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squiz Member Member#: 6644 Location: Registered: 27-05-2007 Diary Entries: 2886 |
17th September 2016 Mt. Biking: circuit Lac du Vassiviere Wind Direction: Wind Stength: Surf / Sea State: Air Temperature: Sea Temperature: Weather: mainly cloudy with showers Max Speed: 23.18 (knots - unless stated otherwise) Distance Covered: 22.60 mile (Nautical Miles - unless stated otherwise) Friday 16th September – Mag’s Birthday – Skinny dip, sight seeing, travel – rain A nice start to the day, a few clouds and some watery sunshine and mist rising off the lake :) Had a lie in and read for a bit then did exercises outside. I even went for a swim in the lake, a few metres from the no swimming sign!! Clouds starting to thicken as we had breakfast and packed up the van. We headed down country roads towards another Lake – Lac de Vassiviere, still in the Limousin but moving down towards the Dordogne. We went through Ambazac where we found a handy Lidl opposite a Super U. A few bits required in Lidl then over to Super U to survey the cakes suitable for birthday!! We were definitely in luck! On special offer a selection of 6 of their fancy posh cakes including a tarte citron, pear tart, raspberry and custard. Excellent :) Got another tube of puncture repair glue too just in case of emergency! We travelled down to Saint Leonard de Noblat and by this time it was absolutely chucking it down with rain :( We did a couple of a detours to the Moulin du Got (didn’t stop and go in) and through the town to find a dolman marked on the tourist map and we actually found this one and it was a pretty good one too. In the middle of a field but with its own lay-by!! We got the pathetic umbrella out and walked over for a quick photo before getting back in the van and returning to St. Leonard to eat lunch in a lovely parking spot by the river Vienne, just where it turns a corner between some pretty stone houses. Watched a fisherman catching small fish and putting them into a cool box containing water in his boot – we decided he was catching them for his pond?? Or a very small fish supper!! Went up to the town centre car park and got pathetic umbrella out again and had a quick walk round the medieval centre. Not the most interesting we have been too but fine for a wet and miserable half hour!! Back into the van to drive on to Lac de Vassiviere which is more commercial than Lac de St. Pardoux and definitely more man made because the level of the water is well down leaving a big gap between the water and the bank. In the high season there are boat trips and lots of activities but as with everywhere now, the season is over and thank goodness there is nothing open and only a few camper vans of pensioners here :) There are two islands in the middle joined via pedestrian bridges so we are hoping that the weather gets better tomorrow, which it is supposed to, so we can explore, hopefully on the bikes. We rode round until we found a nice spot to park but it continued to rain for the rest of the day so we ate 3 of the 6 birthday cakes and read our books. Saturday 17th September – bike ride circuit Lac du Vassiviere ***** mainly cloudy with showers – 22.6 miles, 5 hours out – 23.18 knts max A very dark cloudy start to the day and the temperature has really gone down. 40 degrees a few days ago to 9 this morning!!! By the time we had decided to cycle round the lake anyway it had started to rain!! We are really glad we weren’t put off because we had an excellent day :) The first thing I heard was bells and I thought it was goats or cows in the fields but a little way down the road we discovered that it was the other French weekend hobby – hunting!! The bells are round the dogs necks and two men in orange gillets were guarding the road while their mates shot at whatever they could find in the woods! The lake has two islands in the middle and we headed down to the bridge to go over to them first of all in case the weather got even worse!! It was a strange place over there with odd concrete sculpture art installations scattered around which we were either too thick or too clever to understand!! There was an art gallery too which we didn’t go into but the best thing was a very strange lighthouse style structure with a spiral staircase going up to a 360 degree balcony! I had great fun shouting as we climbed the steps – the echo was fantastic!! Back down the steps and on with our quest to find the path around the edge of the island which was harder than you would think! More strange things were appearing by the minute, an open to the elements shed which just happened to house a chef in a white hat making and selling home-made bread and a partially sunk grey and graffiti covered submarine!!! We really enjoyed the track around the islands which were sheltered by pine and beech trees which is just as well as it was chucking it down!! The path was quite up and down but not too challenging. It was also very intriguing to find lots of obstacles dotted around – we think they had had a mud marathon recently as most of the equipment seemed to lead to a mud bath or muddy puddle!! Back across the bridges to the mainland where we carried on round to the biggest village of Auphelle where there are some camp sites and the passenger ferry departs. As we continued on to and over the Barrage de Vassiviere it had started raining again but luckily stopped for us to eat our lunch at the water ski club which has definitely closed for the winter, nothing here at all. The level of the lake is quite down which we find quite a lot on our travels. They only have them completely full for July and August, the tourist season. After our rest we carried on around the lake and had to have a photo of me by the sign post for the naturist section of the Chassagnas peninsular – it was a picture of a pair of pants with a line through it – which we found hilarious what with my penchant for skinny dipping!!! We mainly stuck to the blue signed tracks but sometimes cut out sections by going onto the road because they were keen to send you up and away from the water and onto really muddy tracks going into the forest in a steep fashion which we didn’t think was necessary for our enjoyment of the lake!! When we reached the Masgrangeas area of the trip we joined a green path which took us round some great paths right on the edge of the lake and also across a digue (dyke), bridges and board walks. As we approached Veuveix on the home stretch Mag fell off!! It was hilarious, she decided to go up a steep path and go round a tree on the right hand side but a lump made it impossible to stay on the bike and she couldn’t get her leg over the seat in time to put her foot on the ground. She didn’t hurt herself and it was very funny!! We can honestly say that on our way round we had no clue where we were without looking at the map because there are so many peninsulas and inlets and islands it is impossible to know!! As we rounded the bend after the village of Chateaucourt we could see the van on the hill and only had to cross one last long stretch of board walk before we got back. 22.6 miles, out for 5 hours and peddling for nearly 4 hours! After we had packed everything away we both had two hot drinks each and the rest of Mag’s birthday cake bonanza. A great day – we did see the sun a little more this afternoon but it really didn’t bother us or spoil our fun at all :) Staying here again tonight Sunday 18th September – sightseeing/travel – cloudy and showers A very miserable foggy and drizzly morning :( It meant we didn’t need to make any decisions as to whether to do our exercises and have a quiet morning relaxing by the lake! We packed up after breakfast and headed south towards the Dordogne. Nothing very much to tempt us on the way down due to the weather and scenery which was pretty but not outstanding. We stopped at Egleton Super U and got some bread and diesel. Carried on our journey and could see a bit more because the rain had stopped and the fog cleared as we came down from high ground. There are quite a lot of patches of autumn colour in the very many forests which always makes a lovely back drop. It was a good day for wildlife, having seen virtually nothing on the last two lakes, we were treated to some unusual things today. Right by the road we saw a red squirrel and best of all and a first for us a black woodpecker. He was beautiful with the red stripe over his head very clear. He was even pecking at an old log which our books say is typical behaviour, but almost never seen as they are very elusive and are not recorded in the UK! We saw red kites and buzzards and two deer running up the middle of the road. So wildlife but next to no people or vehicles – France is definitely shut!! The only people we saw lots of were Hunters with their orange coats and guns at the side of the road! Hope the deer didn’t meet up with them! We followed some signs to a viaduct and got out at two car parks at viewing points. The top one was a bit of a waste of time because although they had put lots of picnic tables up there you couldn’t actually see the bridge at all! The lower one was better and as well as being on the same level as the bridge also had signs to a footpath to a passerole – a Himalayan bridge across the river. We can never resist them so headed down what turned out to be quite a difficult steep path to the said passerole but there were so many trees we thought their promise of a good view of the viaduct was a bit of an exaggeration! We carried on the footpath to the edge of the fast flowing river but the view didn’t improve so we scrambled back up again. Nice to be out in the woods and the weather was behaving itself at that point. Back in the van we thought we would try to find the river Dordogne before we had lunch. We did this at Spontou but carried on quite quickly so we could find a good place to park up for the night. We diverted to Lac de Marsillac and along a forestry track promising a table of orientation but other than a quick glimpse of the Dordogne way down in the gorge we didn’t find anything else and the track was a bit of a worry in case it turned muddy or declined steeply as our tyres are definitely not up to getting us out of anywhere steep at the moment!! In fact another chunk has gone out of the front drivers side today when we hit the curb turning round!! Poor old van. There isn’t really any access to the river around here because it runs mainly through steep gorge and there are several barrages too making it one long lake rather than a river. We did find a great spot on the bank right near the river at Pont du Chambon with a good view of the bridge too. We did go over the bridge and up to the village at the top of the gorge on the other side but returned here to park up and have tea – spam and egg!! Photo Gallery here |
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