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squiz Member Member#: 6644 Location: Registered: 27-05-2007 Diary Entries: 2882 |
8th June 2015 Mt. Biking: Lac Salagou Wind Direction: Wind Stength: Surf / Sea State: Air Temperature: 25 Sea Temperature: Weather: Sunny/hot/thundery rain! Max Speed: 23.55 (knots - unless stated otherwise) Distance Covered: 15.76 (Nautical Miles - unless stated otherwise) Monday 8th June – Bike ***** Lac Salagou 15.76 n. miles – 23.55 knots – 4 hours 40 mins – Sunny/hot/thundery rain! We woke up to not a ripple on the water and not a cloud in the sky:) After our exercises we were just about to go in for a swim when we saw an orange and black snake trying to eat a perch about twice its own weight!! It wasn’t a pretty sight! I moved it with a stick and it eventually dropped the fish and slithered off. When we were sure it was out of the way we went in and had a lovely swim. After breakfast we got the bikes off and went round the lake in the opposite direction to the last time we did it a few years ago. Amazingly there was quite a bit of water in the river and we had to go through it on the submersible bridge! There is a section where you have to go on the road to Celles but eventually the bike track goes off onto the red hills. It was pretty rough and tough in places and Mag did have to walk quite a bit! It was really hot we had to sit on the sailing club jetty for a rest with our feet in the water. We found a nice secluded bay just a short way along the bank and had a lovely skinny dip:) The bike track carried on along the edge of the river, still quite hard terrain but not as bad as over the hills! The path turns up towards the small chapel and then it is a track which is like a rough road. The far end of the lake is hard to navigate because you can’t get from the track down to the barrage – it would be good if you could cycle over the dam path but you can’t get down to it. So we had to go down into the village on the other side of the hills to the lake and then snake our way back up to the dam and beyond! It was quite a slog! By this time the scorching temperatures had again turned into thundery black clouds – exactly the same as yesterday! It was very welcome and when it started to rain we were quite pleased but the rain was surprisingly cold! We sat over by the main sailing club and ate our lunch at a picnic bench in the rain:) When we set out again we were on the side of the lake where the popular park for big camper vans was. It has all gone! There is a barrier across the road and although it is probably still a car park in off peak times it has been fenced off and the places where we used to park are very over grown and as if they had never been there! There is a new car park set further back where camper vans were parked but they are certainly nowhere near the lake anymore. We carried on the last couple of miles to the van, I went on the bike track and Mag on the road – she had had enough of struggling over rocks and up hills:) It was 16 miles and we were out nearly 5 hours! It had continued to rain lightly but when we got back we still went straight in for a dip! There is only two German fishermen’s vans here now, most of the other vans and cars disappeared yesterday. We had a cuppa and rest then left over tea from last night. It rained quite hard during the evening but about 8 it stopped and I went out to clean the bikes and put them back on the bike rack then covered the van in bucket full’s of lake water to give it a bit of a clean. Photo Gallery here Tuesday 9th June – Sightsee, travel and open water swim – sunny There was a terrific thunder and lightning storm last night and it really rained too! Beautiful morning though so we were still able to do our yoga outside and have a swim:) Had a good sort out and relaxed after breakfast then left about 11.30. We filled up with water at Salasc which is a really pretty village then drove to Lodeve to shop. No Lidl so had to settle for a Super U which is not the same at the best of times but they were doing building work and it was chaos and very dusty too! With that chore out of the way we set off across the Grand Causses National Park. Drove on a beautiful windy road to Avene which is a really pretty Spa village on the river Orb which we were to cross many times. The Orb is damned up to form a reservoir which we had a look at from the lay by but there is no access to the lake at all. We carried on across the plateau de Guillhaumard stopping for our lunch by some unusual rocks just outside Cornus. It was very hot and sunny but with a nice breeze (and some annoying flies!) and there were some monster white clouds building higher and higher in the sky! After our break we carried on towards Ste Eulalie de Cernon and were thrilled as we rounded a corner to see at least 20 vultures soaring above the cliffs and about 8 really low over the fields, fantastic sight!!! We stopped at the quatre route aire which has a panoramic view over the valley. We had a walk across an amazing field of grasses and wild flowers including orchids:) Carried on down to Ste Eulalie and had a look at the car park where campers are allowed to park but didn’t fancy that so went a short way to a disused campsite. But after a cuppa and relax we decided it didn’t feel quite right so went back to the first car park, parked up and walked round the very pretty walled town – like a castle really. On our map there is a velo rail marked and we didn’t really know what it was – something to do with bikes we thought and had anticipated being able to cycle along a disused railway line but it turns out it is like a fairground attraction where you pedal a cart along a rail??? There is a VTT track though so depending on the weather we might investigate that tomorrow. Drove back up the hill to the 4 routes aire and parked up there for the night. Much more our cup of tea, massive views, beautiful flowers and nobody in sight:) Had our tea outside watching the sun set – it’s a beautiful evening but there are dark clouds looming behind us!! Photo Gallery here |
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