Apt - Murs

Wednesday 27 July 05

We got up early and packed up camp. We rode to Murs about 20km's from Apt. We went to the campground and set up camp. We dumped our luggage and continued to Roussillon. Another lttle town perched on a rock spur.

Roussillon is known for its blood red and ochre soil. The rest of this area has fairly light/white soil. The coloured soil is used to make ceramice glazes and pottery.

Once we arrived in Rousillon we locked up the bikes and wondered around town before taking a walk to the natural cliffs.

From Rousillon we headed back towards Murs. We stopped at the small beautiful town of Saucas and had some lunch and cooled down before climbing back to Murs and the campground.

We grabbed an early dinner and did some washing before going ot bed early.

Both of us are really tired. Tomorrow we are doing another day trip - this time we are riding to Fontain-de-Vauclause through Gordes. On friday we head to Sault and then up Mont Ventoux. On No!!

Thursday 28 July 05

Again we were up early and on the road to try and beat the heat and the tourists. Today we are heading to Fontain-de-Vauclause - a natural spring at the foot of a huge cliff at the Vauclause Plateau.

Our ride started with a very fresh decent out of town. As we came around a bend the whole valley opended up. It was an amazing sight. We were above the fog that was covering the valley floor below. The ride continued to decent into Gordes - a beautiful hill top town. From Gordes we decended for a little long before finally ascendign a short way onto a small plateau. We rode along the plateau for a short period before decending again - this time the grade was 14% - yippee - we soon arrived in Fontaine de Vaulause. This is a very small pictureesque town whose sole claim to fame is a natural spring that when running at it's peak pushed out 100m cuded per second. During summer, the sprin is little more than a 308 m deep pond in a cave. It was kinda creepy to think that were walked to - down tot he ponds edge is covered by a deadly torent of water at different times of the year. To make it clearer - were we walked was 21m below the water level of the highest flows. Amazing!! We dediced that this was a really nice spot to have a cuppa.

After coffee we rode around town before heading back to Gordes for lunch.

After lunch we decided to take the long way back to Murs via the Abbaye de Senanque. This turned out to include a long hardish climb from the Abbaye - which for once was in the valley - to the top of the Vauclause Plateau.

We finally arrived back at the campground hot and tired. We had somedinner and packed up camp in preparation for leaving tomorrow.