Sunday 29th May Navacelles to Le Vigan

Shouldn't moan as I know that not everyone is experiencing blue skies but here the heat wave which disappeared for a couple of days has now come back full force and temperatures were again up into the 30s. Surprising how much the heat takes out of you and although the walk was only 22 kilometres we both felt drained at the end of it.

Essentially the walk involved a climb out of yesterday's gorge, a walk across some classic causse countryside through a couple of villages along the way, and then a long walk down through an oak and sweet chestnut forest to Le Vigan.

Setting off it wasn't too hot a Christine took a picture of yours truly on the bridge on the way out of Navacelles. Notice that I'm now wearing full anti-tick gear.

Leaving Navacelles

The walk up the side of the gorge gave increasingly spectacular views of the Cirque de Navacelles and you can even make out the waterfalls where the "new" river route goes.

Cirque de Navacelles

I know people rave about the causse scenery but when it's hot like today the arid, desert like characteristics come to fore. Very little cover and everything baking under the sun. That said there were still lots of wild flowers in particular orchids and honeysuckle.

Classic causse vegetation

Honeysuckle

Went through three villages before we got to Le Vigan, Blandas, Montdardier and Avese, all with accommodation options, although Montdardier where we had hoped to escape the heat and have lunch was being completely dug up to lay new water pipes and everything was shut down.

Saw our first couple walking in the style of Robert Louis Stephenson with a donkey. I'm with Nicholas Crane who suggests that Travels with a Donkey is responsible for more cases of donkey abuse than other book. The donkey was keener to eat than to walk and it difficult to see where the accelerator peddle was.

Donkey abuse

After the heat a walk down through the trees was a welcome change. The local guide book describes the young oak trees as pubescent, something lost in translation perhaps. Because she'd missed out on lunch I took pity on Christine and let her borrow my iPod and she was soon waving her arms about to Pavarotti singing La Boheme.

Still hot when we got to Le Vigan not helped by the fact that the hotel we are staying in turned out to be on the edge of town and a kilometre or so in the direction from which we had just walked.

Climbing high tomorrow, over 1,000 metres, so should be cooler. We then spend three days in the Cevennes National Park which could be amazing.

Saturday 28th of May La Vacquerie et Saint-Martin-de-Castries to Navacelles

Our wonderful host at the Chambre d'Hote (Le Relais des Faisses) reminded us that the causse area we are now walking through was the setting for the sinister event in Ian McEwan's novel "Black Dog". We are also getting into the countryside where La Bete du Gevaudan, a wolf-like monster, killed 100 people, between 1764 and 1767. Given that combination I'm not sure what was worst, the first black dog to start barking at us or the exceptionally hairy donkey.

Black Dog

Brilliant morning for a walk, bright, cool wind, clear blue sky, perfect fit with the wide open landscape which featured in the first half of the walk. It's much dryer here than the countryside I've been walking through since the Pyrenees and the greens have changed from spring like to high summer.

High dry plain to the north of La Vacquerie et Saint-Martin-de-Castries

After crossing a high level plain the first village you get to is Saint-Maurice-de-Navacelles which looks nice but with not as many facilities as our stop-over last night. Just after Saint-Maurice-de-Navacelles you drop into the Gorge de la Vis, a great gash across the causse.

The walk along the gorge was great, initially a steep descent all the way down to the river and then a gently undulating walk along the side. The only frustration was that the river looked very inviting and we had set our minds on a bit of river swimming, but the path stubbornly kept its distance.

Gorge de la Vis

La Vis

After walking about 20 kilometres we arrived a Navacelles which is a beautiful village complete with crashing waterfalls and a wonderful ancient footbridge. Staying here and spent the afternoon relaxing in the sun and Christine even went for a swim. Much too cold for me but I haven't been acclimatised by swims in the English Channel.

Navacelles

Bridge at Navacelles

Wild water swimming

Navacelles is also the location for the Cirque de Navacelles. A neck of a sharpe meander in the river system eventually cut through and the neck formed the waterfalls and the ancient meander the Cirque. The flat bottom of the ancient river bed is now a large U shaped hay meadow and Nacacelles sits inside the U on the island of rock next to the waterfalls. An amazing location it was declared a site of special national significance in 1943.

Christine writes: Our base tonight is 'Ammonite', a beautifully restored old house owned by a friendly Dutch family who also run the creperie down the road. Looking forward to salad and omelette tonight. John has just found the key to last night's room in his trouser pocket - our host has volunteered to get it back to it's rightful owner.

Friday 27th of May Lodeve to La Vacquerie et Saint-Martin-de-Castries

More fun and games trying to find our way out of Lodeve this morning and it turns out that the GR7 goes on a fairly circuitous route heading south before it loops back up round to where it should be going. This southern diversion was enough to confuse me and it wasn't until we had the entire staff of the tourist information office working on the problem that I accepted that the circuitous route was indeed the right one. Fortunately today was quite a short one so the time wasted didn't really matter.

After the heat of yesterday today was much cooler, cloudy to start with and then clear and windy, good walking weather.

Picked up a baguette for lunch which Christine insisted on sticking out the back of my rucksack, actually very useful for picking up wifi.

Marching out of Lodeve

Fozeires

Initially we shared the route with the Pilgrim's Way and the GR 71 and it wasn't until we got to the pretty village of Fozieres that we got onto the GR7 proper. It was then a fairly long monotonous walk up through pine trees with the monotony only broken by the occasional cherry orchard with an opportunity for cherry gorging.

Just past the Col du Melanque

After about 20 kilometres and 900 metres of climb we started to escape the trees and emerge into the causse countryside proper. I like it and after 6 days of walking through trees it's a really nice change.

Approaching La Vacquerie et Saint-Martin-de-Castries

La Vacquerie et Saint-Martin-de-Castries was a bit of a surprise, a lot more facilities than we were expecting. We are staying in a Chambre d'Hote, which doesn't evening meals but there is a smart looking restaurant in the village and we're going there tonight.

Something worrying is that I'm suddenly getting attacked by ticks, four in the last three days which compares with one in the last 55 years. I think I managed to remove all the bits but I don't really know how dangerous they are. Anyway from tomorrow I will be wearing long trousers as a safe rather than sorry precaution. If anyone has any advice on ticks please let me know.

Thursday May 26th Ceilhes-et-Rocozels to Lodeve

It's official, I'm in the middle of a heat wave. It's supposed to be a around 25 degrees but today it was hitting 32, even at attitude.

Very hot day for Christine to start walking with me but the good news was that instead of 37 kilometres I thought we were going to have to walk to get to Lodeve all we had to was 22, in this heat this seriously fortunate. Actually we have decided we like these shorter walks so have rescheduled things a bit for the next few days so that instead of 8/9 hour days we will be limiting things to 5/6, it is Christine's holiday after all.

Not the very best walk, not just the heat but quite a lot of road walking and indeed a lot more than my route on the GPS and the topoguide, which Christine brought out (together with new walking shoes and socks) were telling us. Shock horror, the topoguide, the official publication of the French Randonne Association, was also different to markings on the ground, we didn't know who to believe.

The heat meant that the views were covered in a heat haze and that all you really wanted was the shade offered by the trees.

Above Lodeve

First day in France for Christine

The most exciting thing to happen, really exciting in a sad nerdy sort of way, is that we met three people in red t-shirts marking out the route. It was like being a child waking up and finding the tooth fairy. They had secateurs, pots of paint and baskets full of gardening equipment. They were from the Randonne Association d'Herault, although we couldn't quite work out if they had a relationship with the regional or departmental government. Anyway we challenged them about the inaccurate topo guide maps and they informed us that despite it being a new edition, and published by the national body, it was out of date and did not incorporate the changes they have to make on the ground. The maps are more likely to be up-to-date but even they suffer from the fact that it is difficult to keep up with changes made on the ground.

Marking the route

As they had walked the route to Lodeve we had no trouble in finding the markings all the way into town and the Hotel du Nord. Like Mazamet this town felt a bit run down and passed by, which given the new motorway going round it is perhaps exactly what has happened.

Christine writes: John is in good form, relaxed and tanned. The scenery round here is very green and tamer than I expected. The wild honeysuckle, broom and dog rose all smell good which is just as well as John's T shirts are distinctly sniffy.

Wednesday 25th May Castenet le Haut to Ceilhes-et-Rocozels

Just more of the same I'm afraid, perfect weather, great countryside and nice places to stop over.

The food in the Auberge de Fau was excellent. Really impressed with the young couple who were running it obviously as a side business to their farm. So as well as making sure I got a perfect table d'hote, they had been busy getting the silage in all day and keeping their two young children entertained. Notice that the silage is being cut at least a week ahead of David in the Archers, although to be fair he does seem to have a lot on his plate at the moment.

Auberge de Fau

The only disadvantage of the Auberge was it involved dropping down into a valley from the GR 71 and all of the height lost had to regained. It took nearly an hour to get back to the route but the starting point was further along the trail.

Although it was all very nice it was, to be honest, all very similar, no huge views and no obvious pattern to the landscape. Although at one point I think I was looking back to the Pic Noire the views to all points of the compass were the same.

Montagne de l'Epinouse

The only settlement you go through is the village of Melagues, and it was very small although the GR signs were vague enough to get me lost. After wandering up and down for a few minutes, consulting a local, I was back into the trees and on my way to Ceilhes-et-Rocozels.

Melagues

Arrived at about 4.30 and Christine got here at 6.00 The first thing she wanted to do was go for a walk! Managed to persuade her to restrict this to walk to the bar overlooking the lake along the road. We spent the next hour or so catching up on all the news.

Tomorrow's walk to Lodeve is just a bit too long particularly as we are not going to get away until 8.30 in the morning. Might need to figure out a way of shortening it a bit.

Tuesday 24th May Fraisse-sur-Agout to Castenet le Haut

Had a really nice meal in the Auberge Spinouse where I stayed last night, mega salad, the local variant on black pudding and three different types of dessert all for 13 euros with wine. Things definitely looking up on the food front and the weather continues to be excellent.

The main problem today was that the route of the GR 71, which is what the E4 is supposed to be on at the moment, has been changed. Seems like my route which I down loaded from the GR-info web site and the digital maps are out of date. I think it must be some sort of official re-routing because the GR signs have been carefully removed. I was still able to navigate using the GPS but had no on-the-ground clues to support my efforts and until I got to the last third of the route I just wasn't on the official trail.

Can understand why they might have changed the route because while the beginning and end of the walk were nice the middle bit was dull - essentially through a never ending commercial pine plantation.

The first stretch involved a steady climb up to the Col de Fontfroide, where there was an interesting war memorial, and then a really nice walk through open countryside with good views south and east. To the south, through the distant clouds you could see a ghostly Canigou, it's now haunting me.

War Memorial at Col de Fontfroide

Montagne de L'Espinouse

After that it was walking along forest access trails through regimented pine trees, it was starting to get hot and progressively less and less enjoyable. Eventually the trail disappeared altogether and I had to bushwhack down a very overgrown firebreak and then the GR signs re-emerged. The joy was short-lived however when I got to a junction and there was a cross and a scallop shell, not the GR 71 but the St James Way and heading towards Spain. Was starting to think that a route just didn't exist, retraced my steps a couple of times when I saw a sign down a fairly overgrown route in what was almost the right direction. It got better and better, after about half a hour a sign actually said the GR 71.

Really nice walk for the last few kilometres, lots of those tree tunnels, saw a eagle flying overhead and disturbed a deer.

Shady Tunnel

Deer in the broom

Staying in the Auberge de Fau which is completely in the middle of nowhere and about a kilometre to the south of the route. Two other people staying here and we will be eating in a very grand dining room with a massive fire place containing a suitably massive log fire, not cold but a great display.

Monday 23rd May Angles to Fraisse-sur-Agout

So I still don't know what Gite d'Etape is. It can be a room with bunks where you have to find the key holder to get access (the miserable Gite d'Etape) or it can be like last night where the only inconvenience is that you have to share a bath room (the nice Gite d'Etape). Last night also served good food, four course meal and as much wine as the Frenchmen sat next to me could pour into my glass (well I did keep emptying it). Whole thing including breakfast, 35 euros, good value or what.

Angles also had an all purpose Boulangerie open at 8 on a Monday. Was able to dump my 2 day old baguette, which was now so hard it was dangerous, get a new one and a lump of Pate de Campagne for 2 euros. Traditional France is seriously endangered but reports of its extinction are exaggerated.

Angles, Salvetat-sur-Agout (half along today's walk) and Fraisse-sur-Agout are similar large villages, small towns. The buildings are clad with slate which gives them a bit of a run town look but all of them are surrounded by little holiday bungalows and I suspect it gets busy here in the summer. As well as the countryside the attraction is probably the swimming and fishing in the rivers and lakes/reservoirs.

Lac de la Raviege

La Salvetat-sur-Agout

The weather has also got better again, in fact a perfect day, sunny, clear but not too hot.

The walk was very similar to yesterday. Mixed wooded countryside, gentle climbs and descents, and periodically opening up with hay meadows. Just a little bit more road walking than I've got used to but mainly quiet country lanes with a virtual absence of traffic.

Did get one big view back to the Pic Noire, the one with the rocket on top, and, as the mountain slopped away you could also see the Pyrenees in the background. I keep thinking I seen the last of them and there they are again, seven days walking since I left them, they must be stalking me.

Talking of stalkers, loads of walkers coming the other way along the St James Way, must have seen about twenty this morning. One of them even had the same bag as me. The woman at the Gite wanted to know if I wanted my card stamped - not me matey, not unless you do E4 stamps.

A St James Way Walker

So another lovely walk, particularly if you like the pastoral forest mix. Pretty sure I saw a field of orchids but could be wrong but certainly had more of my share of lush meadows full of flowers.

Orchids

Hay Meadow