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6th October 2015 Hiking - Walking: Belvedere de Combe Laval (908m) to the Col de la M Wind Direction: Wind Stength: Surf / Sea State: Air Temperature: Sea Temperature: Weather: cloudy, wet and thunder storms!!! Max Speed: Distance Covered: Tuesday 6th October – 62nd Birthday!!! – sightsee then walk ***** cloudy, wet and thunder storms!!! – Belvedere de Combe Laval (908m) to the Col de la Machine (1015m) The white sky which is becoming quite regular greeted us again this morning but a few blue patches showed some promise! We had a long lie in and read our books and got birthday messages from facebook on the phone. Had a naughty but nice breakfast with Lidl Muesli Croustilliant with lumps of chocolate in! Walked into Pont en Royans and got some bread and local nut cake for birthday celebration later! Had a great display from dippers and grey wagtails feeding in the river. Set off for St. Nazaire en Royans to see the Aqueduct but it wasn’t nearly as good as others we have seen and had to be accessed through the tourist information office at a price and that was shut anyway! We walked up level with the water and watched it rush under the grid of metal near the gate. The metal grid covers the whole thing for people to walk on – quite horrible really! We parked near the river Bourne which at that point looks like a lake. We watched a Grebe with two babies squawking at her. It was amazing to watch her swim under the water – it was so clear and she was so close you could see her hunting through the weed! Never seen that before! Drove on to St. Jean en Royans and up the most spectacular road – The combe Laval which is a tiny road clinging to the cliffs of the cirque which is apparently 4km deep! We stopped just short of the first tunnel to have our lunch and the celebration cake. There was a tiny floating cloud in the valley which within minutes completely filled it and surrounded the van. Thunder and lightning and torrential rain followed before we could even get the bread out! One clap of thunder was so close it shook the van! We ate our lunch, read our books and dozed while the storm raged around us and then it was gone as quickly as it arrived! We got our cagoules on and walked along the road for over 3km to the Col de la Machine, all the time wondering how and why it was ever built! Apparently with pickaxes and opened in 1898 – one write up said it took 50 years!! There are massive towers and pillars of rock which look very precarious! We really enjoyed our walk and the weather was very kind to us. We got back to the van and decided to stay here tonight and even do our exercises as it was glorious with stunning views and the roar of the waterfall which just spurts out of the rocks on the opposite side of the cirque and falls noisily to the floor! We had just decided to come in and think about having tea when the whole space below us filled with cloud again, lightning started flashing all around, overhead and below us! Thunder and torrential rain followed. What a birthday to remember! Scary road, parked pretty near the edge of a scary gorge, with scary weather, miles from anywhere! The solution was to eat lots more bread and salty butter, this time with a tin of Lidl Chilli and then later tiramisu with a coffee. We can eat our way out of anything :) Photo Gallery Here Wednesday 7th October – Mc Don (Wi-Fi), shop, travel and walk – cloudy and wet then sunny periods :) – Chapelle de I’ Hermitage to Belvedere Pierre Aiguille at Tain I’ Hermitage. More white skies and rain this morning :( like living in a big white cloud! Decided to move on as we have done a lot in the Vercors and really love the area but we are planning to come back so anything we have missed we can do next time :) We set out along our walk route yesterday and discovered it was 4 miles, not 3! Not the same when you can’t see down! We drove back along the other side of the cirque and the road was frankly boring in comparison!! We took a series of wrong turns and ended up back in Pont en Royans and then followed signs to the wrong ‘Romans’ we ended up in St. Romans instead of Romans sur Isere! It was a nice detour though because we have never seen so many walnut tree orchards in our life! It is the main crop around here and there are literally thousands of trees. None to scrump though – too visible! Ended up in the proper Romans and amazingly found a McDonalds as soon as we got there. Did the usual computer stuff, had a coffee and got birthday messages:) Next up on our list of things to do – Lidl but we couldn’t find it so resorted to a Casino Geant! What a pain, huge shop and more expensive than Lidl but we did get a few bits we needed we can’t get in Lidl like a pen, sellotape and bike pedals! Unfortunately lost flip flop in the car park-must have dropped out when we were unloading shopping:( Then as we approached the next roundabout there was ….a Lidl!!!! Typical! Drove across country towards the River Rhone and the walnut trees gave way to fruit trees then a massive amount of vineyards all over the hills surrounding Tain l’Hermitage (Cote du Rhone wine apparently). We followed some signs to the Belvedere Pierre Aiguille up through the terraced vines and had our lunch with a brilliant view of the River flowing through Tain l’Hermitage with hotel boats and barges coming up the river. Walked up to the Chappelle l’Hermitage in the middle of the vines and then up the other way to the Belvedere and the view further up the river. There was a barrage/lock with a barge and hotel boat going through. So although we were very sad to leave the Vercors we have found somewhere very nice, very quickly and easily :) |
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