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Member#: 6644 Location: Registered: 27-05-2007 Diary Entries: 3072
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25th June 2016
Wild - Open Water Swimming: Aubres Wind Direction: Wind Stength: Surf / Sea State: Air Temperature: Sea Temperature: Weather: Sunny and hot :) Max Speed: Distance Covered:
Saturday 25th June – Open water skinny dip*****, shop and adventure drive
– sunny and hot
We woke to yet more blue skies in Aubres and what a fantastic parking space
this turned out to be :) Mag got up first and sat outside in the shade
reading and enjoying the cool early morning before it heated up again! She
even saw a kingfisher:) I did my exercises but Mag decided to have a
morning off and relaxed. We moved down to sit on our chairs in the river
then when the sun made it to the stretch of river I enjoyed yesterday we
walked through the shallows to reach it. We spent a brilliant, fun hour
throwing ourselves into the deep fast flowing water and swimming down until
the bottom became shallow again – from shallow to not being able to touch
the bottom to shallow again in a distance of about 20 metres. Then you
could swim to the far side and make progress against the flow back to where
you started. Excellent fun :) There was also a rock you could cling onto
and stay still while the fast flow whizzed past. We said ‘last go’
about 20 times before we finally dragged ourselves away, returning to our
chairs in the water to dry out. We read and had a cuppa down there before
deciding to have our lunch, pack up and make a move. I couldn’t resist
returning to our stretch for a last go :) We left around 2.30 and drove
into Nyons and found a Dia supermarket for a quick top up – especially
drinking water as we are getting through it pretty fast in this heat!
Drove out through wonderful scenery, with yet more lavender and apricot
trees, towards a tiny little place called Le Pegue and had a quick wander
round the village and up to the church. There was a chapel up on one of
the hills but to be honest it is way too hot for us to recapture our hiking
excitement of the last month! Back in the van to find a tiny white road
which looked like an interesting short cut but it was actually quite a poor
road with several dead ends – adventure driving at its best!! It would
probably have been better to have stayed on the bigger road. Rejoined the
road at a very pretty and great named Roche St. Secret and carried on to
Dieulefit which was a bigger town than we expected. We parked by the
hospital and walked up through narrow streets with lots of steps and arches
up to what was an ancient temple and an ancient chateau but discovered both
hadn’t been there for centuries and there wasn’t even any ruins!
Walked back past the church where a young couple were just emerging from
their wedding with the guests counting down to throwing lavender flowers
instead of confetti and it smelt amazing :) Bought a couple of lavender
souvenirs before we finally leave the area and returned to the van. Drove
up through the very rocky countryside leading to Bourdeaux and then up and
up to the Col de la Chaudiere which lies between two of the most amazing
clumps of rock! We found a great spot to park so we can see one peak out
of each window :) Had a chat with a German man in his 60s who had just
biked up the 11km from Bordeaux and had spent the last 4 weeks cycling
around the area including Mont Ventoux! We had seen him on the way up and
again at the top and it was great to see a cyclist with a big grin on his
face – the cyclists we normally see have their heads down, never look at
the view and look very hot and as miserable as sin!! There was a sign near
where we parked showing a view point a few metres away so we had a look at
the brilliant view of the other side of the Col and walked on the strange
black crusty rocks. Back to the van for what we call a picky tea. Great
bread and bits and pieces from Dia. Another great day in rural France!
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