More shots en vacances

I was just about to tidy my computer desktop (not as vile as my desk in the office, but close) when I spotted another planned photo essay from our En Vacances walks.

I couldn’t possibly let them go unrecorded. It was a marvellous hike. Taken during the Lockdown when we could go no further than the 10km limit from our homes.

I think we will look back fondly on those days. Not on the horrid one kilometre rule limits. That was vile. And so restricting.

But being forced to see where ‘as the crow flies’ we could go meant a bit of creative route planning and quite the adventure.

Isn’t that marvellous? Quite the artistic if a bit of a tiring trek we managed a few weeks ago. I think it was 18km in total. And included some marvellous views.

Doesn’t that winding path make you think of a fabulous journey into the unknown? Or in this case, off the Serre de Gruas mountain and down to the Rhone valley in the distance.

You can even get a looming shot of Mont Ventoux in the far distance from up here. Behind the tree. Great camera pointing dear.

You can see it more clearly in the headline photograph. It towers over the rest of the peaks.

Here, this will save you scrolling back.

I tend to be a bit more beguiled by the human geography. The hamlets, the churches, the farms, the homes that we pass than trying to tick off all the peaks.

Oh, here’s a peak whose name I actually know.

One of our viewpoints took us up the distant peak – still within the 10km zone. Pic la font. Or Pie la Font as some maps insist.

And what did we see (apart from a stunning 360 degree view of the whole region)?

Our mountain.

Our very own lumpy rounded one right in the middle of this shot. Our farm on the right, our neighbour Jean Daniel on the left.

Naturally I was trying to see if I could spot the horses escaping from the top terrace, or sign of my potting shed roof glinting in the distance. Nope.

To my relief it all looks entirely in the landscape and not sticking out like a sore thumb. And not the eyesore of a polytunnel plastic that sits closer on the crest of this particular shot.

Okay, holiday snaps are now over. Back to the more domestic view of what incoming storms is going to ruin my crops.

I think I need to photograph the ephemeral iris in the garden before they get battered during this unseasonal wet spring.