Wanted to write a post about running the amazing Les Calanques trails in Cassis. Realised I might as well just figure out including what I already have on Strava here. I can’t say I’ll be making many of my Strava activities public, but I can’t see the harm in making ones that are no where near home public.
When it comes to holiday destinations, A is driven largely by what she sees on Instagram. It was just pure luck on my side that the pretty harbour town of Cassis happens to be next to the Calanques National Park. So my main holiday worry was whether the trails were going to be open during fire-risk season - I figured I should get at least one day out of the seven we were there. As it was I managed two trail runs. In theory I could have done more, but it meant getting up early after we’d stayed up late drinking, it’s much hotter than Scotland, and it was on holiday and so not all about me.
Some notes:
- Some of the stone is so polished it’s slippery
- There is also lots of loose rock and stone
- Only time I legitimately could have done with trail shoes with a rock plate - my feet were tender the next day
- The Port d’En Vau descent is 40% gradient. I did not run down nor up. I just tried to go quickly and carefully, with the thought that A would kill me if I broke a leg and had to be rescued.
- I actually took a bottle of water with me and drank it
- It’s the best trail I’ve ever run
Obviously there is much more to explore here than the relatively tiny bit I got to run, but longer distances are probably best not in August. I was happy I got to do this loop once. Absolutely stoked I got to do it twice.