Owner:
squiz
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Member#: 6644 Location: Registered: 27-05-2007 Diary Entries: 3071
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31st May 2015
Mt. Biking: Corbiere hills Wind Direction: Wind Stength: Surf / Sea State: Air Temperature: 30 Sea Temperature: Weather: sunny Max Speed: Distance Covered: 22 (Nautical Miles - unless stated otherwise)
Sunday 31st May – bike ride ***** 22 miles in the Corbiere hills
What a fabulous day:) There were hardly any cars going up to the castle
and we had a leisurely start to a glorious sunny, blue sky day which
reached 30 degrees! Did exercises and had breakfast. It was getting very
very hot around mid day but we decided to get the bikes off anyway and set
off down the steep hill into Tuchan. The vineyards and broom, out in full
glorious yellow bloom and smelling amazing, made it a beautiful ride down.
Then before Tuchan we took the turning to Vingrau. We had expected it
might be quite a flat ride as below us looking down from the van it
appeared to be a huge plateau but how wrong we were. It was up for at
least six miles but it was quite gradual and very beautiful so we didn’t
really struggle at all! Stopped at the table of orientation at the view
point looking down on Tuchan and across to the Chateau d’Aguilar. A big
steep downhill freewheel into the old wine village of Vingrau which we
explored – going up through the narrow lanes to the church. We were
unsure what to do next as the most direct route back to Tuchan was the way
we had come but we didn’t fancy that . So took the turning to Tautavel
and came to the Caune de l’Arago which is marked as a point of interest
on our map. We had no idea what it was or what to expect but there were
several cars so we knew it must be popular! We were in for a surprise –
it is a gorge with the river forming a pool with a beach of small stones
either side where families were enjoying their Sunday in the sun, swimming,
paddling, snorkelling and diving off the rocks – oh and encouraging very
doubtful dogs into the water mainly!! There was a beautiful husky and the
smallest dog we have ever seen! We ate our lunch on the bank feeding the
fish bits of our rolls, paddling and then sitting on the rocks (Me in the
middle and Mag on the edge) to read our books. It was a lovely place to
have our break and we think we might come back tomorrow for a swim when
everyone else is at work!! We left there and biked on to Tautavel –
another wine village with a shop selling local produce – I had a look at
the post cards but they looked about 20 years old!! The road out of there
towards Tuchan was very steep up for a few miles but then the very steep
freewheel down into Paziols was great! Then the last leg of our 22 mile
journey, through Tuchan and up the last steep ½ mile to the van. We had
well deserved cuppa and cake, read our books and dozed. I then decided to
get my wonder ‘no water required’ van cleaning stuff which I bought
from the shopping channel! (much to the family’s amusement) out and made
the van look fabulous! We had Paella from Lidl for tea. Rob texted to say
they were home safe and sound from Croatia.
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