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Member#: 6644 Location: Registered: 27-05-2007 Diary Entries: 3071
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11th October 2012
Hiking - Walking: Isle St. Lucie Wind Direction: Wind Stength: Surf / Sea State: Air Temperature: Sea Temperature: Weather: sunny Max Speed: Distance Covered:
Wednesday 10th October – relax, Mc D and little walk - sunny
We had another lovely sunrise and after exercises and breakfast we set out
to see if we could find a garage to sort out the brake pads. The first
(and only) one we tried didn’t speak English and when we communicated
brake pads said they didn’t do that. Rang Neil
Hurrell and had nice chat with him. He said it could be a stone but Peter
Cutts is convinced that the pads are shot to bits:( Neil suggested buying
the pads ourselves and getting a small garage to fit them so might go with
that or we might try and get home! Who knows? It doesn’t do it very
often at the moment and we won’t be doing anymore mountain style braking.
We have plenty of time before we go back to decide I suppose. Went into
McDonalds to check the weather etc. And had a brilliant e-mail from Rob and
Hannah :) They have been to an eagle festival and doing a huge 2 day hike
with an American couple they met out there :) I put over a hundred photos
on and we had a quick chat with Maggie Coles. Went to Port Nouvelle to
meet up with Peter C as arranged (there was a hint of a little wind at one
point). He was asleep in his van so we had our lunch. Had a good chat
with him sitting in the sun having a cuppa on the beach. Went to try and
have a walk on the Isle of St. Lucie but there was a height restriction!
We will park on the beach and do that another day. Drove to Lac du Hammeau
which we have been seeing on a signpost and thought it looked intriguing
– wrong it was just a village and we didn’t see any Lac at all!
However, we did go round a corner and see an ostrich followed by some kind
of cattle with enormous horns, zebras and a rhinoceros!!! We had stumbled
across the perimeter fence of the Sigean Safara Park! Came back to our
lovely spot at Sigean Etang (seeing a paraglide just about to take off just
as we got here) and went for a walk here instead. There are little signs
with yellow arrows on all around Port Mahon so we followed them and it took
you on a great walk with fantastic views all around the hills above the
van, to a series of tables of orientation which were interesting and then
through a keep fit park in the woods with several activities to complete on
your walk/jog. We also saw the paraglide in a heap packing his canopy up!
We assume he crash landed or didn’t really get going at all :( Mag cooked
chilli (two big tins from Lidl – really cheap but so’oooooooooo tasty)
and then took it over to Pete’s van. We all played Phase 10 – great
night :)
Thursday 11th October - walk **** sunny periods then some rain!
We had our usual morning but not quite such a beautiful sky today at Port
Mahon near Sigean. We chatted to Peter and we took the rear wheel off and
checked the brake pad once and for all and the consensus is that we can get
home on it and Mr. Carter can do it at the service :) We drove to Port
Nouvelle and parked on (a soft!) beach then packed a quick lunch. When we
were there last week and Mag went for a walk while I was sailing, she had
seen that there is a 6.5km figure of 8 walk round the island of Isle St.
Lucie and wanted to have a go at it. She was hoping we would be able to
park at the canal lock house but there is a height restriction so we had to
walk a long way before we got to the start of the 6.5km! We walked across
the etangs to the canal du Robine and then along the tow path and through
the entrance of the Isle St. Lucie. It was really nice and smelt lovely of
pine and rosemary :) There were literally hundreds of birds which we got
quite excited about as we thought they might be bee eaters but they were
starlings! There was also lots of ground churned up by animals – we were
hoping for wild boar but we think probably deer – didn’t see either :(
The Island has the canal running one side and the railway line the other
and then they meet up again. There were some great viewing points and we
had our lunch at one overlooking the etangs either side of the canal and
the railway line and where they meet :) Also the port at Peyraic de Mer.
There were a few birds but nothing unusual, mainly egrets and herons and
also a curlew. At the next viewing point we could see our parking space at
Sigean and Peter’s van parked there. When we reached the next one he had
gone (to McDonalds to check his alphas and the wind forecast again!). It
was a very long walk and when we were crossing the etangs back to the beach
it clouded up and started to rain! Not too bad but we decided to go
straight off the beach and back to Sigean for our cuppa and luckily the van
didn’t get stuck in the soft sand this time! We got back just before PC
but I boiled extra water so we could have a cuppa with him and he stayed
and chatted for an hour or so.
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