E.17 Europe 2025, France, Guillaumes to Pont du Gard, via Dalius Gorge, Lac de Castillon, Verdon Gorge and AiguinesTwoUp BMW R1250GSA Motorcycle Travel.
Two Aussies living their bucket list dreams.
Good morning. Good morning everybody. Today it’s another beautiful day in Europe, Paradise. We’re in France at the moment. So we’ve had a language change and uh today we’re heading towards Bel Vner which is how many kilometers? Uh maybe about 230. Yeah. And um we don’t know yet where we’re staying past there because we’ve tasked Glenn and Jenny with booking our accommodation because they do such a good job of it. Yeah. So we are apparently heading towards a couple of gorgees. Sorry. Delus. Oh, Daluse. Delus Gorge. Okay. It’s where we’re heading first. And that was a recommendation from Sophie behind the bars. Give them a bit of a shout out. Yeah. And nice road so far. I’m going to go around right hand corner. So maybe you’ll get the gorge behind that we’re on. Oh, tunnel. Oh, another tunnel. Pa m. This looks like it’s going to be pretty spectacular on the other side of it. Yeah. Wa. Um, and another tunnel. Wow. Wow. [Music] Do [Music] Crazy [Music] [Laughter] man. Yeah. Well, it’s a photo, isn’t it? Yeah. Look at this. Wow. This is a good way to start the day. [Music] Oh, look at this here. Another hard video day love. I think I think so. Maybe it’ll get worse. So far behind. Think I’m going to be making videos till Christmas. Race and Bambino Club. Yep. loads of them. Wow. All going as fast as they can. Thank god they’re on that side of the road. Yeah, I was about to say that was a two-laneed um tunnel. Set of lights, which you didn’t expect for a It’s still a two-lane tunnel, but obviously they’re doing road works or something out here. Oh, yeah. Ah. Oh, just fits. It does just fit. Oh my god. Better not get too close in case something falls off the truck. He’s blocking the view. It’s pitch black in here. Far out. Oh, he’s still got 100 mil to clear. Tight fit though. Oh, he’s got more room in this one. This one’s got lights in it. Yeah, but they’re not working. No. Well, that’s probably they work at night. Maybe it’s Maybe it’s a bit longer tunnel. You got high beam on. I got sunglasses on. So, wouldn’t matter what beam I got on, we’re in trouble. Yeah, it’s dark, isn’t it? There we go. Oh, look at this. Look what we’re coming out to. Jesus. [Laughter] Well, he obviously knows what he’s doing cuz he sped up somewhat. Yeah. [Music] [Music] [Music] So we had stop a stop go man and then we were behind a truck and he said for us to come around but slow slow and we thought there’s obviously road works. And around the corner, what do we meet? These guys, and they’ve all got bells around their neck. It sounds beautiful. These guys have stopped to have a chew and a bit of food feed on the side of the road. And this is not what you expect to see in Europe. This is what you expect to see in New Zealand. Got numbers, letters on their painted on their backs. [Music] There’s some young ones in amongst them. Wow. [Music] Wow. [Music] [Applause] There’s a little bubby one. Lookie. Beautiful dogs as well. [Music] It’s a good thing they’re coming this way, not the other way. [Music] Wow, that was a little bit of excitement. Look at the um cars that are backed up behind waiting to get through now. Well, they’re not getting through. Well, no, they’ll have to wait. Yeah, but classic. This all adds to the adventure of the ride, doesn’t it? Yeah. I’m going to get a little bit of sheep poo on the bike. Yep. Good thing it’s not a herd of cows is all I can say. That is true. [Music] Well, honey, I think there’s one thing that you can’t ask me on this whole trip. Mhm. Like you do on every trip and you say to me, “And what was your favorite thing, darling? Because I’ll just come back and say the same thing to you. Too many to name. Maybe too many to name. That was pretty special. Maybe top 10. Oh yeah, that’s a good based on based on looking at all the photos. We’ll have to look at the photos or we’ll have to look at um what other people say and just copy them and onto a different row. And it’s another magical road. So, we’re on the M 20 M 202 and I think we’re on our way to Vanden Gorge, right? [Laughter] Yeah, it’s funny because there’s a lot of traffic going in the opposite direction to us, but not so much going in our way. which is good. I don’t know. Maybe Stormy sends out messages and says, “Clear the road. I’m coming.” Clear the road. [Music] Okay, here we go. Looks like a little one lane bridge. Looks like a little one brain bridge. It’s really old. It’s had a steel bridge put over the top. Oh, no. It’s too lame. I spoke too soon. There’s a car in front of us now. Well, Jenny would like this road. You think? Yeah. It’s soft curves, not switchbacks. lake down there. Oh, the road goes down around the lake. It goes down there. You go down there down there. But stop sign lights or something. [Music] Oh, wow. Oh, what is that? Is that the big rock on the right? Oh, yeah. I was looking at what that is in the middle of the lake. Oh, that water ski park. It’s that Glenn. Lizz’s lost ah Jenny. Wow. She’s got the tourist bus home. Uh that’s like a big uh pile driver thing. It’s not the ski park. And it looks like the damn wall over there. Okay. Going over the wall now. [Music] [Music] park on the other side. Have a look. I think it’s going to be one of those spectacular really high things. Yes, I agree. [Music] [Music] So, we’re at the uh end of the lake and there’s quite a setup over there with those little paddle boats with slides and looks like subs and normal paddle boats and a little bit of a beach area where people are swimming. And now goodbye to the lake. Yes. Anyhow, this could be a gorge. Could not be a gorge. Looks like a gorge. Different rocks again. Next one. dug out like a retaining wall or lots of rocks. Yeah, there’s um adventure. Yeah, rafting and stuff here and camping. Have a look what’s in front of us. Have a look at that. That is just completely different. to anything we’ve seen. And the coloring of it. Wow. Jesus. [Music] Wow. Holy. Wow. Wow. Wow. Yeah. Oh, look. Coming underneath like a undery thing. Yeah. Uhhuh. They call them balcony road. Something like that. I call it freaking amazing road. Yeah. Whoa. [Music] Whoa. Whoa. Whoa. There’s more of it. There’s a whole mountain range of it. Yeah. This has slowed the trip down somewhat. Mhm. The kayak can still go on with sings. Like even here, these rocks here that have been cut out, they’re like puniki rocks. They are. Yeah. Pancake rocks. Giant ones. They’re 100 times bigger than New Zealand. We are in the gorge Verdon. So, I’ve just saw a campground with that name on it. And there’s a lot of canyoning in here and rafting, adventure type stuff. And I think we’ve passed about four or five campgrounds so far. So easy. Yeah. And uh very spectacular mountains. It was um probably a bit far to travel yesterday to get to here. This would have been a much nicer place to stay than where we were. Look at this. Yeah. Look at these rocks hanging out over the road. Yeah. I just don’t know what words to use. There’s more of them. [Music] Should try to get a couple of these on the camera. Yeah, probably. I think we go up the road closer to it. Absolutely. Yeah. Anyway, might as well roll and see what happens. Yeah. Might get a good shot here. Yeah. So, castle at the top, built underneath. [Music] or just debur it’s the road [Music] [Music] the view out there. Can’t [Music] looking at that view over there. Look at that. The bit that’s carved into the side of the hill. Mhm. Fries. [Music] Wow. Whoa. Shady spot just there. It’s a shady spot just here. Certainly. Restaurant or cafe is not open. Must be it just about, I think. Okay. I’m assuming that we’re going over that bridge. Yep. Wow. Well, we could have stopped here. Possibly. You probably don’t want to stop again. No, I think I’ve had enough. That’s the feeling I get. Getting Yeah. Leave the camera rolling. What a worker bath. That would have been building this. Mhm. And the coffee shop’s closed. Could had stopped there and got a photo of the bridge and put a sticker up. Too late, too slow. Well, I have to watch where I’m going. You weren’t. You’re looking at this motorcyclists. Can’t stop everywhere, darling. Especially on the road like this bike. [Music] Exciting. [Music] My goodness. To the right. To the right. That’s the end of that. So, we got trees again. Wonder how many kilometers it goes for. Don’t know. Look at it. The French Grand Canyon. Yeah. I was just thinking, how does it compare to the Grand Canyon? Oops. Road’s a bit narrow here. Well, the Grand Canyon doesn’t have a road beside it. Ah, that’s how it compares then. But over here, like the road goes up, keep running because you’ll get the view straight back that way. Yeah. as hot as it is. See, like there’s the retaining wall in front where the motorbikes come. Yeah, I know. The um the building of these roads is just incredible, isn’t it? Yeah, this guy wants to stop and take a photo. There we go. Shin, I’d almost have a guess as to say that’ll be your last good view of the canyon. There’s a guy out there on a parachute with the motor. Right. It’s the words that I’ve been trying to get out of my mouth. Oh, okay. Well, and then I saw that. Yeah. And then I saw that. And there’s a lake over there. Oh, that river goes into a lake obviously. One new bit. Down we go. And then over those hills over there, there’s a lake. Keep going. Yeah. [Music] [Music] It’s nice down there. Look at all the boats. Look at that. I know. That’s what we saw from up the top, but I didn’t get a picture of it. All the little white dots that were in the water. Yeah, [Music] we’ve just been riding through some lavender farms and thought I’d film just in case we could see some more. Oh yeah, over there. Paddock’s full of lavender. We could smell it. He’s coming up on here and bright. Mar could smell it and uh I could smell something but I didn’t know what I was smelling. Wow. Pretty [Music] that’s how you go and have a photo honey. Don’t need a photo in lavender. We’ve already got got lavender growing at home. [Music] I wasn’t going to film anymore today, but these trees are amazing. We are in a fairly major town. We don’t know what it’s called. We’ve got 40 minutes till we get to our next stopping point before we work out what’s happening with our accommodation. [Music] It’s currently 35° and it’s very hot. This when we’re not moving, but this hasn’t been too bad. A lot of roundabouts, but traffic’s flowing at least. It’s not so much stop start. Yeah. Well, when we come into the town, it was shown a traffic jam. So, since we’ve been into town, we’ve lost 6 minutes. So, we’re actually doing better than what we were when we first got here. Well, good afternoon. We made it to our destination for the night, which was Pontagard. It was a long day yesterday. We left at 8:30 in the morning and got here at 5 6 and it was very hot. 36° for most of the day. Yeah, it’s pretty awful riding. Um, but what I wanted to say is Murray is now riding like a local. Yeah. So, he picks a bike to follow and he figures if they can do it, so can I. We are slightly wider than a lot of the bikes on the road, though. So, we do have to be a bit more careful. But, yeah, we had to um come through Avenue yesterday, which was Yeah, which was an eye opener. But anyway, we got here. We made it. Suck and sound and uh the sun’s still shining. Yeah. So, it’s all good. Yeah. So, tomorrow, who knows? Tomorrow. We’ll see how we go. Yeah. Destination unknown currently. Supposed to be 38 tomorrow. Oh, no. For the next few days even. Oh god. Anyway. Yeah. It’s how it goes when you’re a traveler. When you’re an adventurer. Yep. So, yeah. It all adds to the story to tell at the end of the day. It does. It does. It makes life very technical. Yeah. So, okay. All right. Finding out for now. Yeah. It’s time to have a wine and sit down and put our feet up. Yeah.
1 Comment
Great episode – I enjoyed this, take care guys!