25 September 2008

10th September 2008

Day 4

We enjoyed a lazy, and late, breakfast on the terrace overlooking the panoramic view. It was already hot and we were regretting not having made an earlier start (remember this fact later).

We had heard nothing from our missing traveller, however he had no mobile phone with him but he did have our contact numbers so we decided to make our way to the caravans.

The route chosen, by our leader, took us via Marseille and Toulon. Trying to keep 5 bikes together was extremely difficult, and while we managed Marseille we failed miserably at Toulon and our leader was last seen heading Eastwards.

One of the other bikes took over the lead, and we navigated out of Toulon safely and towards our final destination. GPS units have their uses but get two or more together and you get differing routes.

At Hyeres, Tony's GPS said one thing and we all followed blindly only to have to do a U-turn in a narrow road with limited vision. I was second bike, and following Tony down the hill only to see a French driver in an Audi plough into the back of him, sending Tony and Sue (his pillion) tumbling to the road - thankfully they were not hurt - but the bike was damaged and roadside repairs were needed. We hauled off onto the side of the road, while insurance details were swapped but we were quite shocked at how much it affected us.

We made our way along the coast road to La Pachacaid, another mistake as there was a better road above it, however the views along this road were gorgeous, the sea was a turquoise shade of blue and all of us were tempted to stop but we had to keep going.

The road from the coast up to the campsite was narrow and very twisty, the GPS's all showed the path upwards until you took a road and then they smugly showed that the route you should have taken was the other way. We ended up trying to turn the bikes around with a drop on one side of hundreds of feet and a loose gravel path on the other.. I wasn't the only one who was tempted to park up, stamp my feet and give in at this stage. When we finally got on the right path, the drivers coming the other way wanted all the road (remember the drop, it was on their side) but we now had large drains on ours and didn't want to be forced in.. my language turned a lot less lady-like I am afraid.

It was a relief to see the campsite emerge from the hillside, and know we were almost there. We parked up and booked in, then it was a simple 5 mins journey to the caravans and a cold drink - before we went here :












You can see the blue of the sky, this was taken about 30 mins after our arrival, a cool beer and a chat amongst the fellow travellers before we met for something to eat.

Daily Mileage : 119
Total Mileage to date : 901

1 comment:

The W.O.W. factor! said...

The Audi plowed right into them?? How the heck?? And still no sign Of "Diesel Boy"?
That road sounds a bit scarry to me...I don't like drop offs and narrow roads...