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squiz Member Member#: 6644 Location: Registered: 27-05-2007 Diary Entries: 3071 |
9th September 2011 Mt. Biking: Le Crotoy-France Wind Direction: Wind Stength: Surf / Sea State: Air Temperature: Sea Temperature: Weather: cloudy Max Speed: Distance Covered: 10.33 n/m (Nautical Miles - unless stated otherwise) Another top night even though the wind continues to blow!!! We watch another person unload their bike in the car park during breakfast and decide to give ours a try – our first long bike ride since May :( We leave our van at 11 and head onto the beach at La Maye which is part of the Reserve Naturelle De La Baie Somme a large area of flat sand, fields of sapphire, dunes, forests and lakes famous for birds of which we saw hundreds on the water’s edge!!! We ride into a strong head wind by tracks made by the cockle/mussel fisherman’s tractors as they head around the bay the collect their shellfish, on reaching the water’s edge we turn left and head for Le Crotoy and find a nice flat water spot to sail but nobody is out and am not sure how long you can sail because of the tide. It is slow going riding in the sand but at least the wind is behind us :) We find a good cycle path (the whole area is covered in cycle paths) along the sea front to the Port where we are lucky enough to find the market spread out along the water’s edge :) We stop and spend the first Euro’s since we arrived - 80 cents on 4 tomatoes!!! The siren then sounds and thinking they are about to open the sluice like in June when we were here to watch but the tide was high and the same level as the lagoon so no whirlpool action this time :) We continue around the lagoon to the main road stopping along the way to watch the birds and the cycle path goes under the road and runs alongside a river to Le Crotoy. We see the local steam train coming in the distance and wait by the level crossing for it to pass before biking back past the Campervan Park to the marina where we saw an otter when we came here when our boys were small, no luck this time :( We were lucky enough to get a loaf of bread then continued towards St Firmin stopping at the etangs we passed yesterday and watched the large ‘Great White Egret’ easily the size of a heron – then we saw a white stork fly over!!! Made it back to our van at 2:30 tired and very hungry. After a read and a doze we were deciding what to do when the local police turned up and said were too tall to park here so we packed up and went for a ride, visiting the Parc Ornithologique du Marquenterre but it was nearly 10 Euro’s to get in so passed on that, we briefly had a look at Quend Plage and Fort Mahon but typical French seaside towns – rusty high rise apartments all shuttered up and all height barriers and pay and display :( We had a quick look at the Baie d’Authie overlooking Berck nice looking dunes but loads of decoy ponds all covered in plastic ducks!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! :( We headed back to Le Crotoy and ended up on the banks of the Canal de la Somme for tea with Mags great mosquito net up as we are surrounded!!!! :( |
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