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18th October 2015 Mt. Biking: Ouvrages du Libron nr. Vias to Nine Ecluses at Be Wind Direction: Wind Stength: Surf / Sea State: Air Temperature: Sea Temperature: Weather: cloudy Max Speed: Distance Covered: 23.50 mile (Nautical Miles - unless stated otherwise) Sunday 18th October – mend tyre and bike ride ***** cloudy - Ouvrages du Libron nr. Vias to Nine Ecluses at Beziers 23.50 miles, out 4 hrs 20 mins! A better day than we were expecting! Although we woke up to rain it stopped by 10 whereas we thought it was forecast for all day! After breakfast I changed the tyre – it has a nail in it but hadn’t gone down anymore than yesterday. It was harder to get it off and back on the holder under the boot than it was to change it! As the bikes were off we decided to bike the opposite way along the canal and although we had a vague plan of heading to the beach we ended up going all the way to Bezier to the Ecluses de Fonseranes (9 lock ladder where we have stayed before). It was a great place to stop for our lunch as there were several boats coming down the locks including 2 tourist boats with lots of people aboard. We saw two hire boats nearly come to grief trying to exit the locks from the tight turn at the bottom! They have put a fence with rope in since we were last here and you can’t get anywhere near the edge! We started our journey back just as the down traffic hour was over and the boats wanting to go up were getting twitchy for their hour to start. The towpath was a lot better than yesterday. Most of it was tarmac apart from the stretch from where we are parked past the Le Boat Marina and horse riding ’Ranch’ which is compacted mud with quite a few ruts. We went over an aqueduct, past etangs with storks, herons and flamingos, saw long tailed tits in a shrub, black bullocks with huge horns and cattle egrets under their feet on another ranch along with several more kingfishers in the canal. Yesterday we saw a coypu in a field and another crossing the road! Back at the van about 4. We had biked 24 miles and were out nearly 4 ½ hours. Relaxed when we got back, reading and playing cards. We are staying here again tonight. Photo Gallery Here Monday 19th October – sightsee and travel – cloudy but turning sunny :) A murky start so after breakfast we left our spot on the canal and drove round to Vias Plage which was frankly quite awful! Like Yarmouth but deserted. Had a quick look over the sand dune at the beach where people were sawing up the drift wood and taking it home for their fire :) We would have joined in if we could have got it home! Drove on to Agde and got some bread and coffee at Lidl then out to the etang – Bassin de Thau in our quest to find the end of the Canal du Midi! It is still very confusing. We found the exit of the canal into the etang near Marseillan. There is no official bike track and they seem to ignore this section. The actual canal disappears into the etang and then at Sete apparently joins the Rhone Canal. Parked and had a walk along the bank which was littered with dead and dying boats again! There was a sailing club on the other bank and a punt style boat was taking people over to it. A kingfisher actually stayed still on a branch long enough for a photo! The centre of Marseillan was a lovely surprise. It is a very unspoilt fishing village with a quay in the middle of town. Our book says that the villages on this side of the etang were once on the sea shore until the sandbank formed the other side. Now all the plages and the tourists that go with them are over there and luckily these villages have escaped unscathed:) We had a nice walk round there then went on to Meze. We tried to find a road near the water but the only one there is leads to the shell fish fishermen’s stalls and one restaurant which was heaving with 2 coaches of customers! There are lots of mussel and oyster beds out in the etang with poles and nets dotted around. Meze was, if anything, even nicer than Marseillan. Although quite built up on the outskirts the centre was very old with narrow house lined alleyways and lanes which have been well kept and were very tidy. There is a quay/marina and even a small beach. The water was so clear and cold! We parked in a spot by the beach and had lunch followed by a good walk round. We sat at the entrance to the quay and watched a catamaran with day trippers leave for an hour’s sail and a diver go out in a small boat which we later saw was collecting the diving platform from the beach and after he had dived down and released it from it’s mooring he hitched a ride back to the quay lying on it! There were a few Grandparents out with their grandchildren playing on the beach and we assume it is half term. We made a cuppa and took it onto the beach. A beautiful way to end our time down here for this holiday and it was sunny too! Around 3.30 we headed off to join the dramatic free motorway just below Clermont Herault and drove to just before Clermont Ferrand stopping for the night at Vichel a tiny village we discovered in June. We did go a bit wrong and had a detour to the Chateau Leotoing for the sunset! Tuesday 20th October – travel + little walk – mainly cloudy Foggy this morning but we still had a lazy start, leaving Vichel around 10.30. We stopped at Clermont Ferrand’s newest and biggest E. Leclerc hypermarket for cheap diesel and to go into the shop which is strangely completely covered in chain mail! Spare bike pedals, a bike bell, a screwdriver and a mug with hearts and cockerels on make up most of our basket along with wonderful walnut bread:) We carry on to the Loire stopping on the River Allier just below Moulin for lunch (managing to eat the whole loaf of pain aux noix!). The trusty star symbol on our map shows Les Sept Ecluses (7 Locks) on the canal du Briare just about 10 miles away from our usual stopping point on the Loire. We headed that way along lovely tree lined roads. Rogny Les Sept Ecluses is a really pretty little town a bit like a small Briare with rivers and canal criss crossed with bridges. The 7 locks are sadly long gone but the structure remains and from a distance is very striking but is completely dry with rocks from the path thrown in for good measure! It was abandoned in 1863 when they built the present canal alongside. We had a long walk up the lock ladder and through the town – even up the steep hill to the church! On our walk we visited the camper aire which is right on the canal bank alongside the visiting hotel barges so we moved from the car park to here for the night. After tea we walked back to see if they had lit the lock ladder up as the lights are in place but no. Had a mosey around in the dark with our torch before returning to the van, having a good nose through the windows of the hotel boats to see how the other half live – one even has a hot tub at the front!! Wednesday 21st October – travel – cloudy and wet :( While I had a lie in, read my book and made breakfast, Mag went to watch one of the hotel boats which started its engine and left its mooring just along from us. She went for a walk, hoping to catch it in the lock then followed it to another 3 which we hadn’t realised were so close. The lock keeper went between them on his moped! Plenty of potential for bike rides on our next trips :) After breakfast we set off on a small yellow road which took us in the same direction as our usual route along the Loire towards Orleans but there were no lorries :) We did get in a muddle in a small town but not too bad! The usual 320 mile drive up to Calais. It started raining at Rouen and carried on all the way. There were quite a lot of roadworks too which is unusual – must be that time of year! There was a fleet of 5 Gendarme mini buses en route to Calais and it was amusing watching cars speeding up the outside lane and then pulling in behind them, reluctant to overtake! Got to Boulogne and filled up with cheap diesel then drove along the coast road which was very foggy and damp – no view of the white cliffs of Dover today:( Not worth stopping in any of our usual places for our cuppa although we did have a look. It was really windy and rough and in Ambleteuse we saw a man in a wetsuit walking along the prom with half a boom! We carried on to our usual Escalles and parked up for the night. Probably the most unusual thing today was witnessing a hooker in the aire we stopped in for lunch get a customer in a white van and drive off! So that’s it for our Autumn 2015 adventure – roll on March for our month in the mountains :) |
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