find it. We decide to cycle part of a more difficult track along the same direction as the river. There is a steep gradual ascent and Calum is ahead, at a bit where a stream joins the river there is a short downhill then a very steep (but short) uphill. I probably wouldn’t have attempted it (I’m not too proud to push my bike both up and down hills!) but Calum gave it a go because he was first. Unfortunately he didn’t make it to the top and fell off and slid back down the slope giving himself a nasty graze and a bit of a fright. After a quick check to make sure it wasn’t too serious we cycled on for a bit then stopped for lunch. We decided to head back after lunch because we were all getting tired and it’s very hot. Make it back without incident except when Calum didn’t quite make it through a narrow gap but he recovered well and managed to escape (another) injury. All tired but happy, 14km off road today.

Have a quiet day on Sunday (Happy 30th Birthday Fraser) catching on blogs etc. Then head to Castellane close to the Verdon Gorge to do some rafting on Monday. As usual we arrive later than planned but find a small campsite close to Castellane with free Wi-FI (wee bonus).

5th July

After a restless night (Brian has done something to one of his knees) we walk to Castellane just before everything closes for lunch and book a rafting trip for the next day. 9:30 An early start, I can’t believe I ever got up at 5:30 to start work at 7am, Oh no, October is going to come very quickly.

In the afternoon Calum meets Kim, a nine year old German girl now living in Spain who speaks little English but seems to understand a lot. They spend the afternoon building a dam on the stream beside the campsite and then take turns to ‘raft’ downstream on Calum’s lilo (Brian stops them and I take the lilo back up stream). Great fun is had by all except Brian with the sore knee and the frozen ankles, (he’ll get his reward in heaven) until after one rock too many the lilo gets a hole.

Off to bed after a quick game of table tennis, ready for our adventure tomorrow.

Another restless night, Calum is too excited to sleep (the joys of a campervan) we are awake and organised before 9am (must be some kind of record). Calum is talking nonstop (as sure sign he is excited). We walk into town and arrive, early for once, at the river then realise Calum has the wrong shoes so dad (with the sore knee) goes back to get his trainers. By the time he returns the raft has arrived and Calum and I are getting into our wet suits (and Brian STILL manages to be ready before us - must be the male thing). There are only the three of us plus a German called Harry who doesn’t say much or paddle through the rapids!

We carry the raft down to the river and get our briefing from our guide Will. Then it’s into the raft after some instruction on how to paddle backward and forward we are off, Calum has a huge grin on his face. We are travelling about 8km down-stream into the Verdon Gorge, the scenery is stunning. We do a few rapids, bounce off a few rocks and generally have a good time then after the biggest rapid, we paddle furiously into calm water behind a big rock. There is another raft there and people are jumping off the rock into the fast moving water.

We tie up and are given the opportunity to jump off the rock and swim down the rapid in the freezing water, not my idea of fun, but the boys are out of the raft and have clambered up onto the rock before Will can say any more ‘paddle Harry’. Brian jumps in first followed by Harry, Calum is sitting on this sloping rock looking at the fast flowing water and I’m thinking will he or won’t he. He moves further down the rock and after a bit of instruction from Will he jumps and seconds later is in the freezing water, swimming down the river and round to the raft. What an achievement, his woose of a mother is still in the raft, not that that will surprise any who know me!

All too soon after our trip is at an end and the bus is there to take us back. Calum has had a (another) great experience and not a ruin in sight. Back at Castellane we are just in-time for the local market and then back for a quiet afternoon. Kim and her family arrive back soon after us and her and Calum have played happily since.
Tomorrow it’s time to move on again. Unfortunately, we have just passed the halfway point of our trip.

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