Owner:
squiz
Member
Member#: 6644 Location: Registered: 27-05-2007 Diary Entries: 3055
|
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
|
Toys Used:
Statsbar:
About MY Statsbar
|