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squiz Member Member#: 6644 Location: Registered: 27-05-2007 Diary Entries: 2898 |
26th September 2012 Hiking - Walking: Lac Salagou Wind Direction: Wind Stength: Surf / Sea State: Air Temperature: Sea Temperature: Weather: Max Speed: Distance Covered: Monday 24th September – relaxing and sightseeing :) sunny WOW what a night in our at our lovely canoe hire place in Vallon – it started out a bit windy and we could hear rain on the roof faintly then at 4 am the wind got stronger the rain was torrential. It was so loud on the roof you could hardly hear thunder but the lightning was amazing then just as we were dozing off there was such a loud clap of thunder we jumped out of our skin!! We loved it but felt sorry for the couple in the tiny tent across the car park! When we woke up this morning it had stopped raining, the cloud was clearing and the couple’s tent was dipping into a huge puddle at one end :( We took our time, did exercises and had breakfast then thanked the canoe guy very much for having us :) We went to Lidl and stocked up then headed to the Pont du Gord. The scenery in the bottom end of the Ardeche/Gard region is a bit dull so we didn’t feel we were wasting any opportunities on the way down. Got to the Pont du Gord and were very fed up to find that it has been made a Site of France and it was 18 Euros to get into the car park!!! You could turn round and get out in 10 minutes without paying so we decided to do that, find somewhere for lunch, relax for the afternoon and return at 5p.m. when the price went down to 10 Euros (this was a load of rubbish because when we tried to get out later the automated machine said 18 Euros and there was no arguing with it so it cost us the full whack anyway!!!!). We drove to Collias which is the first small town up the Gorges du Gordon which lead up to and under the Pont du Gord. You can hire a canoe for 22 Euros each to paddle underneath and we think you can walk in for free but it would be a 14km walk! Don’t think we are up to that today as it is quite hot and we did canoe 32km yesterday! We stopped by the river (in the only place you could park because all the other river front is taken up with canoe places). Passed a nice couple of hours in the sun reading and eating. Returned to the Pont du Gard and walked straight to the Pont before we lost the sun for photos. It is pretty spectacular but I have to say I preferred the one we found in the middle of a vineyard in the Pyrenees where we were completely on our own and you could really feel the Roman history. This was a bit stark and you couldn’t go inside it or over it like the other one. We had a lovely walk along the river bank – viewing the Pont from all sides then went up to have a look at the top. Followed a path which went through a long roman tunnel and unfortunately it went completely the wrong way so we wasted about 20 mins there! Back to the Pont and back up the other side before making our way back to the van. We didn’t see any of the museum or anything – we just wanted to see the bridge – we can find out the facts on the computer later! Drove into Ramoulins which is the nearest town (looked very ancient in places) but the sight of about 30 big white elephant camper vans wedged into the only free car park without a height restriction was enough to send us back to Collias to a car park just along the river bank from where we had lunch – there was another small camper there so that always makes you feel better! Tea was on the plate within 20 minutes and we are pleased we found somewhere so quickly because we are Knackered!!! Tuesday 25th September - travelling :( windy and cloudy Was surprised to wake up to such a lovely spot at Collias by the river. Last night it was nearly dark and we were very tired so were just pleased to find somewhere but it is very lovely :) Took the binoculars down to the rocks near the river and watched a crazy goat come down what appeared to be a sheer rock face! There were also French partridges on the beach which seemed a bit weird! Was just about to start exercises on the beach when about 10 canoes with teenagers and teachers collecting rubbish beached about 10 feet away! We had the two extremes, 20 kids collecting litter and an oaf from the canoe place up the road watching them having a crafty fag before work and chucking the packet on the ground as if it was nothing!! It is quite cloudy today but warm and we had our breakfast sitting on the rocks. The casualty of this was that my pink stripy mug rolled off, smashed and went into the river! We set off for lovely Lac Salagou and it was quite a trial of a journey :( The scenery around this area is rubbish and we had to go round Nimes (which was absolutely awful from what we saw – buildings scruffy, toilets in the intermarche awful and dirty, people looked very scummy and three prostitutes on the way out!) and Montpelier (ring road further out so couldn’t see the metropolis!). We stopped in Nimes for McDonald’s Wi-Fi and it was so slow we gave up – luckily before we bought the coffee. It was one of those journeys where we had set the sat nav up but then had to argue with it for most of the way!!! Stopped for lunch at a Pont which our map promised was of special interest but was actually very boring and the lay-by dirty! Crikeys I am making this sound awful – it wasn’t quite that bad in reality but it looks it written down! Made it to Clermont l’Herault about 4 and got perfect Wi-Fi in McDonalds there, bought a coffee and answered e-mails, put photos on facebook and messaged Jay (Archie rat has dry eyes!). Then Rob and Hannah popped up in Mongolia – surreal!!! Had a good 15 minute chat with them. It was 11p.m. over there. Here is part of the conversation: we ended up flying to mongolia last night was cheaper than the bloody train! and took 2 hours instead of 2 days we extended our visa in mongolia so its now 6 weeks here we have booked another flight today to the west of mongolia (rather than a 60 hour bus ride on dirt tracks!) thats in 10 or so days so we are going to do either a gobi desert trip or genghis khan trail then fly out to an eagle festival where they hunt live foxes! then hike round there, come back to the capital and sort china visa out which turns out is a bloody pain in the arse and harder than i thought Got to Salagou and filled up our water supplies from the Camper Aire then drove to our favourite secret spot crossing our fingers that the gate would be open and nobody else parked there and....... YES all ok – the field was a little bumpy but we got in fine. Mag got down to the small amount of washing while I took some photos of the sunset (but it’s a bit cloudy) and we saw a water rail come out of the reeds just in front of the van so that’s the first, first sighting of this holiday:) We also saw our first kingfishers of the year today, Mag by the river this morning and me tonight by the lake :) Carbonara for tea Wednesday 26th September - walk **** - cloudy, windy, rain :( then amazing sunset with rainbow It rained in the night but wasn’t raining when we woke up but very dark heavy cloud :( We have never had this kind of weather at Salagou! We had slept for 10 hours but continued to lie in and read our books. Didn’t feel tempted to have a swim so did exercises outside. Got yesterdays washing in – bone dry :) We had eggy bread with ham for breakfast which was nearly lunch as it was 11.30! Then we went for a brilliant walk. We set out to walk around the edge of our bit of lake. It is a peninsular leading from the bank out and around a very tall hill. The rock and sand is very dark red which makes the lake very beautiful (especially with a blue sky!!!). When we were about ¾ the way round we saw a path up and although it was a bit of a scramble and there was lots of loose shale we made it to the top and got lovely views of the surrounding hills, lake and vineyards. There are lots and lots of fishermen here this time, all dotted around the lake with their inflatable boats, computerised stuff to detect where the fish are and at least 4 rods set up all the time! We haven’t seen anyone catch anything yet though. We scrambled back down (only a bit on our bums – we didn’t want to fall down the cliff) and returned to the van just as it started to rain. It continued to pour all afternoon and into the evening. We ate a very light lunch, read and played phase 10, patience and Mag played patience scrabble too :) – that’s playing scrabble by yourself !!! Just after we had our curry tea the weather front moved over and the sun came through just in time to set! It was a very spectacular sunset with orange lining the black clouds from the passing front and stunning blue beyond! Mag happened to look out of the other window and there was a double rainbow! So that weather front has gone – hopefully another one won’t appear for tomorrow and we will be able to get the canoe out and have a swim :) Dan rang and asked what date we would be back because they want to book a holiday to Cornwall the week after we get back :) Going to the Eden project etc. Had really nice chat with him :) http://www.facebook.com/media/set/?set=a.3972768310279.2154244.1012660562&t ype=1&l=f605c0a128 |
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