Tuesday 4th June 2013, sunny, 100 miles
The best day out on The Beast yet! This one will take a lot of beating, that’s for sure. Another recommendation of L’itineraire du Chef, the Cirque de Navacelles is a tiny village nestling in a glaciation phenomenon. A cirque is a steep bowl shaped indentation in the head of a valley, created by a glacier, if my brain remembers my geography lessons correctly…well, that’s what I explained to B as we set off.
This was essentially a cross country route, and as we got closer it became distinctly more challenging. You reach a T junction where the Cirque is signposted in both directions, via different approaches. We had been advised that one way was probably a bit too rough for the Harley, and the other would be better. Of course by the time we got there, we could not remember which way round it was (It was left). The boss had said go via the hilltop route, which based on our analysis of the map was to the right – so we turned right.
The road became very narrow and very steep immediately, with a sign that the next 6km was all hairpin bends. It was. Very tight and short ones too. And the views – jaw dropping and totally scary. We had to both stop looking! So we powered our way up to the top and it seemed like we could have been heard from miles away as The Beast growled his way up.
At the top was a huge plateau. The very narrow road continued across it. B remarked that we had only seen 1 other vehicle the whole way so far – going the opposite way. Not a great place to breakdown, but fortunately The Beast didn’t let us down. A couple of dodgy junctions later and we found the promised gravel – oops.
But it was too far to turn round and go back, so B edged across it, past a set of road menders. It got worse and I asked one of them if it was OK to carry on – sure he said, no problem. We rounded the corner and he was right, gravel finished and back to tarmac – and The View of the Century!
Wow! Absolutely stunning…. A few houses with a couple of newly mowed fields encircling them, sitting at the bottom of a bowl shaped valley, as promised. An oasis of green beckoning us way down into the rocky scrubland of the Cevennes mountains Not only jaw dropping, but stomach dropping too (major testicle moment) – it was a heck of a long way down. The road snaked its way down the mountainside below us over an impossibly steep gradient. We stopped to take photos and regroup…and breathe.
Then we went for it – down the side of the mountain. More amazing views and more challenging riding for B. We were rewarded with the chance to wander round the small and tranquil village of Navacelles and its pretty river and waterfall, marvelling, as I often do, on the unlikely places where people choose to live their lives. The only disappointment was the lack of sustenance – one restaurant was service only drinks and ice cream (except for high season) and the other (creperie, all languages, food all day) was closed every Tuesday….sacré bleu!
We took the other road out – much wider, no gravel and in fact newly resurfaced. Interestingly on our map it was dotted to show it was in bad condition/dangerous. Another tourist told us it meant single track with passing places which was a better description, and the joy of The Beast is that it’s not the same issue as in a car. Mind you, we saw vans, a motorhome and 2 Porsches in the village, so they were not exactly put off, and suddenly we felt less pioneering!
But nothing could remove the feeling of elation this trip gave us. On the way back we stopped by a weir/waterfall, and after that for a sandwich as we had missed lunch. On our return to Horatio we decided we both had bike shaped bottoms and that 100 miles, especially such challenging ones, was probably enough for one day – 5 hours in the saddle. Every minute was totally worth it.
The Cirque, viewed from close to the top of the mountain, then we rode down there…..
A bit more context – its at the upper end of what looks like a mini Grand Canyon. After visiting we rode up the mountain you can see behind it, the route takes you round the end of the bluff to the left, then of course you have to ride down the other side – how many hairpin bends? We lost count.
The waterfall in the foothills.