When I returned from my walk yesterday afternoon Rachael immediately handed me the phone to watch while she goes to the bathroom. She’s in the middle of a chat session with T-Mobile and has been on hold for about twenty minutes. She called them so she can find out if there will be any issues with transferring SIM cards to the new phone, and is relieved when they finally report back to let her know there are none. So that at least is a relief.
This morning while we wait for breakfast to start at eight Rachael and I review our options and agree that heading back to Aigues-Mortes is a better plan than La Grande-Motte. It looks like there are two phone or electronics stores close together, which increases our odds of finding the phone we want. Also encouraging is a photo from one of them showing an entire display case labeled Samsung.
I map out a bike ride back to Aigues-Mortes: an easy ride, on the bike path beside the Rhone-Sète Canal the entire way. Over breakfast though, Rachael pipes up with her latest brainstorm. It’s close enough that she’ll just walk there, and it’s about the right distance for a walk she’d normally take anyway. This is really a great idea, but I won’t be going with her because I’m not about to take a ten mile walk and she doesn’t need my technical expertise (pretty much limited to choosing a color anyway) in selecting a phone.
As usual, Rachael finishes off her breakfast first and heads up to the room while I linger over my second cup of coffee and work on the blog. She doesn’t need a second cup in the breakfast room because also as usual she got a jump on the day and had her first cup in the room as soon as she woke up. Today it’s a special treat, instant coffee dissolved in hot water from the sink because there’s no coffee maker or water heater in our room. A gourmet treat!
She’s not gone five minutes when I’m surprised to look up and see she’s walking my way. Maybe she forgot the number of our room? It’s not that though. She’s got a funny look on her face as she casually tells me she has news. Good news. The best, in fact: my phone came back to life last night, as mysteriously as it went black yesterday. Neither one of us can quite believe it. I spontaneously raise my arms above my head, give a soft cheer, and declare we’re rich! Those S24’s don’t come cheap, that’s for sure - especially overseas.
So that changes the plan for the day. Rachael puts together a twelve mile walk for herself that goes west to the lighthouse at l’Espiguette, and is soon gone. I’m headed that way myself as the first part of my bike ride so we’ve both got photos to share from here. We ‘ll start with hers.
As usual, I helped Rachael out by drawing out a walking route to the lighthouse for her. This photo is her way of reminding me that I need to sharpen up my act, because this one leads to a locked gate.
I saw this rock art on the way to the lighthouse also, but her shot is better. And it’s not actually rock art, it’s concrete art painted on the ruins of a World War II bunker.
Karen PoretOh! These are at “human height”! Ours are SO tall you need special ladders to cut those flowers once they have stopped blooming;) Reply to this comment 3 weeks ago
Scott AndersonTo Karen PoretI think it’s probably the perspective of the shot. They’re all well over six feet tall. Reply to this comment 3 weeks ago
Karen PoretTo Scott AndersonOk then, but 6 feet is still “short” compared to our “regulars” at 10-14 feet.. Must be our “California Sunshine”.. ( ha ha) Santa Cruz has a “Mediterranean Climate”, if this helps the perspective. ;) Reply to this comment 3 weeks ago
After the short loop to the lighthouse I returned to the hotel for a short snack before leaving for the second half of my ride - back to Aigues-Mortes along the canal again, and then south of the walled town to wherever the end of the road takes me.
#285: Great-crested grebe. Hardly a new bird for the year, as I’ve seen hundreds of them. It’s another one that I just realized I forgot to log though.
Built in 1242, the hulking and to my eye pretty unattractive Tour de Constance. Others must have found it unattractive too, because it was used as a prison for Protestants who refused to convert to Catholicism in the 17th century.
This is the same wall, but from further down. Something is definitely happening here today. Cars are streaming in, bleachers are filling up. I don’t stay long, thinking I’ll get a look when I double back later.
I don’t have any specific plan in mind when I bike southeast of town from the Queen’s Gate. I figure I’ll just follow the road out through the lagoons and marshes hoping to see some birds until I can’t bike any further. I don’t see many birds - some flamingos, egrets and swans are about it - but it’s a nice, very quiet ride - especially the last mile or so after the pavement ends.
The road eventually does end at one of the myriad channels that chops up the land here, so I just turn back and return to town.
Back in town, I bike through the middle just to refresh my memory from the two times we’ve been here before and then head out to the northwest wall where all the action is.
In Aigues-Mortes. Inside the walls is almost entirely pedestrianized.
There’s much more happening now than an hour or so ago. Bleachers are full, there’s a loud speaker announcing something or other, so something must be about to start. I walk out past the bleachers unhinged the bike - it doesn’t look like there’s any control point or admission - when suddenly I’m stopped. I look back and see a tall man with his hand gripping my bike rack, shaking his head at me with a smile on his face.
So that’s not going to work. I go back outside the bleacher perimeter and find a spot where if I balance myself on the lower railing of the bleachers and hold my camera up above my head I can get a reasonable shot above the crowds. I wait several minutes like that while there’s excitement and cheering from the crowd and announcer, and then a guy runs past the small window I can see through, and then a bull lumbers after him. Then they’re out of sight, and then a collective gasp and a loud reaction from the crowd in reaction to something I can only guess at.
That’s all I stay for though. I’m in an awkward position and not doing my knees any good, so as soon as I’ve gotten a clue about what’s happening here I move on and bike back to Le Grau-Du-Roi along the canal one last time. I’m excited when I see a grebe that looks different out on the water, a red-necked one I think at first until I get back and see it’s just another great-crested one. Just beyond that I come to some railings out in the water with cormorants and gulls perched on them, something I saw earlier in the day. I stop for a look anyway though and am rewarded when I see that some of those whitish birds aren’t gulls after all - they’re terns, sandwich terns. Another lifer, the fourth this week. So that goes on the annual list, as well as the shorter one I’ve been keeping this week of birds seen in the Camargue. 51!
Terns! Its nice to see some sitting still for a change.
____________ ** Camargue bird list: Curlew sandpiper, Ruddy turnstone, Barn swallow, Western sand martin, Grey heron, Great egret, Eurasian blackbird, Western cattle egret, Little egret, Black headed gull, Yellow legged gull, Willow warbler, Eurasian coot, Mute swan, Common kingfisher, Pied avocet, Great cormorant. Eurasian magpie, European starling, Eurasian collared dove, Rock pigeon, Common wood pigeon, Eurasian kestrel, Black redstart, Glossy ibis, Eurasian jackdaw, Little grebe, Carrion crow, Great crested grebe, Common buzzard, Greater flamingo, Common swift, Mallard, Eurasian moorhen, White stork, Green winged teal, Common redshank, European Robin, Eurasian goldfinch, European greenfinch, Northern shoveler, Black-bellied plover, Spotted redshank, Wood sandpiper, Common chiffchaff, Eurasian magpie, Common ringed plover, Eurasian curlew , Meadow pipit, Eurasian oystercatcher, Sandwich tern (51)
Today's ride: 29 miles (47 km) Total: 4,330 miles (6,968 km)
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Bob KoreisChoosing a phone color? Sounds like a forum thread. Does color really matter if it's inside a protective case? Does it ever help you to not forget your phone or misplace it? Is there a color that brings you joy?
