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| Owner:
squiz Member Member#: 6644 Location: Registered: 27-05-2007 Diary Entries: 2882 |
11th May 2013 Windsurfing: La Franqui Wind Direction: nw Wind Stength: 25/45 Surf / Sea State: Air Temperature: Sea Temperature: Weather: sunny Max Speed: 38 + (knots - unless stated otherwise) Distance Covered: Saturday 11th May – windsurf *** La Franqui – sunny – wind 25/45 mph :( Falcon 80 & 5.8 – 38 + kts again Top night in our lovely sheltered spot by the Sigean Etang after exercises and breakfast I fancied a nice cruising day at Port la Nouvelle so headed over to the north beach and parked at the end of the entrance road as it’s still impossible to drive on the beach without a 4x4 :( With no local sailors out I decided to have a walk up the beach leaving Mag reading her book by the huge fuel tanks!!! The turning yacht for the Defi was there and then loads of rescue books turned up and they placed the turning bouy at the end of the 5 mile course in winds gusting to 45 mph!!! :( Then in the distance you could see a shimmering mass of sails as 800 windsurfers were flying towards me – a truly amazing sight!!!!! :) I stood near the bouy and watched the leaders gybe around the bouy which was followed by carnage as the lesser sailors tried to turn and they just kept coming and coming – a never ending stream of windsurfers !!!! As it was too windy for a cruising day here and with the Defi in progress for a couple more days this ruled out Port La Nouvelle as a sailing option so we headed over to La Franqui and there were no cars on the beach, only one windsurfer who sailed up from Nouvelle, some kite buggiers using tiny kites and 4 people on horse back!!! After lunch I rigged the same as yesterday 5.8 on the falcon 80 and the day was just the same – super strong gusty winds and choppy water – especially the La Franqui side :( Did several runs above the pier and a couple of death defying mile runs towards La Franqui – not much fun thinking you could wipe out at any second :( So decided to pack up and head for our nice spot at Lac Salagou even though there is more wind forecast for tomorrow – can’t face another bumpy battering at La Franqui – perhaps my love affair with speedsailing is coming to an end as there is always something not right – too windy,not enough wind, wrong angle,wrong board,fin sail – the list goes on and on !!! Shame really as we love the area but a few more good windsurfing days would be appreciated!!! But then you think about sailing in toward the wooden pier in choppy sea then turning and sailing flat-out a metre from the shore for over a mile in flat water with your fingers crossed you have enough eater and you think speedsailing’s cool after all :) Got our favourite spot at Salagou and de-sanded the van and chilled :) Sunday 12th May – little walk and sightseeing - windy with sunny periods Salagou was disappointingly chilly and very windy!! The wind was right on the side of the van making it too cold to sit outside for breakfast which was a shame and also too windy for me to put my windsurfing gear on the roof so we loaded it back inside the van and left about 11.45. The farmer had been earlier in the morning and ploughed up the footpath! Mag always walks round the field and meet me at the gate because it is too scary bumping up the way out of the field but with the ploughed lumps of soil to contend with Mag should have stayed in the van! We had seen some campers up in a sheltered position on the hill facing our spot so we thought we would see if we could find how to get up there for next time. The road was a nightmare and how they got up there we don’t know because our van was having none of it! Huge holes to get across. We drove along the free motorway towards Montpelier and turned off to go back up towards the Cevenne. We parked (and paid 4 euros!) at the Pont du Diable which with St. Guilhem le Desert just up the road is a cite of France and there is a big tourist information place and footpath to the bridge over the Gorges de L’Herault . It is not the most beautiful bridge we have seen but very old and it was a nice place and there were quite a few people about with it being Sunday. We took our lunch and ate it sitting by the river. There was a free shuttle bus to take you up to St. Guilhem so we caught that (the bus stop was right next to a car which had just careered into the ditch. The people got out, rang the rescue people and calmly went to the restaurant up the road with their miniscule dog!!! They had gone when we got back). We had about an hour in the medieval village and it was very lovely, especially the narrow steps up to houses with beautiful courtyard gardens. There was a huge church with cloisters and big fish in a pond. There were also a couple of waterfalls on the outskirts of the village. Other than that there was lots of trinket shops – a bit like Rocamadour. We walked right up to the top and saw the ruin standing on the cliff but didn’t have time to go up. Caught the bus back and walked back to the van. We drove up the Gorges trying to find somewhere to stop for a cuppa or the night but as is usual with Gorges they don’t really give you anywhere to stop and all the canoe places have a chain across so you can’t get in there. The Gorges turned into large lakes where they had been damned further up. We eventually stopped near the Rives des Arcs for a cuppa – it was on a main road but had some lovely cows with calves and bells on :) After a break we drove towards a huge chunk of rock which we discovered is the Pic St. Loup and after a while found a brilliant car park in the middle of nowhere with a great view of the Pic and also a tempting view of a castle ruin. We thought the car park might be for people who want to walk to the ruin and there was one small white Italian car parked but we couldn’t find a path to anywhere despite having a go at several! We had our tea and were treated to a magnificent display by a short toed Eagle hunting over the pic:) |
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