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A short post and a few photos from a walk up Ysgyryd Fawr several weeks back after we’d returned from France.

It had everything I dislike about walking in August. The air was still, it was overcast, humid, and the bracken was smothering the hillsides. The flies were a nuisance.

We sweated our way to the top, feasting on flies as we went

We were glad of a breeze on the summit ridge to cool us down a bit and a blow the flies back to where they came from

We watched a guy flying a small model plane on the summit to keep us entertained

And some brighter interludes before we headed down. Not the absolute most enjoyable walk I’ve taken this year but better than sitting at home

Sometimes its just about getting out……

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I saved the last post with memories of what for me were the highlights of the trip. We went out and saw some amazing places but the heart of the trip were the rivers and the fun we had in them, jumping, diving, swimming floating and fish spotting.

A compilation of photos and a video/photo slideshow to share that fun

 

DB Jr jumps from below the mushroom rock, our favourite spot

Floating down the river towards said spot

A late evening of fun and frolics

DB Sr showing his skills and form.

TBF enjoys some lazy river floating.

A few underwater pictures of the local fish on one of my snorkelling expeditions

And one final shot of the spot where we spent many happy hours

And that was the end of our trip. We drove home on a wet and windy day, stopping off at a very nice campsite in Normandy before a trouble free tunnel crossing this time and an utterly desperate drive back home (think almost 7 hours to do a journey that should have taken 4!) – never drive anywhere in the UK on a Friday. A truly memorable trip shared with great friends young and old. Here’s hoping we can do it all again in a couple of years time 🙂

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Another day out and further afield this time to visit what was one of the real highlights of the trip. To get there a drive along the gorge to La Malene first.

We’d kayaked this stretch of river a few days before

Out of the gorge on a seriously steep, narrow and hairpin-bendy road with spectacular views

Over the Causse Mejean to the pretty town of Meyrueis

We stopped off at this small chapel (un-named on my map) which had views over the town and the upper reaches of the Jonte Gorge

And on to our destination for the day, the Grottes de Dargilan. The entrance and picnic area is perched high above the gorge with fine views

We enjoyed a splendid if rather rushed picnic lunch before the main event and a trip underground.

I’ve been down most of the show caves in the UK and they are all good but this was the first time I’ve been in to one of the French ones. What can I say except this one was utterly magnificent and like nothing I’ve ever seen before

The sheer scale, size and complexity of the features are jaw-dropping. My photos came out ok but even though I’m quite pleased with them, it doesn’t even come close to doing the cave justice

There are two well known caves in the area. We chose this one as it looked more natural and understated than the other option. I don’t know how good the alternative was but it would have to have been sensational to better this one

As we walked through the first section  of cave, the large chaos room, there were weird shapes everywhere.

The thing that struck me was there were smaller features that were pretty much ignored, almost forming handrails and the like that in British cave would have been a highlighted feature. Here these smaller features were not good enough to compete

The cave was discovered by accident by a shepherd chasing a fox into a cave. His discovery terrified him, thinking he was seeing ghosts and phantoms. The cave was fully explored and its wonder developed for the public by the famous geographer, caver and climber EA Martel

I can only imagine what it must have been like for those first explorers to train their lights on the cave walls and see this astonishing array of features for the first time. Stalagmites, stalactites, columns flow stones all looking like candle wax, melted chocolate or candy or whatever else springs to mind

We were wowed for around 15-20 minutes when the guide said we were about to descend deep in to the cave to see the most impressive features. “This isn’t the best bit?” we all thought!!

We passed this feature looking like a piece of bacon and down into the depths

There was a wall maybe 100 feet long by around 50 feet high that was just pouring with calcite features

It was jaw dropping and hard to take in

This was my favourite feature, looking like some kind of alien monster. Sometimes you had to remind yourself that this is all natural

The iron oxide in the water gives the cave its mostly deep reds and browns of colour

This is the bell tower again maybe 60-70 feet high in a room where there was very little bare rock. Everything was covered in calcite deposit features of all shapes and sizes

Sometimes it seems like a fairytale, other times in different light like a nightmare vision. You choose.

Probably the only downside is having seen this place, a visit to a UK cave would be seriously underwhelming

I just couldn’t get over how many, how big, how varied and how intricate all these features are

It was slightly disappointing that the tour was only in French and I lost the print out they gave us that describes all the features, many with names. However the tour was very understated just a guide and some simple lighting. The cave was so utterly magnificent that it didn’t need anything more. It was a huge highlight of the trip and considering just what a natural wonder it was worth every Euro (it wasn’t especially expensive at a tenner each). A memorable hour

On returning to the outside world we took a stroll above the gorge in warm, sorry, hot sun

In its own way just as magnificent.

As an extra treat the vultures that call the Jonte Gorge home were gliding around us and resting on the cliffs

This is the best close up I got (apologies for the intervening branch)

To finish the day we dropped down to the base of the gorge and spent another half hour watching the vultures from a roadside cafe

An absolutely superb day out and natural wonder that will live a very long time in my memory

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We did manage to tear ourselves away from the pleasures of the river by the campsite and en-kayak as it were. To be honest it was really too hot to be doing any kind of dedicated exploring but we thought driving to the top of the gorge and then walking back down (collecting the car later) might be bearable.

Mark and TBH needed to take DB Jr to hospital to check whether he had an ear infection (he hadn’t, just too much jumping in the water likely) so we took the rest of the kids up to the Point Sublime view-point with a view to walking back to the campsite from there. The site is round about in the middle of the photo below

It’s a superb viewpoint but it was a bit hot and hazy. We should really have made some effort to come up first thing in the morning when the skies are clearer and many mornings had mist filling the gorge

It was a very steep and narrow path, dropping pretty much straight down, 400m into the gorge

Even walking downhill in temperatures in the mid-30’s is a hot and sweaty business but all the kids seemed to enjoy the walk

Some of the rock towers and cliffs are spectacular

We walked along the road back to the campsite watching a bungee jumper do their thing from a platform high above the river (wish I’d taken some photos or video, the nearest I’ll ever get to trying it!). We stopped at this view from the mushroom rock beneath which was our favoured jumping spot. The campsite beach is a few hundred yards upstream

This is the view back up to said mushroom rock from the river

Glad we went out but after all that exercise an afternoon of river lazing followed.

On a later day we had an afternoon of torrential thunderstorms and drove through one to the village of St Enemie. It’s a beautiful spot on a sunny day and even on a cloudy wet day its a fine place to spend an hour wandering its narrow streets

As with all the villages in this part of France there is a collection of stunning buildings to gawk at which we did (as well as some impromptu shopping by others)

It passed a few hours while the rains cleared and normal weather service resumed

On our return we found disaster had struck and the storms had totalled our toilet tent. In truth it was a cheap and frankly shoddy piece of camping crap. However using it made TBF very happy (her words not mine) to the point she preferred it to a real toilet

She was devastated to see it fall to ruin and the toilet looked a bit sad and lonely without its cover. It made us laugh when thinking of the image had the tent blown down while TBF was sitting in residence as it were

Further disaster was discovered much later when I realised that my interpretation of the phrase “close all the tent windows” wasn’t the same as TJF. She took that to mean shutting the inner tent and leaving the main window wide open – in a torrential downpour! Luckily most of the water was trapped between the layers of the main tent so I could scoop it out. Enough still got through to soak the mattress to the point where I could submerge my hand in water by pushing down on it. Kids can be really dumb sometimes 🙂

Another spectacularly good day out to a local highlight to come in the next post

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The highlight of any stay in the Tarn Gorge is a trip down the river in a kayak. Many stretches are not easily accessible from the road, especially the narrowest section so a kayak is the best way to see it as well as being a huge amount of fun.

Unlike the Dordogne the Tarn is shallower and much faster flowing with several small rapids. Nothing difficult but it does add to the excitement

This time we let the kids loose in their own one person kayaks and it was a huge success. Most kids do some form of kayaking on school trips and they were all totally competent in navigating the river

They took the mick out of some the adults less than impressive skills but again all in good spirit and many laughs ensued

It was a stunning sunny day and the views in the gorge were sensational

Our friend J clearly having a great time – shame about that hat!

After navigating the weir, rapids and bridge through La Malene it was time for a stop and a swim. We found one of the best swimming spots of the whole holiday. A deep and large pool with rocks for jumping

Its only really accessible by kayak and we made the most of it

The DBs show off their jumping prowess

As does C albeit from a lower perch

Others just enjoyed a swim in cold clear waters. A splendid spot

Time to move on and more paddling fun

The kids decided they were skilled enough to actually stand up in the kayaks. Here is TJF, the DBs and C.

I also showed them how to raft up and encouraged them to them walk along the line of kayaks without falling in

While others watched on and avoided such childish antics

Into the narrows or Les Detroits to give them their proper name

An amazing section where the walls of the gorge narrow in to around 100 feet

We found a beach to pull over and spent another happy half hour exploring and swimming

The kids found a rock in the deeper water that provided a good deal of entertainment

How many people can you get on one small rock in a fast flowing river

We stopped off for lunch at the campsite (one of the advantages of the route) before paddling a short way past to the finish

Over all too soon and I think most of us would have happily carried on further if we could have (the gorge is blocked by a chaos of boulders a mile or so further on)

We stopped for another bout of swimming and play before heading back to the campsite

Another grand day out and highlight of what was becoming a classic holiday

These river kayak trips are a real feature of any holiday in this part of France and I was glad to be able to share this with our friends and see them enjoying it as much as I’ve done in the past

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Time to move on, pastures new and all that. After a thoroughly enjoyable week in the Dordogne we changed venues and headed off to our second (or third if you count North Wales) location. My mind was a bit torn as to whether we should just have stayed in one place as we’d really settled in to our home on the campsite and moving of course wastes a day of travelling. Once we’d made the move I was glad we had as the new location was just as good and whilst it was another riverside location it was of a very different character.

A much shorter drive this time through some very pleasant and quiet countryside of France until we crested a rise and the majestic and deep Tarn Gorge opened up before us. After the fun of a drive down the 10 or so zig zags to the bottom we booked into our second home at the excellent campsite, La Blaquiere.

A bit of research had found us another cracking spot. Three pitches together and although we were not right by the river, the site is tucked right in the heart of the narrowest part of the gorge and only 4 rows wide so we were a matter of a minute from the water. The facilities were excellent and the staff welcoming and friendly. Highly recommended and like our choice the previous week I can’t imagine visiting the area and staying somewhere else.

A few photos of the immediate area surrounding the site (a post of the water-based fun to come later). This was our pitch under the cool shady trees. I’d been worried that as the base of the gorge is over 1000 feet and the gorge itself narrow that it might be a little cool, especially if we lost the sun early. In fact the weather was so hot and we had the sun on the site almost all day the shade of the trees was very welcome

The campsite beach first thing in the morning. I often went for a pre-breakfast swim while it was quiet and deserted. The campsite its relatively small so the beach and swimming area were never crowded (other than dodging the bustle of hire kayaks in the middle of the day)

The site had an onsite restaurant that was really very good – one of the best burgers I’ve had anywhere. We ate out on our first and last night

The first night was chaotically busy as they had a local band playing who were actually pretty good in an eclectic sort of way. As you can see it was late and very dark by the time we ate but the atmosphere was pleasant and fun and we had a great evening

We had a couple of stormy afternoons and evenings with some dramatic cloud effects that enhanced the beauty of the gorge

The site also did regular food nights, very handy as shopping is limited (the gorge is quite remote by French standards) and I’m lazy. Pizzas and Chicken featured regularly but one night there was a local team making fresh sausage and Ailigot, a sort of cheesy mash that’s being mixed here. Both sausages and mash were delicious

On our last night we took an expedition up the river by foot, wading across the river as we went. Primarily to take a look at an on old village across the river that’s been turned into holiday homes

The views were spectacular looking towards the narrowest part of the gorge

There was much debate as to which location was the better of the two. The Dordogne has the river and huge amounts of interesting stuff (villages, gardens, caves, castles) but my heart belongs more to the dramatic rock of the Tarn Gorge and its superb river

The inhabitants/guests of the village seemed a little protective of their patch so we consoled ourselves with sneaking around the edges like naughty children (well most of us were children or adults who behave like them)

When it was time to turn around most of the kids decided they could swim back even though the water was far too shallow to do so

They seemed to have fun anyway and the rest of just enjoyed the walk/wade and the surroundings

Despite all the interesting stuff we did, sometimes its just the simple pleasure of leisurely stroll along/in the river from the site that generates some of the best memories

A superb location as a base for another week of fun and adventures and just like our previous site we immediately felt right at home and settled into happy routines of swimming, relaxing and eating with the odd trip out

More Tarn Gorge fun to come

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One of our favourite days out in France is one of the many tree climbing adventure parks. We have them in the UK (Go Ape is best known one) but the courses are limited and very expensive (think over £100 for a family of four). In France they do it better. The courses are everywhere, they are much cheaper (pretty much half the price of Go Ape) and the courses extensive, pretty much a whole half a day to get round.

We returned to one in the Dordogne we’d been to a couple of times before, L’Appel de la Foret near Thenon, with most of the rest of the gang just leaving Mark and TBH to potter about by the campsite.

There is not much to say other than it was tremendous fun especially having the young ‘uns with us. Being an adventurous lot they were all in their element

Of course us oldies also like to have fun as well!! Here is J looking rather duanted by the whole thing

And TBF and then J on the wobbly canoe obstacle

Here is DB Jr showing good form

Encouraged by TBB

C poses for a photo

TBB in action

DB Snr taking it seriously

TJF smiles for the camera

E on the last part of the course I attempted. Just like last time (when I got told off for failing on two obstacles in a row), I got into trouble on this part of the course and had to be rescued – very embarrassing and I decided that was enough.

Also, and I’m not sure why, the course instructors took to referring to me as Captain America. Possibly as I was wearing a bandana to keep the sweat out of my eyes. Whatever the reason they called me that whenever they saw me, high giving and generally taking the pi55, and were even talking to each other on their radios “Captain America approaching obstacle course 7!” TBF thought this was hilarious as did everyone else. I guess I was the days figure of fun 🙂

The last couple of courses were seriously hard and only the brave few had a go. This includes TBF who as you can see was severely limited by her short stature (we were all disproportionately amused to realise she was the shortest person in the whole group including all the kids)

The serious focused look tells you how tough this part of the course was

Clearly being small and light is the key. This is DB Jr, the youngest in the party who just breezed round the last two courses (twice I think)

And TBF finishes the last of the zip wires to round off a most excellent day with again, many, many laughs (mostly at my expense today!)

Travelling in the car with the DBs is also a novel experience especially DB Jr. He has a way with questions and stories that seem to come from the most lively imagination. On the journey home we ended up discussing some kind of bank raid that involved using inflatable alpacas with magnetic hooves as a sort of decoy – go figure where that came from but it had me chuckling and shaking my head all the way back