Day 63: Les Saintes Maries to Aigues Mortes

October 11, 2024

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Our spot, Les Rizieres, just outside of Les Saintes Maries, was really super. Our ground floor room opened to a protected courtyard, where the bikes could be right outside. So easy for loading and unloading.

The place also had its own little pond, not to mention the large one (etang) across the street.

I went out for a stroll on the grounds, while Dodie packed. My first encounter was with a ragondin (nutria). Usually when we see these they dive and swim quickly away. But this one just hung in there.

Next up was a Eurasian Moorhen. The red and yellow bill is quite fancy.

There were Mallards too. Mallards deserve to be in the photo album now and again, even if they are so common.

Our big thing for the day was to visit the Pont de Gau Ornithological park, which was just down the road from our hotel. It's a network of trails and hides running amongst a dozen or more etangs, which are themselves adjacent to the huge Etang de Gines. The trails amount to 7 km of walks, over 148 acres..

The park perversely opened quite late, at 10 a.m., for those wanting to see birds. We arrived before then and took our place in line. The man beside us, who you see below, was pretty well equipped. Naturally I asked about his camera (Canon full frame, with 600 mm lens, valued at 8000 euros), and had a lively discussion of shutter speeds and types of tripods. Because I was partly blaming my fall from the bike on my shoes, I was interested in his. He said that these were is light duty ones, because of being low rise. Otherwise he needs higher ones for deeper water and to defend against snakes. This was a serious dude!

Our guym however, was a trifler compared to some others, like these:

It was clear that my camera, that used to seem so big to me, was a toy, and would not qualify me to sit in the cafe and talk sensors and stuff with any of these other birders.

Just inside the gate was this list of what birds had been spotted here lately. This is not of general interest to readers here, but it is a bit of help in identifying birds we saw, or should have seen!

Despite all the varieties of birds that have been seen here, the main attraction is the flamingos. The blackboard mentions 1192 seen today, I think. That could be an underestimate, based on the swaths of them that were all about.

One of these things is not like the others!

We also caught some in flight:

Beside Flamingos there were a certain number of other species, though not overwhelmingly so:

Maybe a type of Sparrow? We are uncertain about this one.

This is the best shot I could get of the dragonfly.

24229 Grey Plover The darn Flamingo refused to move!

The park had really a lot of comprehensive info panels, and warranted a much longer stay. We knew we still had a day's pedalling to do, so we headed out.

Nearby were a number of horse ride outfits. The horses here did not look sad, as did those in the town.

We have been dismayed by the amount of traffic we are finding on almost all roads in the Camargue. We did try at one point to go a quieter way - and it actually was our pre-planned track. But look - we had to turn back and go on the high speed road. Fortunately there was a shoulder.

The road to Aigues Mortes has several shops selling the main regional products: rice, Muscat grapes, taureau sausages, salt, and wine. The wine has its own AOC and is known as sand wine, because the soil is in fact sand.

In a shop, we see three varieties of the local rice

Sardines with colourful tins, and claiming to be different types.

The regional product shops are in fact few, and not very large.

We continued to meet Camargue horses along the way. This fellow had two companions, and they seemed to be roaming quite free.

Here we ran into a few desultory nougat bars, from Montelimar. Desultory or not, we still bought the one with figs, on the left.

Bouillabaisse seems more like a Marseille thing.

Look, the Gardiane (taureau stew) is the same price as at the restaurant in Saintes Maries.

As we approached Aigues Mortes, and our hotel among the large grocery stores and traffic, we met this lady. She could be our "Last Unicorn".

Today's ride: 36 km (22 miles)
Total: 3,226 km (2,003 miles)

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Kelly IniguezThis area is just coming on my radar for next summer. I want to walk the walls at Aigues-Mortes, see the flamingos, the cows, and the horses! I'm just hoping it isn't so overrun with tourists as to take the fun out of the experience . . . I'm sure you will see it all tomorrow. I'm waiting for the update!
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4 days ago

Steve Miller/GrampiesTo Kelly IniguezOoh, summer. Might be very busy and lots of vehicle traffic. Still, it is a really fabulous part of the world and should be fun.
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4 days ago

Keith ClassenTo Steve Miller/GrampiesYes - such an interesting area to explore. It was our first time through this area. We originally intended to go to Les Saintes Maries as recommended by fellow travellers but thought it required some doubling back so we went the more direct route. Next time. Great flamingo and horse shits - I mean shots. Typo!
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4 days ago

Steve Miller/GrampiesTo Keith ClassenGotta love autocorrect?
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3 days ago