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squiz Member Member#: 1933 Location: Leamington Spa Registered: 01-06-2006 Diary Entries: 12 Mood: Reflective |
12th September 2016 Mt. Biking: Loire Wind Direction: Wind Stength: Surf / Sea State: Air Temperature: Sea Temperature: Weather: Hot and sunny light rain later Max Speed: 21.24 kts (knots - unless stated otherwise) Distance Covered: 27.6 miles (Nautical Miles - unless stated otherwise) Sunday 11th September – Travel, relax, open water skinny dipping and short walk – cloudy but warm We woke to a cloudy day by the windmill but very warm. Had a relaxing start then set out to see if today would be the day we would track down four standing stones marked on our map! Only a few miles away so we had nothing to lose especially as it was in the right direction. We had a wild goose chase up a track for 2 of them but at last we found a dolman and a menhir in a field by the road :) The remaining journey down to the Loire was basically massive empty corn fields and sad sunflowers with abandoned tractors in the middle! We did see three deer running and kicking up their back legs – it was great to see. We were also thrilled to see a male hen harrier hunting in the field really close to the road. We headed for the town of Mer which is not quite on the banks of the Loire and followed the road to the bridge to cross the river. After a hunt for a good spot along the rough tracks which are obviously used by many cars in the village of St. Dye sur Loire we were surprised to find a camper aire! We avoided that obviously but it is nice to know they are camper friendly around here. We followed a sign to an equestrian centre and found the perfect place, right on the river with nobody around except the occasional canoe floating past. We parked up and had lunch watching huge fish rolling on the surface right in front of us! Mag took the opportunity of having plenty of water to do a bit of clothes washing and we rigged a washing line up between the van and the step ladder. We spent the afternoon reading and relaxing, watching the canoers and the birds. I even went for a swim in the river! When it got cooler later on we went for a walk until we were opposite the next village down which we can see from our spot. It has an attractive church and seemed to be popular with the Sunday afternoon walkers and cyclists. There had been a helicopter flying over several times during the afternoon which we think must be going to Chateau Chambord which is only a few miles inland. As we walked we saw 2 hot air balloons go over the river and there was a weird rainbow like halo in the sky too. When we walked back it was getting towards sunset and there were flocks of various birds flying up and down the river to roost including cormorants, gulls and ducks but the best were the swans flying in twos and threes, their wings make such a great sound :) Monday 12th September – Bike ***** open water skinny dip. Hot and sunny light rain later. 27.6 miles, 21.24 kts We did our exercises in the sun watching literally hundreds of cormorants fly over in huge flocks! After breakfast we set out on our bikes on the Loire en Velo path towards Blois. It is a good path and runs either along the bank or as near as it can safely get. We past where we walked to last night, looking over to the village church and also a huge Chateau on the opposite bank. As we got nearer to Blois we found where all the cormorants were headed! They were all in the water near an old ruined bridge and kept flying off all together before landing again a bit further up. It was quite a sight and the noise of their wings was incredible!! It took us an hour to get to Blois and we spent another hour cycling round the old town and up to the chateau. The great thing with the bikes is that you can go where you like even down the no entry roads! Far better than in a vehicle. We returned on the other bank and managed to lose the path at one point ending up with our usual scratches and stings from the nettles and brambles! When we got to the village opposite the van (having followed the wall around the Chateau we saw from the other bank for several miles!) we stopped and had our goats cheese, bread and salad lunch. In Blois we had bought some fruit and a bottle of Perrier to go with it:) At this point we had done 16.9 miles and were surprised how far it was to the bridge back over the Loire at Muides sur Loire, most of it along the flood wall. We crossed the bridge and followed the path back to St Dye sur Loire where we nearly stopped yesterday and then the final push back to the van. We had thought we might head inland from St. Dye and nip up to Chateau Chambord but that would definitely have been a step too far – especially when we saw it was another 23km!! So we returned to the van. 27.6 miles and 4 hours 45 minutes out. It is very hot today so when we got back we had a swim in the river, getting in a little up stream and drifting down. A random fisherman appeared and told us in French to be careful because there are fish in the river which would have a chunk out of your ankle!! We didn’t stay in for long after that but it was lovely and refreshing if a little murky!! Spent the rest of the afternoon relaxing and reading. It got very cloudy, although still hot, and we did have a few scattered showers. Photo Gallery here |
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