Early on Saturday morning (after getting up with our daughter at 05:30) I set off south to the Ardeche Gorge for a little 24 hour adventure.
Here, for your viewing pleasure is a short (really!) movie of the trip:
http://youtu.be/1930DmfYG1w
The plan was that I would shift around some baby-duties and free up Saturday (day and night) to take a trip and be back in time to take the munchkin for Sunday to give Nikki a well-earned respite.
So.....I was out and on the road by 08:00 and riding by 11:00.
The route was simple enough: head north from Saint Martin d'Ardeche before crossing the river at Vallon Pont d'Arc and return on the other side back to where I started.
Here's a little shot of the hills in the distance:
One thing I hadn't planned too far in advance was where I would sleep.
I had three possibilities:
1. If I was too slow/tired then I would camp around half-way round and then head back to the car first thing on the road (I needed to be driving back by 07:30).
2. If I reached Vallon Pont d'Arc (half-way) and had some energy left I'd set-off on the second section of the route (a section I've previously ridden) and possibly sleep in the bothy I discovered on my last visit to the area in March.
3. If, by some miracle, I managed to complete the whole ride before it got dark I planned to find a secluded field somewhere near St Martin and sleep there (enabling me to get a nice sleep in until 07:00 and then head home).
But.....I hadn't banked on was just how insanely hot it was going to be!
The first village I came to said 32 degrees and by the time I hit the third village it had reached 35!
HOT!!!
The first glitch I had was that my new fuel tank didn't work as I'd planned. No fault of Pawel's handy-work but more a simple impossibility of the way my bike is designed and set-up (there wasn't enough room to get sufficient support to stop the thing from drooping when loaded).
But.....all was not lost as by simply switching the mounting location the problem was solved as you can see below:
Before:
After:
The next problem was the heat!
By half-way I was struggling. I'd drunk 5L/10 pints of water in the first 25 miles applied 3 coats of factor 50 suncream and eaten plenty but I was beginning to suffer.
This is the reason that the video only contains footage from the first half of first day and the morning of the second day. The second half of the first day mainly consisted of me riding with my head slumped and sweat pouring down my face trying not pass-out from the heat!
Here's one of the views I managed to get before the half-way point:
(right-hand edge of photo cut off)
By the time I reached the bothy I was well and truly pooped! I'd done 35 miles of serious off-road riding in the insane heat and I was ready to drop.
But.....we had a problem. Some local goons had decided that they'd have a party in the bothy and so I carried on as there was no sleep to be had there (and I'd have had to get up at 05:00 to get going).
By the time I got to another suitable sleeping spot I was only about 5 miles from the car and it was starting to get dark.
I'd been in the saddle for over 9 hours, done over 45 miles, was becoming dehydrated (I just couldn't get water back into my system fast enough) and I was hurting!
This is the profile of the route (although the 'official' route is only just over 40 miles long my version had additional excursions to the shops and included a couple of wrong-turns and so ended up a little over 50 miles)"
(right-hand edge of photo cut off)
So, site sorted I set up my tarp, inflated my mat, cooked some rice, ate some chocolate and got my self to bed!
Here's my spot:
The rain held off and I awoke early (06:30) and got my crap together and set-off to ride the remaining 5 or so miles back to the car.
All-in-all it's one hell of a ride to do in those conditions. I've been in reasonably good shape of late but this nearly killed me!
But.....I loved it! To say I only had a little over 24 hours away from the house I really did manage to fit in a mini-adventure - perfect!
Cheers, Gairy.
I call Poland my home, we get some crazy 30+ temperatures in the summer. 
