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Solar Tour 2008 – Day 8: Having passed Barles, we were on our way to the Clues de Barles, but it wasn’t certain if we could actually reach the ravine by car. Along the road we’ve seen varying signs about the limited maximum height of the road, ranging form 2.8m to 3.2m. Our car is about 3.05m high, so we were almost about to turn around. But since I didn’t want to drive through Barles again and as it would be a detour of more than 50km, we gave it a try.

When we reached the Clues de Barles, we first parked the car and walked through it. At one part the rocks where hanging low above the road, but I was confident that we could make it as long as we stay on the left side of the road. We did it very slowly with Chris walking along the car and keeping an eye on the rocks. Luckily no traffic came from the opposite direction when we passed this obstacle.

A few kilometers further on, another 2.8m sign surprised us. This time it was a tunnel with a ceiling that looked like an ice scraper. But when I walked through the tunnel I was certain that it was high enough for us, so we did it and got through without a scratch.

Geologically this landscape is very fascinating. It belongs to the Réserve Géologique de Haute-Provence, the biggest protected geological area in Europe.