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squiz Member Member#: 6644 Location: Registered: 27-05-2007 Diary Entries: 2898 |
21st April 2012 Hiking - Walking: Moustiers Ste Mairie Wind Direction: Wind Stength: Surf / Sea State: Air Temperature: Sea Temperature: Weather: sunny periods Max Speed: Distance Covered: Friday 20th April 2012 – walk **** sunny periods After breakfast we drove along the most spectacular road – it was the end of the gorge flowing into the Lac de Sainte Croix. The water is the most amazing blue green and very difficult to describe. We drove to Moustiers Ste Mairie which is a very pretty and quaint village built round a waterfall which sources at the top end of the village under a bridge. The water just comes straight out of the rock near a restaurant! We parked and walked up to the tourist information with the computer and I have to say they were the worst staff we have encountered in a tourist information in France and the wifi was 6 Euros! :(. Did some bits and pieces for an hour. Took the laptop back to the van and had a wander round the village and up to the Chappelle Notre Dame de Beauvoir which was quite a steep hike! The views over the lake in the distance were amazing and the whole area has suddenly turned very Mediterranean – only since we emerged from the gorge. There are lots of olive trees on terraces and pointed Cyprus trees. I walked up the old waterfall (no water now) for a while but Mag sat and waited for me and watched a house martin swooping round and hovering in the wind :) Mag was a bit tired and dizzy today :( We walked back along the circuit of the village walk for a while and returned to the van. We moved up to a better car park which overlooks the village and had lunch. I went off with my camera after a rest and discovered a small cascade which I climbed into!!! and Mag stayed in the van and read and dozed. When I came back we had a cuppa and a biscuit and decided to wander along the Sentier botanique for a while. We think we nearly completed the walk which was supposed to take a couple of hours. It wasn’t as challenging as our recent hikes (thank goodness) and didn’t really have an end so we just turned round after an hour. Had our tea then when it was dark we went out and climbed up towards the chappelle again to take some photos of it in the dark and then down into the village to see if there was any life in the restaurants. Again nothing really starts until June but there were a couple of restaurants open with a few people eating. I took some more photos in the dark and we came back to the van with the torch! There is a camper aire at the bottom of the hill but we decided to stay here especially as there is another camper with some climbers/canyoners(?) parked a few hundred metres away. There is a restriction in the lower car parks but think we are ok here. Saturday 21st April 2012 – walk ***** sunny periods We had already decided to do the 4 hour circuit de Vincel this morning so we got ready and walked down to the village to get some bread and an almond croissant before heading out of the village via the medieval ramparts and the cascade du rion. It was a really good hike, not overly challenging but with lots of different aspects. It started off through olive groves, went into pine forest and out into open plateau on the other side of the ridge to the village. It then plunged down into a valley with a lovely little stream running through it. We shared our croissant by the river then walked up the gorge to the village of Vincel. The first thing we heard was a huge flock of sheep and lambs then noticed the crop of lavender bushes. Lavender is really big in Provence and there were several fields dotted around the hillside here, shame they are not in bloom but we think it would be too hot here for us then!!! There was a campsite in the village too and we had a good nose round it just to see if we were missing anything! The owner had gone to a lot of trouble to make substantial enclosures with rocks and had also built some stone domed huts - we were unsure whether they were for people to stay in or kids to play in? It was a good site and would cost 15 Euros to stay at. We carried on our walk past the parapente and paramotor take off and landing points. There weren’t any paragliders out today but we saw at least 3 gliders being towed up and let go as we walked. We stopped at one of the paraglider take off points overlooking the lake for our lunch before returning to the village by the Roman road which was quite a surprise because they don’t make a fuss about it on any of the signs. Although it was difficult to walk on because it was so,oooo rocky it was an amazing construction! The whole walk took us 5 hours because we had a few stops and we walked about 7 miles. The weather was a mixture of crystal blue sky to start with then clouding up as seems to be usual here. We always say that it will rain at 5 and it usually does! Only for a bit though :) We had a cuppa then went down into the village and I showed me the places he had been yesterday afternoon. Bought some Lavender soap for 2.5 Euros as a souvenir. It really is a lovely village with lots of old buildings built in narrow paths and streets. There were a few more people about today but on our big walk we didn’t see anyone until we were on the way down the roman road! I think it must be heaving in the summer though. We decided to stay here again tonight although our canyoning neighbours left after returning from their trip in their wetsuits. http://www.facebook.com/media/set/?set=a.3245995981425.2139602.1012660562&t ype=3&l=1bf5305e7c http://www.facebook.com/#!/media/set/?set=a.3129837677540.2137243.101266056 2&type=1 |
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