By Bike

Day 53 (25th September) – Barcelonnette to Puget-Théniers.

The centre-piece of today’s ride was our last major climb of the trip, the 2,802m Cime de la Bonette, the highest paved through road in Europe.

In determining the best window to ride the entire Alps, a driving factor was knowledge that the road over the Bonette closes for the winter by mid-October. By then the road is usually snowed over so, in timing stages, I thought it prudent to work backwards from the end of September.

However, mountain weather is fickle. On any given day, even in summer, it can be blowing a gale, temperatures can vary by more than 20°C between valley and summit or it could snow. Indeed, the Col had been closed due to a large dump only a week or so ago.

This was uppermost in my mind whilst driving yesterday afternoon in the cold drizzle. Had it snowed up high? Would the road would be passable? You can imagine my relief to see the green OUVERT (open) sign at the turn-off to the Col in Jausiers as we drove through.

Come morning the sky was clear, stars dazzled, the air freezing. I was abuzz with excitement.

We rode the dark and pre-dawn light to Jausiers with all our layers expecting to see the green sign again. Imagine my shock to arrive at the turn off and be confronted with a big red FERMÉ (closed) sign!

The road would open at 10am – 3 hours away. Challenging, as the days were increasingly shorter and this was to be one of our longest rides.

There would be no rescue team today. We had to decide now whether to seek an alternative route, not wait till we got to a barrier half way up the mountain. Mindful of our adventure the day before, we de-biked at a nearby coffee shop to warm up and ponder our next move.

We decided to leave around 8am. This would take us some way up the mountain and not have long to wait should the road be still closed. It proved to be our best move.

Warm and satiated, we ascended in mountain shadow through forest and meadow along the Torrent de Clapousse. Patches of ice lay by the road thickening as we climbed (maybe why the road was closed overnight). There were no blockages or barriers, just a brief pause while shepherds moved their flock down from higher pastures.

Half way to the top, at around 2,000m in elevation, and just as ice on the road became an issue, the road crossed the Torrent out of the woods into bright sunshine and a broad alpine cirque.

The slopes became silky soft and smooth, brilliant motifs of alpine plants, wetlands and gurgling streams cascading through the ancient moraine. The air thin, crisp, lungs working steadily – I was back in cycling heaven.

On the summit an endless line of peaks – it seemed like the whole of the Alps and our ride was laid out before me.

After the joys of another wild descent, we parked for lunch in Saint-Étienne-de-Tinée.

70km on and 2,500m in descent, it was time to leave the Tinée river valley at Pont de Clans. We worked our way up, across and down slopes to the Var River through charming little villages and forest dominated by pine, oak and chestnut. A tail breeze at our back, we pushed our weary bodies another 20 km up the valley to our camp at Puget-Théniers.

Meanwhile… Sue and Liz had their own adventures driving through the wild and rugged Mercantour National Park, up the Bachelard River, over the (2,326m) Col de Cayolle and hugging the Var River from its source to our camp.

The ascent through the beautiful Gorges du Bachelard was along a narrow winding single-lane road under overhanging cliffs and past stunning rock formations. A tight squeeze for the camper van. Liz and Sue were amazed to find they had the road to themselves and not forced to deal with oncoming traffic until the road opened out above the gorge.

Down the other side, it was another squeeze for driver Liz through 17 tunnels along the equally stunning Gorges de Daluis, a deep 250 million year old canyon of contrasting layers of red mudstone, white quartzite and limestone, carved by the Var River.

According to Garmin