Friday 30th October

We didn’t wake up until 10am yesterday, we had plans of where we were maybe going but by the time Lucy had let the water heat up for her shower, had the shower, washed up, dried up and hoovered we were nearly into lunchtime.

I had a quick look on the database and found somewhere fairly nearby with great views of the ocean. It also had two really poor reviews, both from Frenchmen who didn’t like the police coming round every couple of hours and stopping them from eating outside. I think it’s great that the police will come round every couple of hours making sure everything is tickety boo. It’s not as if there weren’t any picnic benches at this aire.

The only thing against this aire was that it sloped down towards the sea so we had to park backside on.

We are back on GR 34 so before lunch we went for a wander along the cliff top, we should have taken lunch with us but the views were good. You may be able to make out the mussel beds out at sea. I’ve been practicing stitching photos together to make a panorama, I think it worked quite well but then I’m looking at the 50,000,000 pixel image and you’re looking at a lousy jpg.

Zoomed in a bit you can see the tractors harvesting the mussels.

Because we were so isolated we had left the blinds down and noticed the moon’s reflection on the sea.

Next morning we set off via the local Hyper U for a drink for Frankie, luckily his drink is cheaper than Lucy’s and he slurps it down slower. We have target in mind, we might get there tomorrow but after a few shenanigans we’ve found a lovely aire at St Augen with all the services for free. It is very close to the hydroelectric dam, so close it has it’s own museum dedicated to hydroelectric dams.

It also had some pumpkins. This is the display outside the village church

And outside the local cafe.

Local maps show a circular walk and lots of signs were pointing towards a dam with a viewing point so we followed the signs, went up steep tracks, down steep tracks and after three or four miles found the viewing point.

No dam though. Lucy doesn’t like steep bits, either up or down, and she is growling at this point because she knows that we have to retrace our route to get back to Frankie. And then we see a little sign, dam this way, 350m. After 1.5km we came to the dam.

And here is all the water, not. It has been drained, you can see where the water level should be and you can see footpaths either side of the little stream through the middle.

And this is all you can see of the dam. We find out later that every thirty years or so they drain the reservoir so they can put a bit of Polyfilla in all the cracks. Apparently we are lucky to have seen this because it won’t happen for another 30 years. On sunday they are putting the plug back in and if it rains it will be full up again in two months time. If your EDF bill goes up it is so they can buy extra Polyfilla.

We are staying here the night, it was quiet but we’ve been surrounded again by l’hommes Francais.