Dream On

Last year when I was here I often walked from just outside Cereste to Montjustin, and always thought how lovely it would be to hack the route, it's part of the GR and I've never seen a car up there, once I saw two mountain bikes. It's a circular route, you can walk out by "Les Cretes" and back by "Les Plaines", but the descent onto the plain is too steep and rocky for the horses. So we researched another route in Martine's trusty jeep, and found a lovely way through the plain, with just a bit of road work to join up with the Crest.

Montjustin loop at EveryTrail

Monday was the day designated to hack this route, and we set off in fine high spirits. Martine had made sandwiches and we had a couple of bottles of water. The hack up onto the crest of the hill was quite steep and both horses were sweating well by the time we got to the top, but the views up there are fantastic, and the almond blossom, so beautiful.

Some of the track was easy going though, although still a steady climb.

We were going to stop for "lunch" at Montjustin, but given Gigi's behaviour at Reillanne a few days before, and as it had only taken us 40 minutes to get there, we decided to push on. But once on the road part of the hack Gigi was obviously uncomfortable, and when I looked down, one of her boots was badly twisted. So we pulled over into a convenient flat field and jumped off. Her front boots were quickly reseated and I think they twisted because she had seriously shortened her front feet when she was "digging" up at Reillanne, so adjustment will be necessary before the next hack.

So as we were on the ground and the horses happily cropping at the grass, we ate our sandwiches, took pictures of each other and then carried on.

Gigi trying to eat Anne's lunch

Martine & Flurry enjoying the view

The ride along the plain was lovely, some wooded areas and some open fields, and we were delighted with ourselves. We were out for about 2 1/2  hours, and the horses, though sweated up, were fine.

This was a landmark hack for me, let the dream continue.