M1 was still nursing a sore right calf so a long walk would not have been a wise choice. In leisurely time, we walked towards Les Cours on the opposite side of the main Lauteret road through open country and reached the Lac du Pontet (1982m) where we had a cool orangina at the cafe which was an obvious point of attraction to the many families who could drive almost all the way. A straight walk back would not have been enough exercise so we started out to walk the marked route 422 via the high point l'Aiguillon then into the next valley of the river Maurian. For a few days we had noted that this valley captured cloud and weather before our valley did and today was no exception. A dark brooding cloud appeared ahead of us as we climbed on this much quieter track but we didn't fancy a drenching so we about faced and went downhill to Villar d'Arene. M2 fancied more exercise even though rain continued to threaten and he jogged the final miles back to the van. M1, meanwhile, had anticipated the stop at the hotel Le Bec de l'Homme which had free wifi access. So after a delicious omelette nature and salade vert, he produced his laptop from his rucksac and went on line to update the blog after too many days out of contact. The mountains caused problems for phone and internet access but the Orange.fr connection stick had been pretty disappointing as well as expensive with the service unreliable, the coverage patchy and the procedures cumbersome. Nevertheless, good progress was made with the blog updated although there was no access to emails or other websites. We stocked up with a few provisions and had a light but tasty meal on board - a pate starter followed by a variation of salad nicoise. Earlyish to bed.
No comments:
Post a Comment