Dress Rehearsal

Today was a milestone day for us.  It's the first chance we've had to do a serious long trek - we would have done this weeks ago if it wasn't for the whole "broken wrist" incident, but then you just can't plan for every eventuality.
The planned route was from La Florentine, Céreste, to our friends S & J's house, near Apt. We guesstimated the distance at 18km and we anticipated it would take between four and five hours.  The LSH had to fit us in around his work, and S & J were clearly intending to look after us "we'll have a glass of wine and some nibbles for you..." so we planned to leave for La Florentine at 10am, hit the road at 11am and arrive with S & J between 3 and 4 pm.
We were off to a shaky start, though, first of all the weather forecast was saying there would be rain in the afternoon, and secondly, Anne has been suffering from a dodgey tummy for a few days.  She eventually decided that the only treatment was 24 hours starvation, which commenced some eighteen hours before the start of our trek.  We also had to pay a flying visit to the Post Office to collect the spare set of Renegade boots, which had arrived on Friday, but which we had been unable to collect.
On arrival (late) at La Florentine, I discovered that I was wearing the wrong boots - walking boots, not riding boots!  I was insistent that I'd be fine, but Anne overrode me, and told me not to be silly, this was our first serious trek, and I should have my proper boots.  Oh yes, and while I was at home, would I pick up her coat too... so I dashed home, changed boots and picked up Anne's coat, paused a moment and decided to bring my coat too... a wise decision, as it turned out!
I arrived back at La Florentine to find that all the delays had put the LSH into "efficiency mode" and he was whizzing through putting boots on the horses.  We finished up tacking up - GiGi was carrying the collapsible bucket plus Anne's lunch and coat.

Flurry had the lunge line, for use as a picket line, and front and rear saddle bags, containing lunch, first aid kit, my sweater and a sponge and brush to wash them down when we arrived at the other end.

Anne's coat came unravelled shortly after leaving Céreste, so Flurry ended up carrying that too, but he didn't seem to mind.

We started Everytrail and hit the road at 11.06.... only a little late, feeling a small bit excited, but not especially nervous.  I was just hoping that Anne was feeling ok, I know that I'm pretty useless with no breakfast, but she was doggedly game, and was not going to let anything get in the way of our dress rehearsal!

View of the Luberon from La Gardette

We headed off up the valley behind the Gardette, climbed up the Gardette at the North side of Céreste, and found that the trail marked on the map was closed off.  No matter, we detoured through the town, it added a bit to the journey but at this stage it's all experience.  Neither of our horses are accustomed to travelling through towns and villages, and they were both on high alert the whole way through Céreste, scrutinising rubbish bins, barking dogs, cats, flapping wind-breaks, suspicious horse-eating rocks/gates/trees...

We all heaved a sigh of relief as we left suburbia and followed one of the many Chemins de St Jacques (GR 653) for a while.  We weaved our way through the valley towards La Bégude, were charmed by a skylark dropping song from on high and saw our first swallows and swifts of the year.
Flurry was very funny, once we had left Céreste behind, he kept "suggesting" that it was time to head home - every left hand turn looked like the way home as far as he was concerned!  I eventually had to resort to Mr Whip to convince him that, no, it wasn't time to go home yet, and he definitely got the message and plodded on in a resigned manner for the rest of the trip.

St Martin de Castillon with some very ominous clouds

Fani had mentioned that there was a horse-trail which went back and forth across the Calavon river, and by pure luck we found it.  It was idyllic, the trail was easy underfoot for the horses and they had a little drink from the river.  We startled a heron and some ducks, who in turn startled Flurry, but he was enjoying the new territory, and overlooked the danger they might present!  Eventually we arrived at La Bégude, crossed the D900 and struck off across country to St Martin de Castillon.

The cobbled stretch of road

On the final approach to St Martin, we were travelling along a very old cobbled road - possibly part of the Via Domitia, an ancient Roman road which ran from Italy to Spain.

The sky had been growing more and more gloomy as the morning progressed, and just as we arrived in St Martin, the rain started.  We had a very brief stop for lunch - well, lunch for Martine and a nibble for the horses, but Anne was still starving herself, so she satisfied herself with a sip of water and some crisps.  We both put our coats on, as it was persistently raining at this stage, as our good friends in Met Eireann say!

Anne and GiGi in St Martin

The next stretch was 4km along the top of a ridge between St Martin and Caseneuve.  Despite the steady rain and strengthening wind, we made good progress, and before we knew it, we had arrived at Caseneuve.

From there, we needed to pick up a walking trail which ran from Caseneuve, traversed a valley and a ridge, and eventually descended into the valley which contains Apt and its suburbs.  After one false start, we found the correct trail and followed it steadily downwards.  There was plenty of balisage (trail markings) and all was good - except the weather, which had turned decidedly foul at this stage.

And then the trouble began... Looking at Everytrail or Google Maps, we actually took the best route we could have, but looking at the Carte de Randonnee (large scale walking map) we missed a turn about halfway down which would have cut a few kilometres off the journey.  Our error was compounded by another bad choice - we were presented with two trails, one went right in approximately the correct direction, the other went left and clearly followed the boundaries of a vineyard.  We took the obvious choice - right - and followed the trail as it (hmm) veered in the wrong direction and then (double hmm) started to climb uphill again before it (triple hmm) petered out!  Doubts were well set in by now, so we called S & J and tried to describe where we were... unfortunately, "in a woods just after some vines" wasn't quite accurate enough for them to pinpoint where we were, so we were left to our own devices.
We backtracked and found a THIRD trail, which went straight on, so full of confidence, we followed it.  Both of us were starting to suffer from cramps in our legs by now, so we dismounted and walked for a while.
Alas, doubts once more reared their ugly heads when we found ourselves traipsing through someones garden, alongside their swimming pool.  We had no choice but to continue through their garden, squelch merrily along the path at the back of their house and follow their drive back to the road...  nobody came out to question us, but to be honest, I think we would have looked so miserable at this stage that they would have just taken one look at us and asked us in for coffee.
Eventually, we arrived back to a road, the D35 by my reckoning.  Anne was feeling pretty shook at this stage - she was cold, tired, weak and hungry.  I was just cold, soggy and tired, with a sore bum, so I was the more gung-ho of the two of us. I guessed we were about half an hour away from S & J's, it would have been a shame to give up and call the LSH to collect us at this stage, so we remounted and set forth again.
Eventually, we got there, in the rain, with two wet, tired horses.  The LSH had arrived before us, the jeep and horsebox were in the drive.

The horses loaded with enthusiasm (I had been wondering if they would load well, it's probably six months since they were in the trailer) and the LSH and Anne took them home.
I had a nice hot shower and a change of clothes (thanks S!) and settled down by the fire with a nice glass of Rosé to load the Everytrail map.
Dress rehearsal at EveryTrail


Hey, wait, we covered 25km today!  We've had the worst weather we're likely to face for the whole Trek, and Anne was really sick, but we did it !  The horses were great, and truly picked up on our enthusiasm as we entered the outskirts of Apt - they knew we were nearly home as well as we did.  So we're tired but happy... hoping the horses will both be well tomorrow as we are planning on a two hour trek to stretch their legs before the OFFICIAL START of Le Big Trek on Thursday.

Huge thanks to O'Brien's Saddlery, Bandon and Midleton, for promoting us on Facebook.  Welcome to all our new followers, we hope you enjoy following our trek through France. I can't believe it's finally about to start, the Trek was in jeopardy for a long time because of my broken wrist.  In all honesty, we'd both like to have a few more trips like today under our belts, but you've got to go with what you have, not what you'd like, and, if we are a little under-prepared, we will allow for that in the first few days and hope to build up our fitness quickly.
If you would like to support our charity, please visit our charity page and make a donation.  The minimum amount you can donate is three euro.... it all counts, so please contribute whatever you can.
Your support will encourage us and help us to keep going when the going gets tough - and we know it won't all be plain sailing!

Cinnamon on Ochre

Our countdown to the start of Le Big Trek continues.  Today we had a fairly short hack, got a bit lost but found our way in the end.  Tomorrow is a big day for us, we are doing a long trip, approx 18km to our friends' house near Apt and then boxing the horses home again afterwards.  It'll be a real dress rehearsal for the official start on Thursday.

I've been going through some of my photos from the trips to Roussillon and Rustrel.  Cinnamon thoroughly enjoyed these trips - it struck me that she blends in so well with the background that she must feel very comfortable in the Ochred landscape.
Without further ado, here's Cinnamon on Ochre, first of all at the Sentier des Ochres :

Peering back at the LSH with Cookie

The LSH doing what he does..

She has such a terrible life!  You can see the suffering in her eyes!

Did someone say rats?

She blends in best with this colour

This shade is a bit too yellow

Then we went to Colorado Provencal, with the Youngest Daughter.  Cinnamon is not in all of these, because she was off having fun with the YD and Cookie, while I was panicking and thinking that I'd lost her.

The first Ochred view on the long walk

Cinnamon checking out the formations

Spot the Cinnamon!

Pant pant, exploring is hard work

At the Desert Blanc, she was missing.  Probably hiding, it really wasn't her colour here.

 

Chimney formations.  Still missing...

All together, at the end of the walk!  They all look ochred in this one!

Stop over in the UK

After a much too short stop over in Ireland I am now at my brother's place in Essex. There was so much to do at home, I managed to get a few posters up around Kinsale, and to stall holders in Mahon Point, and a couple in Bandon but not as many as I had hoped, hopefully my daughter can get a few more up for us.

I also managed to meet up, all too briefly, with our 3rd Musketeer,  who was our often hacking companion in Kingsland, we'll be thinking of you on the long treks Denis !

Saying goodbye to Fionn was hard, a month in kennels is a long time, but I hear he has found a girlfriend at " Paws a While" which is great news.

So after a very tearful farewell at Cork Airport I arrived here in Essex. It's interesting at home spring is well advanced, here the daffodils are just starting to fade, whereas in Provence they were just coming out when I left.

Daffodils in Essex

My brother and I always walk a lot when I'm here, and the National Trust woods across the road are beautiful, the wood anemones are out

Wood Anemones

And there were these boxes attached to the trees, anyone know what they are ? They were too low down to be nesting boxes.

Mystery Boxes

The woods are beautiful, and there are loads of bridle paths as well. I see another trek in the making !

My bro in the woods

There are loads of signs of spring in the garden as well

Forsythia

Grape Hyacinth 

Plum Blossom

Today I fly to Marseille and I hear Martine has great plans to get me back in the trekking spirit ! It's been a lovely few days, I look forward to coming home again.

Another ride, Another walk

Today, Saturday, is the Youngest Daughter's last day here, so we had one last hack out together.  Yesterday I rode with S and Ugoline, leaving Flurry's boots off.  We were out for about an hour, mostly on the roads as the ground was pretty slippery everywhere, and Flurry felt pretty good - a bit lazy, but not lame in any way.
Flurry was barefoot once again today, and he felt great the whole time except for a short spell near home, when we were descending on a stony lane.  I'm really pleased with how good his feet are, but I don't expect him to be able to trek full-time without his Renegade boots.
He is also much fitter now, and is hardly sweating at all on the shorter hacks.  Of course, he's lost a lot of hair too, which helps.  I attempted to make another Flurry (called Furry) out of his hair, but to be honest, I think it looks more like a Golden Retriever :

Maybe Furry could be an Assistance Dog someday?

YD and Pepite

The only incident on the hack involved three men on dirt-bikes.  We heard them long before we saw them, and we were disappointed to see them turn up the lane we were on.  We were both fairly relaxed, though, as we were passing an unfenced field, and there was plenty of space to get off the road.  We were delighted when all three bikers stopped and turned off their engines - how kind is that!!  I thanked them and wished them bonne route, and carried on.  They waited ages after we had passed before starting their engines again, but it still wasn't long enough, especially when they all revved their bikes really hard!  Both horses did a fair old scatter, but calmed down just as fast, thankfully!

So the YD said goodbye to Pepite (a little sadly) and the cavalry saddle (less sadly) and we headed into Apt for a flying visit to the market.  It was the busiest we'd ever seen it, it's Easter weekend, of course, and the tourist season is really getting going now.
After a quick lunch, we headed back to Colorado Provencal with the LSH.  We'd been raving about the colours and the walks, and we thought he'd enjoy it too.  Of course we knew he would take ages to walk around, given that he'd be stopping every two minutes to take photos, so our plan was to do the "three hour" walk as fast as possible and then do one of the shorter walks.

We whizzed around the first circuit in an hour, recharged with beer, coke and water and allowed the LSH to catch up with us.  Then we went around the second ("two hour") circuit, a bit slower I have to admit.  My legs were beginning to complain (it was pretty hilly) and indeed felt a bit jellyish towards the end, but we did it - a total of roughly 9km, in about an hour and three quarters.

The YD and the hyper-terriers enjoying the view at Colorado Provencal

Yippee, I'm fitter too!

Anne arrives back tomorrow (Sunday) but too late to ride.  We're planning on a fairly easy hack on Monday, but on Tuesday, we're doing a sort of dress rehearsal for Le Big Trek.  We're riding to a friend's house near Apt - the distance is approx 18km, over mixed terrain. It should give us a chance to think of other essential items we need to have in our saddle bags, and it should also give us a really good indication of the sort of distances we will be capable of covering when we officially start on Thursday.

Four days to go!

Entschuldigen sie, Bitte

Taking Tuesday off was probably a mistake.  Ok, the Youngest Daughter's bum got a much-needed break from the cavalry saddle (and we did some shoe-shopping), but, despite the forecast, Tuesday remained dry until the evening time.
So we were planning to ride on Wednesday, but of course, it rained all day.  In Ireland, this would not be a problem, but I must confess, I've gone Native.  I drink fizzy water and strong black coffee in tiny cups.  And wine.  A bit.  And apparently, I don't DO rain any more, so Flurry got another day off on Wednesday.
Thursday's forecast, however, decreed that the morning would be dry, with an increased chance of showers in the afternoon, and that's exactly how it turned out.  We presented ourselves at La Florentine shortly after ten and brought in Flurry and Pepite.  I took a few photographs of Pepite today, here she is wearing the cavalry saddle. 

Pepite

This is how most of the trekking horses are equipped at La Florentine, plus bridle, of course.  The cavalry saddle is supposed to be better for the horse, but they're damn hard for the rider, and the YD's seatbones are sitting squarely on the edges of the gap when she rides - yeowch!

Cavalry saddle

The YD is lucky - this saddle has stirrup bars!  On some of them, the stirrups are threaded through the gap, giving more scope for stirrup-leather rubs.  
After all the rain on Wednesday, the ground was suddenly treacherous - a skin of mud on top of hard-baked subsoil.  Fani and I agreed that we'd be better off sticking to the roads, so we did a route that takes us across the D900, past the forest where we rode the other day and back to Céreste - about an hour and a half.  Flurry was a bit fresher than usual, after his two days off, but behaved himself fine.  
The only real issue was with his boots.  We were barely 500M down the road from La Florentine when he pulled one off completely, by over-reaching, I assumed.  We both hopped off, I put it back on and the YD tightened and fastened it.  (My right hand is now capable of picking out feet and putting boots on, but not tightening them.)  
Off we went again... ten minutes later, the same boot had twisted badly and needed to be reseated again.  This time, the YD tightened it as much as she could, and in fairness it stayed in place for a good while.  Eventually, after some rough ground, it twisted badly again.  This time I took off both front boots and hung them from the saddle bags.  I was fully expecting Flurry to be a bit tender, but I was delighted to find he felt GREAT barefoot, even on stony ground.  I don't quite understand why - I did a short ride barefoot with S and Ugoline last week, and he felt "ouchy" if the ground got any way rough.  Still, I'm very pleased, and will probably try him barefoot a little more from now on, especially if it's very wet - that's the only reason I can think of for the boots slipping so badly today. 

Tony O'Connor style picture of Pepite!

After lunch, we went off to explore Colorado Provencal.  I've blogged about our trip to Roussillon, which was an important centre for producing Ochre paints.  I'd read about Colorado Provencal and knew that it was similar to the Sentier des Ochres at Roussillon, but I expected that there would be "more."  I was right!  

We took the longest walk available - three hours, but we think that must be at small-child speed, as it took us 1.5 hours with plenty of photo time!  We had brought the hyper-terriers - Cookie has to be kept on the leash as she's a complete nutter, but Cinnamon was off-leash and thoroughly enjoying all the exploring - not bad for a ten year-old with a heart problem!


The YD walks faster than me, so she strode on ahead.  Cinnamon ran back and forth between us for ages, checking up on both of us.

After some time though, I stopped seeing her.  I kept expecting her to appear, tail wagging, smile on her face, but there was no sign of her, or of the YD and Cookie.
Eventually, I asked a German family if they'd seen her : Entschuldigen sie bitte, haben sie ein klein Hund gesehen? Excuse me please, have you seen a small dog?  Well, my accent must be really confusing at this stage, because they replied in a mix of German and French!  They told me that they'd seen deux hunden, avec une fille, two dogs, with a girl, and they'd gone THAT way - the wrong way!!
I briefly investigated the route they had indicated, but quickly decided that the Germans must have been mistaken and backtracked - the YD would have stuck to our planned route.  I passed another couple who had been behind us - they had seen neither dogs nor daughter.  This reassured me a bit - at least I knew the YD had not gone back looking for me!  I decided that the best course of action was to finish the walk as fast as possible.  With any luck, the YD would be waiting with both dogs at the car park.  If not (and I dreaded this outcome) we would have to go around again, looking for Cinny.  So I started to jog.  Much to my surprise, I jogged for a fair distance - maybe a kilometer (it was downhill)!  No comment please, Fit People!!  
Eventually, hallelujah, there was the YD with Cookie, waiting by a stream, and there was Cinny, splashing through the stream!  PHEW!
The YD said she had stopped and waited for me three times, and got bored each time.  We reckoned that we were only seconds apart the last time I'd seen Cinnamon... anyway, all's well that ends well, we finished the walk together and left Colorado Provencal just as the rain was starting.
Thank goodness we didn't have to go around again in the rain, looking for Cinny!

There's a few more photos here:  Colorado Provencal, long walk at EveryTrail
Also, if you click on trip stats, you can see where my speed increased, at about 3km!

The downside of puppy walking

One of the reasons I had to come home was to bring the dogs back before we start "Le Big Trek", which also meant I had to say goodbye to Roxy, the guide dog pup I have been minding for a year. We are doing the trek because we both really want to, but also to raise funds for "The Assistance Dog Program for Families of Children with Autism". It costs around €38,000 to train one of these dogs, and most of this money has to come from donations. If you would like to, please donate here
http://www.mycharity.ie/event/martine_greenlees_event

So Roxy got royally spoilt over the weekend, long walks

On one of my favourite beaches

But all good things must come to an end , and on Monday morning I took Roxy to Ballincollig, met my supervisor, and put Roxy through her paces while Orla looked on. "Yes she's ready" she proclaimed, but unfortunately there isn't another training slot until the middle of May, so she will spend a few days in kennels and then maybe go to another puppy walker for a few weeks.

We all went back to the Guide Dog Centre, where Roxy got to meet new friends, and she was really having a great time when I slipped quietly away, having said my goodbyes earlier on the steps of the cinema in Ballincollg. "Be a good girl Roxy"

The YD is trying to Kill me...

...a two and a half hour hack yesterday morning, and then she drags me off up a mountain for two hours hiking in the afternoon!

After a low-key "getting to know you" hack on Sunday, the we headed off for a long one on Monday, with Flurry and a little black mare called Pepite.  We did the same route that Anne and I covered in "What a Hack" except this time we knew where we were going!  We had a couple of short canters going up the serpentine trail towards the cliffs, but we were limited by the fact that the stretches of "good" going are pretty short.

Not to worry, I said to the YD, there's a lovely long stretch through the woods at the top.

So we made our way to the top, stopped to admire the view, and then carried on.  Once we got to the woods, we had a couple of longer canters.  We were a bit hampered by low branches - every time we ducked at canter, one or the other of the two horses threw up their heels a wee bit!  I think the YD was suffering more than I was, as Pepite was getting quite strong at this stage - she doesn't like being behind.  So, thinking we were nearing the end of the good ground anyway, we decided to walk again.

The trail rolled out in front of us, level, sandy and inviting... so I said, "It's too tempting, will we have another one? I'll keep Flurry more sedate this time..." HA! He was sedate for about ten strides, then his head went lower and lower and he just kept going - not galloping, but a strong canter!  Hmm, not so good, Mr Flurry!

Remembering that the really bad downhill stretch was not too far away, I made valiant efforts to bring him back, but one disadvantage of forest trails is there's nowhere to circle!  A bit of sustained yanking on his mouth (collective gasps of horror, I'm sure, sorry folks, survival is important!) eventually did the trick, and harmony was restored.

So.  What I've learned from this.  Right hand is still pretty weak - left hand ended up having to do all the work.  Asking Flurry to canter "collected"  was a mistake - when I kept a hold, he just leaned against me and went more and more on the forehand, so therefore more and more difficult to get the brakes to engage.  I should canter on a fairly loose rein, for short stretches - this is like right back at the beginning, when he kept getting heavier and heavier in canter.  If I was in an arena, I'd be doing loads of transitions to keep him balanced, I will need to take the same approach out on the trail.

I'm not annoyed or particularly scared by this incident - I know that he wasn't bolting, he just gets heavy on the forehand in canter (it's always been an issue) and difficult for a 1.5 handed person to bring back.  And I knew that we were heading towards a really nasty downhill bit... he didn't!

Apart from that, the rest of the hack was pretty uneventful.  We dismounted and walked down the rough bit, gave the horses a little break at the bottom, and then remounted and set off for home.  The YD and Pepite led for a while, but Pepite was pretty convinced that she had to get home reallyreallyfast, so Flurry and I went back in front and she settled down again.

We rubbed the horses down and turned them out, went home, ate some lunch and then headed off for a hike.  It had clouded over a bit, which was good, but that made the views a bit less spectacular, which was not so good.  We saw lovely purple irises (I think)

and really cool pine cones which look like Christmas tree decorations

We made a small mistake with our route, which shortened it by about an hour - thank goodness for that, we were both wrecked after two hours of hill work!

The weather forecast is not great - there will be some rain for the next three days, we're just not sure how much.  Tuesday is a non-riding day - the YD's bum needs to recover from the cavalry saddle she's been riding in - but we're hoping to go out again on Wednesday, maybe to Montjustin.

I'll keep you posted!