There have been a few times in my travelling life that I have been totally entranced by my surroundings. Cycling in and around Mt Everest, touring around the Rockies, trekking in the Himalayas and Cycling the Rallervergen in Norway to name but a few but todays ride in near perfect conditions along the Tarn Gorge was right up there for spell binding experiences !.
We left our rapidly decaying resort having grumbled to the receptionist about the state of our cabin. They took little or no notice until H indicated that if someone fell as a result of the cabins condition they would most likely get sued - suddenly some interest !
As a result of the surrounding hills the sun had yet to appear by our 9.30ish start time with conditions once again cool but thankfully nowhere near as cold as we'd experienced on previous days.
Our legs were strong after our rest day and we were pretty relaxed at the start with some gentle climbing to warm us up ! Even at its early stages the Tarn gorge was pretty impressive - sparsely populated, surrounded by steep cliffs with the power of the river over time etched into the cliff face !
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| The start of a fabulous day ! |
Every corner provided better views than the last and it didn't seem long before we were having morning tea overlooking the river in Les Vignes with the sun beating down !
After Les Vignes we were down to the occassional car, a few rock climbers and the towering limestone cliffs for company !
Just before lunch we bumped into a friendly English couple from Portsmouth who provided us with a "gribble" sandwich each after sharing her storey of their intended journey across Europe in a motor home. We thanked them and were on our way again.
With towns few and far between we hussled up some baguettes from a Cafe in La Malene another kayaking spot on the Tarn and a lovely village.
After lunch we came across the gem of the day the magical Saint Chely du Tarn. An ancient medieval bridge spanning the Tarn led us into this beautiful village compete with old stone buildings and its own waterfall. Here H caused the equivalent of an 18 lane blockage on the Sydney Harbour Bridge (Admittedly there was only 1 lane and 1 car but the same principle applied !) He'd parked his bicycle right on the end of the single lane bridge with his panniers sticking out onto the roadway restricting access to the bridge itself - when queried after a passing driver mumbled something in French H ever diplomatically replied "well he's got a steering wheel hasn't he"!
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| Beautiful Saint Chely |
We were almost done out with superlatives by the time we reached the designated beautiful town of 7th Century Saint Enimie for afternoon tea, this really was just too good !
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| Saint Enimie |
Our run in was a further 15kms to Ispagnac with the setting sun silhouetting the semi troglodyte town and former chateaux of Montfort.
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| Montfort |
We finally reached Ispagnac exhausted by a great day before hitting the local supermarket for a sugar fix before taking on the nights buffet meal in our hotel !
This was a truly memorable day !
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