Les Borrys (Merindol): Rocher des onze heures, Roque des Bancs et les Portalas.

 

From the parking at the top of the village of Les Borrys (147m) you follow the main route going north. You turn left at the 185m point and follow the GR97 up to the nearest citern (234m), where you turn right. After only about 350m you turn left along a track road leading up the Vallon du Pinson (this is the start of the ridge).

 

You walk up and down along this ridge heading north (in practice you need to use the GPX-file for passing safely around Rochers des Onzes Heures). After having passed Tete de la Grande Usclade on your left, you turn left and you then walk over till you meet a larger path coming up from below. At this T-junction you turn right and start the steep climb up to the bottom of the cliffs of Rochers des Onzes Heures.

 

Here you take the path that goes right along the bottom of the cliffs (eastwards), but finally goes up on the ridge at a low point. Now follow the ridge westwards until you see the path is changing directions slightly to the right  and will take you right passed a big cairn on a local peak on your left. You have now walked for about 2.5h and you have some nice places around where you can eat lunch.

 

The path will soon reach the main forest road along Petite Luberon, and you follow the road for about 1,3km, where you take right and follow the GPX-trace closely till you reach the small descent to Roque des Bancs (ca. 35min from lunch). You follow the path along the cliffs here with magnificants views of the Luberon and the Durance Valley. You pass a large Grotte that could be worth exploring.

 

Follow the path right till the end where the path turns right and away from the cliffs. Soon, however, the path turns left and you end up walking in a north easterly direction and you will soon meet the large road again at a Citern about an hour after you left it. Follow the road for only about 600 meters where you see a yellow signpost. Turn right here for les Portalas. Another 15 minutes and you are at another view-point. From here you can follow the top of the cliffs (fairly near the edge) eastwards and join the main path a little further down, just after les Portalas. Follow the main path down to the Citern at the 570 meter point.

 

You have now about 5km left back to the car, but only follow the main path GR97 all the way till it crosses the forest road going north at the 185 meter point. It was here you turned left this morning, so only turn left now and walk down the road the about 900 meters back to the car.

 

 

Basic information:

 

Duration:       7,5h (including 1h for lunch)
Distance:       18 km.
Ascent:          600 m (accumulated)
Difficulty:       Medium +  (a steep climb around Rocher des Onze Heures)
Start/finish:    Les Borrys (Merindol)
Map:               IGN 3142 OT  (Cavaillon)
GPX:              Download from VisoRando link (see below)

 

 

VisoRando Lien/Link to VisoRando.

Pour le fichier GPX, mettre à jour via ce lien VisoRando où vous pourrez également voir l'itinéraire sur une bonne carte:

 https://www.visorando.com/randonnee-/2992459

 

For the GPX-file go to this VisoRando link where you also will see the route on a good map.

 

 

 

 

TET

 

01.01.2021  Bjorn. Lunch after 2,5h on the plateau just after 11 Heures (very stony!), but nice views. A good 35 minutes to the Bergerie at the beginning of Roque des Banc. We were 5 well trained, so we walked fast (9.30 – 17.00) at 3,6 km/h measured by Strava (Didier Sibane). Bruk utrykket “sentier technique” om oppstigningen til Rocher des Onze Heures.

 

 

 

Les Borrys (Merindol) - Rochers des Onze Heures

Rochers des Onze Heures

This a very fine introduction to Petite Luberon. Starting at Les Borrys (Merindol) you follow the long mountain ridge between Vallon des Conches and Vallon du Degoutau all the way up to the top of Rochers des Onze Heures (626m). The return down from the Ceder forest on the top of Petite Luberon also follow a long mountain ridge starting off just south of Rochers de la Croix de Fer. Fantastic views all the way with little shade.

The Ridge going up.

From the parking at the top of the village of Les Borrys (147m) you follow the main route going north. You turn left at the 185m point and follow the GR97 up to the nearest citern (234m), where you turn right. After only about 350m you turn left along a track road leading up the Vallon du Pinson (this is the start of the ridge).

You walk up and down along this ridge heading north (in practice you need to use the GPX-file for passing safely around Rochers des Onzes Heures). After having passed Tete de la Grande Usclade on your left, you turn left and you then walk over till you meet a larger path coming up from below. At this T-junction you turn right and start the steep climb up to the bottom of the cliffs of Rochers des Onzes Heures.

Here you take the path that goes right along the bottom of the cliffs (eastwards), but finally goes up on the ridge at a low point. Now follow the ridge westwards until you see the path is changing directions slightly to the right  and will take you right passed a big cairn on a local peak on your right. You have now walked for about 2.5h and you have some nice places around where you can eat lunch. (You have another 3h walk back down to the car.)

The path will soon reach the main forest road along Petite Luberon, and you follow this for about 500m, where you take left and follow a yellow marked path down to 554m point. Here starts the return along another ridge (but first a short climb up the hill) going south all the way to the farm Jas de Bourdillon.

Down on the 303m point, you meet again the GR97 which you follow eastwards back towards the car. At the 224m point, however, I suggest you walk straight on down the Grande Combe. This track road will eventually end up on the road only about 150m from the car.

Basic information:

Duration:       6,5h (including lunch)

Distance:      15 km.

Ascent:         620 m

Difficulty:      Moderate (some easy climbing)

Start/finish:   Les Borrys (3 km east of Merindol)

Map:             IGN 3142 OT – CAVAILLON (1cm=250 m)

GPX-file:      Download from VisoRando-link (see below)

VisoRando Lien:

Pour le fichier GPX, vous pouvez télécharger à partir d'ici (voir ci-dessus) ou mettre à jour via ce lien VisoRando où vous pourrez également voir l'itinéraire sur une bonne carte.

For the GPX-file, you could download from here (see just above) or update through this VisoRando link where you also will see the route on a good map.

https://www.visorando.com/randonnee-/2198290


TET:
June 2019 Bjorn

Les Borrys (Merindol): Vallon du Degoutau – Rochers des Onze Heurs – 6h.

Large deep cave in the Roque des Bancs (a small detour for lunch).

Fantastic walk, recently descoved on VisoRando (tip from a local friend). This ascent to the top of Petite Luberon is the most spectacular I have ever experienced, and the descent was also one of the best. So this makes the walk one of my preferred walks in the whole of Luberon. But it  has its difficulties.

Waiting for the chain going up!

The walk is classified on VisoRando as very difficult, and I must agree in general. The main difficulty is climbing a 6-7 meter almost vertical cliff with the help of a chain that is in place here. You need to be an experienced mountain walker with strong hands to handle the chain. But we are a couple aged 67 and 70 years old and we had no problems getting up on our first attempt at this walk in March 2019.

Last of the 2 chains.

The other main difficulty is simply finding your way. But that is really no problem any longer, as long as you have loaded your portable telephone with IGN-maps and the gpx-file that shows this walk. (I use the VisoRando app.) I can assure you that you will have some difficulties without this! You have the link to map and gpx-file below.

The walk is fully documented on VisoRando (free downloads of walk description, map and the indispensable gpx-file). Just click this link. 

Basic information:

Duration:      6h (including lunch)

Distance:     14 km.

Ascent:        600 m

Difficulty:      Difficult

Start/finish:   Les Borrys (2.5km east of Merindol)

Map:             IGN 3142 OT (1cm=250 m)

Rochers des Onze Heurs

Fantastic views all the way up!