Biking Weekend up Mont Ventoux

The Mont Ventoux area is pretty stunning, but you get to see not only some great views but also some unusual visitors. Take the people in this photo with their tiny little car. They had driven down all the way from somewhere like Leicester (can't remember exactly where) and their brave little Austin (or whatever, can't remember exactly what either...) had even made it up to the top of one of the cols (peaks).

The last time my DB went up Mont Ventoux, we took the road on the south side and went down on the north. This time, we did the opposite and rode up the north slope road. We were joined by hearty cyclists who mostly looked pretty fit and keen, niftily dressed as they were in sponsored lycra kit.

View from the top of Mont Ventoux looking east

 But there were other types of cyclist too, such as this lady who had to be in her late 50s, and carried all her belongings in saddle bags on the back. Her bike must have weighed a ton but she kept pedalling, slowly but surely, and made it, as you can see!

A hellish type of holiday activity...

 The routes (up and) down are very popular with cyclists and motorbikers because they give lots of opportunities to swerve dangerously round corners and risk life and limb in head to head confrontations with oncoming traffic...

On our way down, looking east

On our way down - slopes arid and nearly vegetation-free

Near the bottom - lovely shady twisting road

We stopped for refreshments half-way down which is at the bottom of the ski lift. On the other side of the road, a group of men were loading a herd of sheep into a lorry to be taken you-know-where... It was taking a while because there were a lot of sheep, and the sheep dogs were being kept busy trying to maintain control. They almost succeeded, but one desperate animal made a bid for freedom, and came clattering over to the café tables, dashed its way through and continued up into the mountain behind. We thought that a dog would be sent to bring back the runaway, but time was of the essence, and they called off the hunt as soon as the sheep disappeared. I cheered and egged it on!

"Freedom! gotta make it to freedom!"

I just hope the sheep wasn't subsequently eaten by foxes as it was all alone and unprotected by the herd or shepherd...

After coming down off Mont Ventoux, we continued our exploration of the area and went along the gorges de something which had this rather nifty tunnel in the rock.

The road was not too busy, but we did come across a group of British cyclists who'd done Mt V in the morning and were taking it easy in the afternoon with this route. They were certainly making the most of their trip! I was glad to be on a motorbike as it all sounded very exhausting. 

It's funny but the more I see of hearty cyclists, the less I want to do any cycling myself. Even more funnily enough, the bike rack I had that fitted on my Alfa Romeo does not fit on my (nearly) new Yaris. I'm gutted...