Site Designed, Produced and Maintained by
Pixelwave Design.
|
|
| ||||||
| Member Details | Session Description |
Toys Used |
| Owner:
squiz Member Member#: 6644 Location: Registered: 27-05-2007 Diary Entries: 2904 |
20th May 2012 Hiking - Walking: Amelie Les Bains Wind Direction: Wind Stength: Surf / Sea State: Air Temperature: Sea Temperature: Weather: Max Speed: Distance Covered: Sunday 20th May 2012 – walking * rained all day :( Well, what a night! It has to be the worst yet – not only did the cloud shroud us from 6 p.m. onwards so we couldn’t see a thing but as soon as we got to bed and were reading all we could hear was the horses hooves, snuffling, snorting, whinnying movement and clanking from various bits of the van!!!! Mag nearly freaked!! It really spooked her because she didn’t know what the hell was going on and seriously thought they were going to damage the bodywork! I thought she was exaggerating until there was a serious clank – then I got up and went out (in the pitch black and it had just started to rain at this point) and shoed them away! Within minutes they were back – always at the back end of the van, right near Mag’s head! I went and shoed them away again and at about 12.45 a.m., just as we thought we had sorted the horses it started to rain torrentially and the bloomin dripping from the board bag onto the rear bumper started. I put swimming ear plugs in to try and blot it out. We did fall into some sort of sleep until 4 when the horses returned and a very crabby me :( went out to scare them off again. Mag suggested putting the car cleaning sponge under the drip and that seemed to work quite well. 6.10 and the horses were back with a vengeance and it was still chucking it down. The advantage now was that we could see the bloody things and Mag didn’t find it so scary but they are soooooo huge – especially this big black one. There are a couple of foals too so you don’t know what they are going to do! By watching them through her little slip window she could see why the van was so attractive to them – they were licking the wheels and wheel arches to get the salt from La Franqui beach! We were a huge salt lick treat for the whole herd – they were queuing up! They were also licking the roof where the rain was washing salt out the board bag! They were actually very gentle and the magnified sound of the snuffling was through the rubber seal round the door where they were all gathered! The clanking was mainly from the foals where they were trying to feed from the stationery mother and she was pushing them off. Some of them were scratching their humungous backsides on the van too! I suggested Mag get out and scare them off because she was driving me mad by knocking on the window, putting the hazards on and turning the head lights on . So she got up, no glasses, my wet sandals and my cagoule over her pjs and walked round the side of the van. They started walking away into the mist but they only go a few paces and wait for you to get back in and come straight back so this time she clapped her hands, walked behind them and kept going until they were right up the col track where we saw them yesterday. The big black one kept giving her the evil eye but they did all eventually clear off! Back to the van and bed, only to hear the most enormous clap of thunder and the rain getting even heavier. Anyway, did sleep until after 8 so caught up a bit. Mag got up and went for a walk with the binocs as it had stopped raining and amazingly the cloud briefly lifted to allow a little wander. We have heard lots of cuckoos and yesterday saw two flying but today were rewarded with a perfect view of the male cuckoo actually saying cuckoo on a tree really near us in the misty murk! We think if it had been clear he would never have been there so that was one advantage to this crap weather. It wasn’t the perfect view but you could see his throat going and when he took off his stripy belly :) We decided to pack up and move down the mountain before breakfast and have a fry up brunch instead. Drove to Arles sur Tech to get the bacon and bread and watch the usual French Sunday shopping exploits of two old boys in the bread shop – they were very amusing :) Drove back to Amelie Les Bains bought a Mail on Sunday and had our brunch in the car park next to the ‘No Kill’ fishing match. It was absolutely chucking it down still and the poor contestants were absolutely drenched. I put my cagoule on and took Mag’s very fetching pink umbrella and went to watch and saw some fish caught. They don’t weigh them so not quite sure how they decide the winner – number of fish caught probably. I got soaked but really enjoyed it. The rain had started to ease so we decided to go and find out how to access the Gorges just outside the town as we had seen a post card showing a metal walkway along the side. To cut a long story short there was no access! We thought it would be a case of parking in a car park in town and walking up but it wasn’t like that at all. We drove up towards Montalba (where we stayed the other night) turned round and parked at the entrance to a footpath that looked hopeful as we hadn’t seen any clue as to their whereabouts. We put the cagoules on again and set out down towards the town. We met a young family, looking for the natural Therme ‘bath’ which they had thought was up the same footpath and they hadn’t found that either! They didn’t know how to access the Gorge so we said au revoir to them and carried on into the town. We found the entrance!!! It was shut and had been for years by the look of it. To dangerous as the rocks are crumbling. There was an enormous clap of thunder and it started to teem with rain as we tried to find another entrance but again we were thwarted and when looking towards the gorge from the footbridge over the river it becomes obvious that the town are trying to cover all signs of the gorge by letting trees grow up in the river and you can only see the cliffs either side. So not only were we soaked but hadn’t ended up finding anything either. Mag thought at least we were out doing something but I was really peeved :( We did see a pipe with piping hot water coming out near the river and found what we thought to be the old disused thermal bath crumbling away on the footpath back to the van. It had a tiny trickle of warm water coming out of the wall. What a strange place! Anyway back to the van and drive off to find somewhere to hole up and eat cake and even then we’re thwarted! Thought we would go to the Gorges de la Fou which are just outside Arles Sur Tech, park there for the night and visit in the morning – we get there are its got a bloody barrier and is open from 10 till 6 seven days a week but not this one! We reckon you have to pay and when you think of the fantastic Gorges du Verdon which we had for two weeks for free it is a joke! Like making Lands End into Disney! We took the next turning on the right and it ended up being another identical road up and up like yesterday – hardly anywhere to park or turn round and a signpost to Montferrer but not saying how far that was. We wound our way up and came to it eventually – little village with a church and a cafe and promised parking on the outskirts of the village. We turned into the field where we were signposted to park and there was a Fox! We were really pleased as we haven’t seen one for years and it bucked up a poor day :) Drove to the designated parking and it was tiny and sandwiched between some garages and someone’s front door so that was no good. Drove out again and the daft old fox was just lying in the long grass getting drenched in the still torrential rain! I got out (in my pants as I hadn’t put more trousers on since taking my soaked ones off after the doomed walk!) to take its photo and got really close before it waltzed off :) Back down the bloomin mountain to a lay-by we had seen on the way up. Didn’t know about the cracking view because it was shrouded in cloud again and still raining but shortly after we got the van up onto blocks the cloud cleared and a very watery sun came out! There is an amazing view down both sides into the valley from the lay-by so that’s a result. We have such a lot of wet stuff – including the back window curtain which has been stuck in the door all day that we did put some outside for a little while to try and dry a bit. It did rain again later and the cloud floated in and out but not a bad way to end a poor day. We had the diesel heater on (didn’t think that would go on again this holiday – it was 26 degrees a few days ago!!) and dried the curtain out before bed. It is ironic that this catalogue of minor disasters has probably become my biggest entry in the diary for the whole holiday – CRAZY! |
Toys Used:
Statsbar:
| |||||||
  |
|
|
|||||||
|
Web Design in Wales, UK by 
Pixelwave Design.
© Alan R Cole 2000...