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squiz
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Member#: 6644 Location: Registered: 27-05-2007 Diary Entries: 3071
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27th March 2012
Hiking - Walking: Source des Gillardes Wind Direction: Wind Stength: Surf / Sea State: Air Temperature: Sea Temperature: Weather: Sunny Max Speed: Distance Covered:
Tuesday 27th Mar.2012 – Walking ***** - warm and sunny
Top night by our nearly empty Lac, did our exercises for the first time in
ages and then breakfast at a picnic bench. Then a change of direction
instead of heading to the ski resort of la Chapelle-en-Valgaudemar we went
the other way toward Superdevoluy, we stopped at the Barrage du Sautet and
watched the swifts over the dam :) EDF make hydro electricity here and had
all sorts of activities including a zip wire across the deep gorge under
the road bridge and over the dam!!! There was also an adventure climbing
wall and a cage that dropped visitors into the gorge, sadly most were
closed :( Again the road took your breath away and you had to pinch
yourself that you were here!! We crossed a long flat plateau, watched the
kestrels and then headed up and down mountain roads surrounded by huge
chunks of rock. We then saw a sign for the Source des Gillardes and stopped
and headed the short distance as you can’t beat a good Source :) We read
the signs wrong and ended up scrambling down a steep bank past lots of
fallen pines to the road and a large car park just around the corner from
where we left the van and where we should have parked!!! We found the signs
for the source again which was a short distance along a wooded path and the
sight we found was just amazing because without warning the water from huge
underground lakes just came gushing out of the rocks in the form of a
waterfall!!! One of the most astonishing things we have seen and was a
photographers dream with tumbling water coming from every direction :) We
even saw a dipper playing on the rocks and I even paddled across one of the
streams, boy it was cold :( The area was well signed with the choice of
long and short walks; we chose the short and walked downstream across a
couple of bridges and back to the source. It was time to find the van, we
scrambled up the slope again, at the top I discovered I had lost my camera
hood so I went back to look for it while Mag got the van. Luckily I found
it and Mag picked me up at the bottom and we drove the short distance to
the car park and decided to stop here the night - we have only travelled 8
miles today!!! This is no ordinary car park, it is quite remote, in a deep
gorge with fast flowing water all around and we found a small sunny area
with our own picnic table where we had lunch at past three in the
afternoon. We then read for awhile before setting of for another walk as
the sun dropped behind the mountain and where out for another couple hours
enjoying the peace and quiet as we didn’t see another soul and I had fun
taking some blurred water shots and then back to the van for a top mince
and mash meal and to discover we have some company tonight as there is
another VW parked just from us with a couple of Frenchmen in who keep
looking up the huge rocks
behind us – climbers perhaps???
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