I was up in Mont Ventoux yesterday, hiking in Provence's highest mountain. While the summer heat was scorching the plains, the air in the mountains was fresh and relatively cool, with Ventoux's perma-cloud looming over the summit. Below is a shot taken on the steep northern slopes:
Late June is a wonderful time for mountain flowers near Ventoux's peak, and below is a compilation of shots taken just yesterday. In the center is the Greenland poppy, found only in two places on Earth: the Spitzberg islands in the Arctic circle, and the summit of Mont Ventoux.
Ventoux, from base to summit, has everything from Mediterranean brush and herbs all the way to the artic flowers that carpet the summit.
A healthy population of chamois live in Ventoux: about 500 of them altogether. Their natural habitat is on the steep rocky slopes, where they can escape prey with their impressive sprints uphill. Only about waist-high, but with a heart twice the volume of a human's, a chamois can gain 1000m (3300ft) in altitude in less than 15 minutes. But not fast enough to avoid my camera lens!!
800m from the summit, waiting eagerly at the side of the road, a photographer takes hundreds of shots of cyclists per day on their final ascent of Ventoux, hands them business cards, and hopes to sell the pictures via the internet...
My picnic spot after having reached the summit:
Heading back towards the Mont Serein campground, crossing impressive rockslides:
And back into the beech forest, just before the end of the day's hike...
