Cooling in the Tarn

Cooling in the Tarn

After saying goodbye to one of the few English couples we’ve met on the journey so far (from County Durham, on a ten week sabbatical), and picking their brains about sites and experiences, we set off on another big climb up Mont Lozere, a large mountain to the north of Florac. We’d set off in the cool of the morning, expecting it to be sweltering on the way back down. It didn’t turn out to be too hard until you got near the top and then it suddenly became quite steep. But thanks to my granny cog, I slowly but surely reached the top of another 1000m climb. Slowly but steadily, not thinking too much about the distance and incline ahead, or about Ian’s shape disappearing into the distance. We passed through a couple of lovely little villages, Le Pont de Mont Vert, and Cocures, but no time to stop and stare! It was getting hotter and there wasn’t a cloud in the beautiful blue sky.
A quick photo and then a wonderfully cooling first half descent. As we got closer, even the breeze felt very warm and the road surface started to become sticky! After 35miles we arrived back and plunged straight into the River Tarn. You can get into it from the campsite. Lovely cold clean water. It even smells nice. It must be clean because they bottle it just up the river! It was a new experience for us, as we’re much more used to the smell and feel of pleasantly warm sea water. Once we’d got our body temperatures down, we hunkered under the expensive but totally indispensible awning, one of the number of extras we bought for Tommy. More about the van later. Tomorrow we’re off to explore, in the van, the rest of the Tarn Gorge which stretches for at least 30miles. Then on to visit on ex-next door neighbours from Buckinghamshire, who are living in France for 6months. It will be lovely to catch up with them and talk about what they’ve discovered.