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squiz Member Member#: 6644 Location: Registered: 27-05-2007 Diary Entries: 2888 |
17th June 2016 Wild - Open Water Swimming: Roquebrune Cap Martin Wind Direction: Wind Stength: Surf / Sea State: Air Temperature: Sea Temperature: Weather: sunny and very windy Max Speed: Distance Covered: Friday 17th June – Open water swimming, walk, shop and travel – sunny and very windy We did it, we went swimming on the beach which is just across the railway line and down a long flight of concrete steps from the van at Roquebrune Cap Martin. We can’t believe how lucky we were to find this parking space yesterday. It was easy access to the walk to Monaco and so near this beach. We were the first people down there apart from the girl cleaning the café and the beach near it. We did our exercises and yoga then went in the sea. It was really rough! The waves were huge as it is quite windy today and not a windsurfing spot in sight! Once you got in it was a nice temperature and we stayed in a lot longer than I thought we would. Got out and had a shower under the beach shower then had our breakfast. We sat in the sun and read our books until midday, it was a perfect Mediterranean clear blue day. Wandered back and packed up the van. Then the dreadful drive through Monaco to find the corniche coast road. We did It but it is a bit fraught and stressful with cars and mopeds coming from all angles and trying to follow the signs while not getting shoved off into an underground car park lane!! We eventually left Monaco behind and found ourselves in Cap Ferrat where we headed for the lighthousAe thinking that there might be a break in the millionaire housing estate for a lunch stop. We were lucky and found a small opening to a Littoral walk right around the point. We parked easily at the side of the road where yet more construction work was taking place on a mansion. We walked down and the wind hit us as soon as we reached the path. The sea was a maelstrom of waves swirling and crashing on the jagged rocks all along the edge of the path. The colour of the sea made it a wonderful sight but we did get wet quite a few times from the sea spray blowing across the path. It was a great walk and we stopped half way for our packed lunch watching the sea spray reaching huge heights and watching aeroplanes trying to get into the right position to land at Nice airport. We spent a great two or three hours here:) Moved off towards Nice and after seeing the magic colour of the water and a ship in the port which was very nice the whole experience turned sour with the massive amount of traffic and traffic jams:( There is nowhere to park along the coast and we only managed to get one photo before deciding that a ride along the sea front just wasn’t worth the agro because it looked like it would be a lot more huge, ugly hotels and gridlocked roads. We took what appeared to be the most direct route out of the back of Nice, under the motorway and found an Auchan supermarket which was the only one which didn’t have a 2m height restriction or underground parking! It was absolutely vast but we managed to negotiate our way around it and stock up for a good few days. We headed out towards Contes and were looking for a small road left from there. Unfortunatel,y we got to Contes far quicker than we expected and missed the turning, finding ourselves going up and up through the village of Contes and up to Berre des Alpes which was a 6km road with nowhere to turn round because it was so twisty and narrow. We thought we could maybe stay up there as it was heading towards 7pm and we had completely had enough of driving stress but after trying several of their 5 advertised car parks and getting stuck behind the bin lorry twice we returned to Contes the way we had come. Finding the turning easily this time we were once again on the up and up twisty roads leading this time to Chateauneuf Villevielle. We were beginning to think we were going to have one of those’ no hope of somewhere to park days’ but then as we reached the top (Le Col) we found a small car park for the castle and saw a small old fashioned Citroen drive up the road which we thought was only for walking. We followed him and Eureka! Found the most perfect parking space you can imagine and another small camper was already up there! We parked right at the end of the small car park with a stunning 360 degree view of the surrounding mountains and down to Nice and over the sea :) Very happy about that. Made a quick tea of roti chicken from the Auchan and some of my favourite Rissolees potatoes :) After eating that we were feeling up to a quick wander round the old ruined castle which coincided with the sunset. Even gave the computer a miss tonight and caught up with the diary tomorrow – exhausted!! Photo Gallery Here |
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