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| Owner:
squiz Member Member#: 6644 Location: Registered: 27-05-2007 Diary Entries: 2898 |
7th October 2012 Hiking - Walking: les Monts d’Olmes, Wind Direction: Wind Stength: Surf / Sea State: Air Temperature: Sea Temperature: Weather: cloudy with a little rain :( Max Speed: Distance Covered: Sunday 7th October - walking **** cloudy with a little rain :( A bit cloudy this morning and not such a perfect sunrise but we went for an early walk anyway - along the Lac to the sailing club and dam. Did our exercises and watched some fishermen, who had set up in front of us, while we ate our breakfast – one even caught a fish which we have never witnessed before!!! We left our lovely spot at the lake and drove towards Lavelanet and bought some bread. The man in front of Mag bought 3 gateaus for £40!! Carried on to les Monts d’Olmes, a ski resort which sits under the Montagne de Tabe. It is a funny little place, quite tired looking and suffering from all French ski resorts of the 60’s problems! A few monstrous hotels and blocks of flats :( The skiing looks interesting though and the mountains and scenery around are lovely especially where the low growing shrubs have turned the most amazing red :) We parked and made some lunch then started hiking up the only footpath we could see. Unusually for a ski resort there were no marked walks/hikes but there was a yellow stripe to follow so we did that. There were also some really crazy mountain bike routes – scary! We followed the path (which we assume is a green piste in the snow) up - trying and failing to identify some small brown birds! We got up to the top of the chair lift and sat behind the hut to eat our lunch because the wind had got up a bit and the sun had gone behind some low cloud. It faced the right direction for a good view of the valley though :) By the time we had eaten the cloud was creeping over the peaks and closing in quite nicely! Mag borrowed my fleece as I had his green top on and she was frozen . Just before the top of the mountain disappeared we got a fantastic view of what we are 75% sure was an eagle – he was huge! We got to the top of the highest drag lift and discovered we were at the Tour du Massif de Tabe - Col de Cadene at Alt 1955m! This was the only signpost we saw on the whole walk! You could see down into the valley on the other side which was a surprise as we were in thick cloud at the top. Set off to walk a different way down and were glad we did because the path took you past a lake and through the cows with their calves and huge bells round their necks :) We were out about 4 hours and were shattered by the time we got back to the van so we finished off the éclairs from yesterday, had a cuppa and some ibuprofen!!! After a bit of a rest we drove down the steep, bendy mountain road to Montferrier. Unfortunately the van’s brakes started making a terrible noise so we fear the brake pads have had it :( It has stopped making the noise now but who knows it might start again tomorrow (or not fingers crossed!). We passed through the Col du Montsegur with its castle on a massive rock and through part of the Gorges de la Frau. We followed a signpost to the other part of the Gorge and were glad we did because we found the most perfect overnight stop just before the pedestrian part of the Gorge starts :) We are the only people here in the middle of nowhere :) There were a few rocks built up to make a fire so we collected some wood and other peoples rubbish:( and made our own fire to sit in the rocks. We read our books until it was nearly dark then lit the fire and it was a cracker :) Mag just finished one of the most awful books she has ever read – Martina Cole’s The Business which I got for £1 with the Sun!!! And because she didn’t want to inflect it on anyone else she burnt it on the fire!!!!!!!!!! Have never done that before but it felt very good! It was really dark by then and an owl was hooting while moving all around us :) We came in and had the left over lasagne for tea. Really good day :) Photo Gallery here |
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