The sun came out today!
Well rested after yesterday’s journey we set out on our bikes along the cycle path, heading towards Ares centre. We actually ended up in Andernos, a little way along the coast, which was quite charming.
We stopped in a bar for a café au lait (the young barman didn’t understand, it appears I should have asked for café crème..) and a chocolate. They came in very small cups – which was just as well as my chocolate was sooo strong I’m not sure I could have drank much more.
When leaving we headed off in a different direction, trying to go along the coast but blocked by a marina (isn’t it always the way?) Instead we found another aire, a lovely little church and a nature reserve to pedal through.
We went off one way but soon had to push our bikes through sand. I did a quick reccy and found that this continued for as far as you could see so we had to turn round and head off through the forest. Where we eventually found a little lake with it’s own beach. Very lovely.
Because we’d come back a different way we took a few wrong turns before following my nose (not Calv’s – he was completely lost..) and finding the cycle path once again.
Back to the van for some lunch (massive tuna salad for Calv, red pepper, onion & mushroom omelette for me). Followed by a bit of relaxing
Then we headed off again, this time in the car. We weren’t quite sure where we were headed but ended up on our way down the peninsula towards Cap Ferret. We made it to the tip, which we thought was a little disappointing – although not completely sure we found the main bit (again French signage…) We kept perservering though and followed signs for something called Point Belvedere. Jackpot! We weren’t sure exactly what we’d found at first (only that it was almost definitely the dunes). Following the sign to the beach, as it was all fenced off where we arrived, we made our way for about 1/2 mile up and down a very deep sandy path (it was hard work!!) I very nearly didn’t go down onto the beach as I was worried about getting up again, but I was very glad I did.
This beach at the very tip of Cap Ferret has currents going everywhich way, meaning the waves are crashing together from different directions constantly (heaven for surfers of course). When you walk along the shore you can see sandflies and various other flying insects jumping around in the sands. The sand itself squeaks when you walk on it, and it collapses underfoot as you walk along, even though you think you’ve found a stable area.
Debris is constantly being washed up (I guess due to the strong currents). And clearly in the past (before they started making efforts to protect the dunes back in the 80s) villages have been washed away. As we walked along it became clear that the lumps that we took to be huge rocks in the sea, were actually complete buildings. It was difficult to find any information about these, but from what I could find it appears they were washed into the sea in 1974. That’s it – that’s all I could find 😦
We treated ourselves to an ice-cream when we finally made it back to civilisation, and watched a few hardy surfers crashing about in the waves. Looked a bit too adventurous for my liking….
We stopped a couple more times at entry areas for the dunes (again, guesswork, very few signs) but the walk down to them each time was very long so we gave up!
Back to the van via a Super U for some provisions. However, we had to hurry it up as we were summoned to the checkouts for closing. We thought that we’d found a better quality of fruit & vegetables. Sadly it was not to be. Again the fruit was ruined by this morning – most of it fit only for the bin. Very disappointing.
Bacon, cheese & mushroom sarnies for tea. Yum!
Btw, Mike, if you’re reading, Calv is having great fun with his bug exterminator! It’s proving extremely useful 🙂 So thanks 🙂
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