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squiz Member Member#: 6644 Location: Registered: 27-05-2007 Diary Entries: 2899 |
1st May 2012 Hiking - Walking: South of France Wind Direction: Wind Stength: Surf / Sea State: Air Temperature: Sea Temperature: Weather: Max Speed: Distance Covered: Lots of Walks over three days combined into one entry Tuesday 1st May- 2012 – travelling and then walking ***** cloudy then sunny but a bit cooler We had 9 ½ hours solid sleep! Our first undisturbed night for a while, what with the bird and dripping! Did exercises and had breakfast both on the beach. Did some people watching as it is a bank holiday here today. There was a lot of keep fit going on from jogging to cycling and stand up paddle boarding. The weather was better than yesterday as there was no rain but there was a layer of white cloud keeping the sun away so although we did think about staying here we decided to move on a bit further and packed up about 12 so I didn’t get to sail at the famous Almanarre beach:( We drove through Toulon stopping for a very quick walk at the viewing point near the naval base where you could walk round various forts. There is a huge navy base here with war ships in the bay. Back in the van we passed the rugby ground where a match (against Montpelier we think as we saw a coach) was due to start and we could see the stadium filling up. Johnny Wilkinson plays for Toulon at the moment and we thought it would have been fun to find somewhere to park and see if we could get last minute tickets but as it would have cost us at least £50, was probably a sell out as its bank holiday and there was nowhere to park anyway, we decided to press on. We drove round the Toulon bay and onto the peninsular of St. Mandrier sur Mer. There are several different bays making up the peninsular but there was nowhere to park in the first few we visited and they were very busy. When we got to the actual town of St. Mandrier there was a car park with a no camper van sign but with quite a few camper vans in so we parked there and had our lunch overlooking the little harbour. Went for a walk along the harbour front and over to the other side of the island to two lovely beaches with a marked path between the two. Returned to the van and drove round a route touriste (on our map Presqu ‘Ile de St-Mandrier is written in the sea – so not sure if that is the name of where we are or not) and found a lovely place to park near the entrance to another military base. The view was wonderful and there was again another coastal path to try. We walked along it and looked down the cliffs at the clear blue sea :) We came to a very long set of concrete steps down to a cove and went down to have a look and watched a diver for a while. On our way back up we were met by 4 pompiers who asked us where we had been and said lots in French which amounted to had we seen anybody at the bottom – we pointed to the steps and said no apart from the diver and they hurried away up and along our path. It was obvious they were looking for someone in trouble and they were running backwards and forwards talking into their walkie talkies and shouting ‘Je suis pompier’ down the cliff at various stages. We were on the path right with them when someone shouted back – they had found him! The next thing we knew there was a rescue helicopter flying over and hovering and our pompiers were wildly gesticulating to the pilot where the voice was coming from. There was also a rescue boat but to be honest he was hopeless, just raced backwards and forwards and did nothing practical at all. The pompiers were very friendly and as their role in the rescue was now over, were spectators just like us and preceded to video the whole thing on their mobile phones with great excitement. They told us that the man had walked round the bottom of the cliff and when he wanted to come back up realised he was stuck as the cliffs are sheer at this point. The lady pompier – who was very keen – mimed that he had hurt his leg but when the man on the winch went down and got him there, was no sign of a stretcher so we will never know. It was brilliant to watch and very dramatic. The guy was winched up then they flew a little bit away from the cliff before they got him inside the helicopter and flew away. We all clapped and shouted Bravo with the pompiers – how exciting! We walked back to the van and decided to see if we can get away with parking here for the night! Wednesday 2nd May 2012 – walking - 3 venues!!! ***** Sunny We woke up to a lovely day with beautiful view over the bay – nobody was bothered about us parking there. Mag got up really early and had several little walks in different directions, I had abit of a lay in then did my exercises We read for a while after breakfast then walked down the littoral coastal path to the village where we walked along the harbour and bought some bread. Walked back a different way through the back of the village and up through the pine forest. The pines smelt lovely :) Packed up and left the island after filling up with water at the camper aire. We followed the road round the peninsular We followed the road round the peninsular and amazingly passed the pompiers we were with yesterday having a picnic with other pompiers in a pine forest car park! Bizarre We got to the Notre Dame de la Garde ou du Mai – a chappelle built right on top of a craggy cliff with a ruined watch tower in front of it. The story goes that the watch tower was struck by lightning hundreds of years ago and because the men survived in it they were so thankful they built the chappelle. The path went further on to a ruined barrack building and tower and then even further over a really rocky outcrop to look down on the clear blue water, lighthouse and more deserted fort buildings. The wild flowers were absolutely amazing – lots of colour :) We had a really good couple of hours there, we really liked it. Decided to go back to a car park we had seen further back down the road near to a beach you could scramble down to. We thought it would be nice for the afternoon and possibly stay the night. Our plans were thwarted because as we made a cuppa two blokes were looking extremely shady, one was standing up a path into the woods partially hiding behind a tree and one looked like he was trying to break into a car but it turned out to be something completely different shall we say and we decided to get away as soon as possible!! Drove to Six Fours Les Plages which the book said had a good windsurfing beach with lots of parking. We were hopeful of finding more camper vans and windsurfers. Instead we found a lot of height restrictions, parking meters and nowhere for campers to go except round the seafront road, turn round and go back again without stopping! We finally parked up on a car park along by the harbour which is a market on a Thursday (you didn’t have to pay after 6 so that was lucky). We had our tea and walked along the very nice prom to the island at the end just in time for the sunset. We were going to go to the cemetery to park for the night but saw some campers in a road behind the sea front and thinking safety in numbers joined them. Not one of our more scenic stops but you can’t do it every night and we have been very lucky up to now! Thursday 3rd May 2012 – travelling and some walking - sunny After breakfast we walked along the sea front and the market set up where we parked yesterday. Carried on to the little island of Gaou. There is a bridge over an inlet with old fishing boats where a fisherman was dropping off the first catch of the day before going out again. The fish were all flipping about in the boat :( You can walk round the edge of the island which in the past has been a camp site but has now been returned to a nearly natural state. Very beautiful. Walked back and along to the windsurfing beach and although I would like to have sailed round the islands there wasn’t a lot of wind (as it tends to pick up in the afternoon) but the fact that you just can’t park anywhere comfortably for any length of time put us off staying. It was a shame really because we would have quite liked to take the ferry over to the bigger island of Embiez. Also either have a canoe out or have a go at stand up paddle boarding because there is so much to explore :( In the end we decided to leave Le Brouc and move on. We headed inland and stopped for a wander round a medieval village at Le Castellet – very clean and quaint but not the best we had been to and it cost us 3.70 euros to park!! Carried on to Aubagne and the free motorway to Marseille. We had been told to avoid Marseille like the plague as there is a lot of crime involving camper vans there so we were pleased to find ourselves at the entrance to a tunnel which cost 2.70 Euros but took you under the whole city and brought you up at the next bit of free motorway! We looked back over the sprawling metropolis and were glad to see it disappearing in the distance! The next bit of motorway took you through the delights of industrial heaven and the last of the hills :( Suddenly everything was flat and we were in the Camargue. We even saw some of the Camargue’s white horses straight away! We followed the signs to Salin de Giraud and the next thing we knew there was a barrier and we were in the unavoidable position of going onto a car ferry! At the time we didn’t know where the ferry went but after going through the barrier and parking up we discovered it crossed the river Rhone and was the only way onto the Carmargue without driving up to Arles. So we boarded the ferry and paid our 5 Euros to cross. We visited the tourist information and got a map of the area then headed to the closest beach as it was nearly 4 and we hadn’t had any lunch! We passed a huge mountain of salt and visited the point de view to look over the pink salt beds. There were a few flamingos but not as many as we expected and although there had been lots of birds about near the ferry we didn’t see very many on the way to the beach :( The sight which greeted us when we got to Plage de Piemanson had to be seen to be believed. It looked like camper vans as far as the eye could see and although it is probably the most camper vans we have ever seen parked (especially on a beach about 20 metres from the sea) on closer inspection a lot of the vans are actually battered old caravans which people leave here and visit occasionally. A lot of them have shacks built round them. Further up the beach there is a naturist section which is the size of a small village and has an office! There were a few kiters out and one was on a hydrofoil! We parked up among the campers and are staying here tonight. We had our lunch/tea and went for a walk on the beach. Although we are liking the easy parking after the hassles of the Var region where they put every obstruction they can in your way – there are a few too many caravans here, making it look a bit like a gypsy camp and although it is nice to be by the sea it isn’t anywhere near as beautiful and dramatic as what we have just come from. I am sure that when we explore properly tomorrow it will be great :) http://www.facebook.com/media/set/?set=a.3318687598670.2140694.1012660562&t ype=1&l=112c704a5a http://www.facebook.com/media/set/?set=a.3245995981425.2139602.1012660562&t ype=3&l=1bf5305e7c http://www.facebook.com/#!/media/set/?set=a.3129837677540.2137243.101266056 2&type=1 |
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