9th September 2024

The weather did clear up in the evening, and the canopy was dry in the morning, so it could be packed away and potentially left packed away until we got home. There was one problem. I had to leave one of my expensive tent pegs behind. I had nailed it through a thick root in the ground and no matter how hard I pulled, it would not come out.  I eventually sacrificed it by nailing it down underground, so hopefully no injury to future campers.

We set off at around 11.00 stopping at a SuperU filling station.  This was not associated with any supermarket.  This year I have seen quite a few SuperU stations like this.  The shop next to the station had a notice saying, that it was not affiliated with the station and that there were no loos. The filling station was totally automatic, and took a wapping 300 euro deposit, for a small 80 euro topup.

We had a lovely trip alongside the lake and across the lake, joined the motorway and blitzed down to Aux-En-Provence, to this huge supermarket to buy a cheap chair.  Lunch & chair purchased, we were on our way.  Not on the toll road, but on a route we had not taken before. This took us through some industrial areas near Martigues and Port-de-Bouc such as esso refineries and the ports.  Pretty fascinating.

Arived at Saintes-Maries-de-la-Mer and checked in for 7 nights.  Very soon, a breeze blowing.

Had a walk down to the beach. The only change appears to be that there were many buoys moored at to sea. One of the mud banks in the lagoon seems now to have weed growing on it. The water level of the salt flats was a little higher than last year, 

Quite a srong wind from the North West, so the sea was actually quite quiet. There were four swimmers.