Rusty White, a van on tour

Following the tip of a good friend, we left Nizza in the direction of the Verdon Gorge. This huge network of gorges, mountains and small villages is situated in a large Nature Park just 100km inland from Nizza. A good starting point for some of the many trails in this area is Castellano. Unfortunately the visitor center was closed, but there was a QR code at the door, which gave you a 50 page brochure with descriptions of all the walks. I was parked in a small car park on a pass, from where two trails start. First, my human and Carmelo went on the longer one, leading them up a mountain to stunning views of the surroundings. The shorter one, only about 4km was relatively flat, but the enticing prospect to see fossil sirenia bones made up for that. Today it is hard to imagine that Dugongs or Manatees, which belong to the family of the sirenias, were mistaken for mermaids back in the day, but there is plenty of evidence suggesting it. The fossils are 40million years old and particul...

After our day in Montpellier, it was time again for some countryside. We drove to the foot of Pic Saint-Loup, only about 20km away. You can see this very prominent rock massif from quite a distance when you drive towards it. Or so you think. After climbing up there, what we had seen, lay before my humans eyes. She had climbed the right mountain, but the one that catches the eye was a different one. So there was only one reasonable thing to do. Get down from this one and up the other one. This is what we saw And this is where she climbed up first By the time she got back, she was thirsty and famished. Having planned on a maximum three hour outing, she had only taken an apple, a muesli bar and a liter of water. But making it a spontaneous double whammy had taken up a bit more time. In the afternoon we found a nice spot on private land to stay for the night, just 5km outside of Avignon. The weather had been great all day and we got there in time for us to chill in the sun for an hour, bef...