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squiz Member Member#: 6644 Location: Registered: 27-05-2007 Diary Entries: 3073 |
25th February 2020 Hiking - Walking: Geneva Promenade Wind Direction: Wind Stength: Surf / Sea State: Air Temperature: Sea Temperature: Weather: snowy start then showers. Max Speed: Distance Covered: 6 miles (Nautical Miles - unless stated otherwise) Tuesday 25th February – walk ***** Geneva Promenade – snowy start then showers. We are glad we moved to the peace and quiet of Mijoux as Lelex would have been a bit hectic first thing and the forecast seem to be coming true as our lovely blue sky has disappeared but no rain yet! With the weather all over the place for the next week we have no plans so relaxing start reading and watching the Marsh Tits in the tree near the van and then one of Mags favourites, a Crested Tit made a brief appearance which made her day. Mag even managed her exercises even though it was only 3 degrees out but I had just started mine when the rain started:( So I cut them short and had breakfast and we packed the van up to head down to Geneva as we don’t want to be high up when the snow arrives! We left around midday as the rain turned to snow, we drove around the main Mijoux ski car park on the way out which was packed but we were not in the slightest jealous of the skiers with light snow falling and the cloud covering the mountain top! It’s a nice windy road down to the valley with the snow soon turning back to rain! The weather improved with the rain easing as we crossed the flat valley seeing our first Red Kite and then even better a Lidl where we stocked up with a lot of cake plus some more healthy stuff like strawberries and tangerines! Nearing Geneva, we went under the runway and finally made it down to the Lac side by a large park following the road around. As expected, parking was a problem being only parking meters, so we continued. We missed the turning and ended up in the town, full of expensive designer shops, international banks and swanky hotels! We managed to find the Lac again and had nearly reached Vesenaz where the road turns away from the water before we spotted a brilliant free parking place. We turned around and parked right by the Lac side but miles from the city centre. It was a great place for lunch and to watch the goosanders and a large racing sail boat returning to the marina, we had already seen a couple of windsurfers out enjoying a good breeze that was blowing straight down the lac. We really enjoyed lunch, Lidl walnut bread with salted butter and Tomme cheese, we know how to live! It was still raining and the chance of a walk seemed slight as we watched a steady stream of aeroplanes landing across the Lac. Then the rain eased and the sun even made a brief appearance so we decided to go for a walk. We had a couple of hours free parking so we set of at pace into a head wind on the Lac side promenade. There was a lot of building work going on at marinas and making new beaches, wildlife areas and gardens with large expensive houses across the road. All the usual birds were out in force along the way, pairs of Goosanders, Tufted ducks, the striking Red Crest Pochard (the male has aamazing red beak), Cormorants, Coots, Grebes, Gulls, Geese and swans. I hoped to get to the Pont du Mont Blanc one of the main bridges over the River Rhone but that seemed so far away! The big houses turned to apartment blocks and plane tree arcades with cafes, closed due to the weather, past open-air swimming areas and large marinas as the bridge came closer. We passed an original wooden sailing barge and saw a couple of Lac ferries as we finally made it to the end of the Lac and went under the bridge on a footpath with the River Rhone flowing really fast here. There is an abundance of high-end shops and hotels around this area as we continued to the next bridge, the Pont des Bergus which leads to a small island in the middle of the river where we watched people feeding the birds and the yellow river taxis. Mag then rang our old friend Mary in Felixstowe to catch up as Tuesday is our main day to visit her. Then all we had to do was walk the long way back but at least we had a tail wind the rain had long gone! We certainly got our six-mile legs at this point as loads of bikes whizzed past us with most of them electric! We eventually got back to the van being out over two hours and must have covered at least 5 miles, now all we have to do is find somewhere to stop, not always easy here in Switzerland especially near the Lac! We had to drive towards Geneva a bit before we could turn around and ended up on a road higher up away from the Lac but found the sign to Hermance where we have stayed before. I turn got caught up in some road works and ended up in Port Corsiers where there was some great Lac side parking but there was a parking restriction sign! In the end we decided to park in the last spot only 2/3m from the water and take a chance as there was another small camper just down the road. While having a cuppa the locals seemed very friendly, I even gave some bread to a family to feed the ducks! We had delicious fried lemon sole and potatoes for tea followed a bit later with some yummy pancakes, it is Shrove Tuesday after all! It might be a little noisy here tonight with the sound of planes landing and water lapping against the rocks but fingers crossed the forecast snow stays higher up in the mountains! Photo Gallery Here |
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