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2nd February 2017 Hiking - Walking: Lac Pavin & Les Cascades de Cournillou Wind Direction: Wind Stength: Surf / Sea State: Air Temperature: Sea Temperature: Weather: cloudy Max Speed: Distance Covered: Thursday 2nd February – sightsee travel and two walks ***** Lac Pavin & Les Cascades de Cournillou – cloudy A bit of a restless night out in the wilds, way too hot under two fleecy quits better suited to minus temperatures! Woke just in time to see the sun rise over the distant Alps before disappearing behind cloud only to reappear very briefly during the day and very windy too, the van was rocking but lucky for us the night was fairly still. No great hurry to get away after some hectic days, even managed a decent wash including my hair before porridge then setting off down the beautiful mountain towards Besse. Our first stop was Lac Chambon a spot we had biked to several years ago. We watched a fisherman trying his luck in a small section of water that wasn’t frozen before moving round to the Parc de Loisers with two long wooden jetties stretching out far into the lac with lovely reflections of the mountains in the icy water. It was here we sheltered in heavy rain and actually bought a coffee before biking into Murol looking for a shop in 2010! We continued on our circular route passing through the narrow medieval streets of Besse making Mag a bit nervous she is not keen on a tight squeeze! Just outside Besse we came across the turning to Lac Pavin a beautiful volcanic crater surrounded by trees and filled with water, truly stunning:) With it being quiet only one car was parked in the lower carpark and most had driven up and parked behind the restaurant, the only entrance to the Lac. This is supposedly limited to a few minutes parking which the many cars here had ignored, so we ignored it too! We were in for a real treat as several Red Pompier vans were parked with vehicle plongeurs written on the side coming from as far away as Vichy, Moulins and Montlucon! There must have been a dozen fireman here with many in full cold water diving kit. Some were sitting on the wooden quay waiting their turn, while two could be seen in the water under the ice and then the best bit, three divers in wetsuits but with no gloves waded in! They started flopping about trying to break the ice out into the Lac until it was thick enough to support their weight and with great difficulty and a great deal of splashing hauled themselves up onto the icy surface of the lac much to the amusement of the small watching crowd:) Their hands must have been frozen as they walked out even further! We then decided as there was a nice path round the lac to walk it. It was a fantastic walk along a tree lined path which was very icy and slippery, I nearly tumbled in which would have meant a long fall down a steep slope into the water but at least I would have had some expert rescuers on hand to save me! You had to pinch yourself that you were actually walking around the edge of an extinct volcano and on reaching the far side you had fantastic views of the snowy peaks that are Super Besse. It took under an hour to complete the circuit and the divers had all packed up and were going for a warming meal in the restaurant. Back in the van we drove the short distance to the little ski resort of Super Besse and there was nothing SUPER here:( The skiing might be OK but the resort is awful, terrible high rise apartment’s and tired looking shops, a place to give a miss! As at Mont Dore, campers were sadly not allowed to park overnight in the main carparks and there must have been 100 in the aire! We quickly found the way out and the road to Picherande was open, a bit bleak and desolate snow covered fields used for cross country skiing, but not much evidence of that as the snow was thin on the ground:( Hungry now we stopped by Lac de Lastioulles for cuppa soup and see our first Red Kite of the trip. Then we took a short cut, a little white road as marked on our map and what an adventure that was as we wound our way up and down through beautiful pasture and forests with shaggy horses, cattle, including a huge bull and calves, even sheep with lambs:) We reached the bigger road turned left and headed for the Gorges de la Rhune which are lovely then spot a sign for a cascade just outside Condat. With a retour time of 30 minutes we park up and do it, the leafy path lead through pretty woodland running alongside a manmade channel taking water to a nearby farm. As the track dropped we could hear the fall and the path turned into a stream! Reaching the small mountain stream, we had a short scramble down to various viewing places where you could see the falls, I even remembered my tripod and filters so I could get some blurry water pics:) It was getting on now and we were keen to park up for the night and managed to find a little loggers lay-by just outside Marcenat sheltered from the strong wind with views over snowy pasture. Time for a cuppa eat my apple puff, fill the van water tank and read before left over curry from last night – yum yum. Finished off the day with a few episodes of Modern Family on DVD, always good for a laugh :) Photo Gallery Here Friday 3rd February – travel and Mc Donalds - snow, rain, strong wind and sun late! The rain late yesterday turned to snow in the night and we woke to a white winter wonderland with a couple of inches having fallen:) The snow plough/gritter had made several runs past as we had breakfast so the road was fairly good as we left the snow-covered car park, the first test for our winter tyres! The scenery was stunning as we headed down the valley towards Allanche but the snow-covered fields didn’t last long and disappeared as we dropped below the snow line. The fresh snow resulted in us revising our plan to go straight to the motorway at St Flour and instead make a detour to a little ski resort we stopped at several years ago, the unfortunately named Prat de Bouc. We had to pass Murat where we found a supermarket for supplies and diesel. Lucky for us the road up to Prats was open and on reaching the lovely village of Albepierre-Breddons we found a stone water trough and filled up our bottles. As the road rose to the Col it deteriorated becoming icy and the new tyres worked like a dream:) On reaching Prat de Bouc it was very bleak, the three lifts were closed due to lack of snow on the pistes and it was blowing a gale making the prospect of snow shoeing uninviting and dangerous as the top of the mountain was shrouded in cloud. We erred on the side of caution and decided to head south and the falling snow soon turned to rain. Travelling to the free motorway was probably the best part of the day with beautiful rolling hillside and lots of red kites twisting and turning with the wind making their hunting a bit of a challenge. We stopped for lunch at the aire opposite the Viaduct de Garabit an old favourite of ours:) Then Mag drove to Millau and we stopped at MacDonalds. My day then got worse! Mag bought a couple of coffees while I connected to the free wi-fi which was painfully slow and kept seizing up while trying to upload some pics to Facebook. I also had trouble getting on Forces of Nature but I managed in the end. Then discovered that several of the pics had been put on twice and I had put on the wrong month, February instead of January! Sadly it took me an hour to sort out and the torrential rain had turned to sunshine while we were in there! We had certainly had enough of Mc D’s. I checked the weather for La Franqui for the next few days and it’s looking way too windy for the gear I have with me:( but on the good side the picture of the big wave breaking against Felixstowe prom won January’s competition in our local group:) Mag and I both agreed we had enough of driving and that Peyre was our best bet for an overnight stop with great views over the Millau bridge. We should have put the sat-nav on as we ended up going miles out of our way ending up coming down the steep narrow lane we struggled to get out of last year! We were going down this time so got down OK having ignored the no campervan sign! It was too late for a walk as the sun set so we had delicious Lidl Lasagne and salad and put the diesel heater on as the bridge lights came on:) |
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