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squiz Member Member#: 6644 Location: Registered: 27-05-2007 Diary Entries: 2882 |
13th October 2014 Hiking - Walking: Pic Cassini, Cevenne Wind Direction: Wind Stength: Surf / Sea State: Air Temperature: Sea Temperature: Weather: sunny periods, rain Max Speed: Distance Covered: 5.5 (Nautical Miles - unless stated otherwise) Sunday 12th October – travelling – Storms and torrential rain!! Good night apart from a car scrunching past on the gravel at about 3.15 am!! We woke to find we were actually parked right next to a weir in the river Rhone. The water was so high yesterday we couldn’t see it. As we got ready for the day an island appeared in the middle of the river too, covered with egrets, great egrets and herons. The sea gulls were hitching a lift on the floating trees and branches as were the crows yesterday. So as levels in the river seemed a lot lower we thought the barrage might have stopped being quite so spectacular but as we past on the way out it was still absolutely charging through. We headed for Ales and the Cevenne passing the car park for the Pont du Gard on the way but we have been there in the past and didn’t want to go again plus the fact that it had started to rain. We were definitely living in our own little bubble up in the Alpilles and in the Camargue because we didn’t see any sign of rain until the last night up there and, in fact, the lack of water was very noticeable. That is sure not the case now as the rain progressed to torrential and we think we must have missed some public information about the weather over the last few days because today was quite amazing and we think that here in the Cevenne it has been going on for several days. Putting together the state of the Rhone yesterday, the fact that there was nobody about and the urgent activity going on in Ales as we past through - which we think was the electricity company arriving on mass to sort out an area containing a Carrefour supermarket and a Mcdonalds. We knew something was wrong when that McD’s was shut – you expect the supermarket to be shut on Sunday but never McDonalds! There must have been a big power cut caused by the storms. We stopped at another McDonalds in Ales because we thought it would pass a couple of hours on a rainy afternoon. The floor was a slippery nightmare but we negotiated it ok and even succumbed and had our first big mac meal for over 5 years – and it was sadly delicious!! We also had an ice cream parfait! We left there with absolutely no let up in the rain. We were aiming for a viaduct we had seen on our map but as we approached it we were amazed because the river Lueche had burst its bank and completely flooded a closed up campsite and was absolutely hurling itself under the bridge and through the gorge! It was very exciting to watch but equally scary especially when we went to look at a submersible bridge a bit further along! The road itself took you through the most stunning scenery (shame the rain was making it a bit difficult to see) especially as the autumn colours are coming through now. Tiny villages way down in the gorge with this thunderous river getting closer and closer! We were trying to find somewhere safe to park up for the night even though it was fairly early. Rocks were being washed out of the hills and water pouring out of every nook and cranny! We thought we had found just the place at the Barrage de Senechas on the river Cere. Again it was in flood but we were a long way above it. Then sadly a man came and very nicely told us it wasn’t allowed so we headed off on an even more spectacular road and finally ended up in Aujac on a parking area where there are 2 other campers. We had seen 5 parked up at a castle as we first left Ales but we were oblivious to the problems then! As I write this it is absolutely bucketing down with thunder and lightning all around. This only goes to prove that it rains on us in the Cevenne whatever time of year we come!!! Monday 13th October – Hike **** Pic Cassini, Cevenne – 5.5 n. miles – sunny periods, rain Lots more rain in the night. By the time we had got ourselves ready for the day the low cloud was clearing from the tiny mountain village of Aujac. We didn’t leave until about 11.30 and made our way carefully down the very narrow steep road to the slightly bigger village of Genolhac. Difficult at the best of times due to the very deep gully running either side of the road but made worse today by debris from the storm – rocks and mud washed out of the hills and twigs, leaves and chestnuts from the hundreds of chestnut trees lining the route. We called into the only shop in the area, a tiny super U in Genolhac and got a few bits and pieces to keep us going until we get somewhere more inhabited. Drove up through the most amazing autumn colours and….. a little sunshine to the Belvedere des Bouzades and were disappointed that you couldn’t see a thing because of low cloud. We decided to relax and wait for a while to see if it cleared and were lucky enough to be able to see the immediate view if not the far distant hills listed on the table of orientation which even had Mt Ventoux and several other places we have been over the last few weeks shown as being visible! Had our lunch there and then headed up the road a bit further until we came to the tiny cross country ski village of Le Mas de la Barque which has a lovely group of stone cottages making it a holiday village. As the weather appeared to be behaving itself we decided to set out on the 6.2km hike to the Pic Cessini (1680m). We discovered later that the Source of the River Tarn is just over the back of the peak we walked to. It was a good track to a small sign for the Col de l’Aigle and, amazingly the cloud had cleared on that side of the mountain and we had a great view :) The path then turned into a bit of a scramble and…….thunder started to rumble again! We made it to the top and although cloud was floating in and it had got very chilly we sat on the rocks and ate our chocolate bar. Started back down and as it was a circular walk and we had been following the ‘PR’ walk signs we took the fork to the left as directed and were surprised that we started to climb as we thought it would all be down from here! We watched a tree creeper spiralling up one tree and then flying to the bottom of the next for a few minutes – excellent:) Then the thunder got a bit nearer and it started to rain so we got the cagoules on and kept marching up! I was by this time doing my usual – thinking that we were on the wrong path and could be on the way to some village but Mag was sure she had seen the PR signs showing the return path at the bottom so we kept on going. After a big loop round in the very welcome downward direction we made it back to where we had seen a digger scooping huge ditches out as we set out. He was trying to channel any more rainwater down into the valley and away from the village. Got back to the van just as it stopped raining and the sun shone very briefly. We were out about 2 ½ hours and walked just over 6 miles. We are staying here tonight and will see what the weather does tomorrow before deciding whether to spend one more day down here or start making our way north. It is raining at the moment but we were really lucky to have got so much out of the day considering what it could have been like. |
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