15th September 2024

Reckon the mice could still be getting in by jumping up and clambering up Morrison’s willy.  So, I pushed it up higher. This seems to have cured the problem, as no more mice caught during the day or night.

Today we walked across the saltmarsh. Interestingly the water level was higher, and possibly had been higher in the hours before. Where we had walked on previous days, was now flooded. They must have been letting the Rhone flood into the area. Not much was happening, several groups of horses were trekking around the landscape, catching up on the previous day. Yes, today was still windy, but not as bad as yesterday.

While we were sitting outside the van in the afternoon, drinking beer, I managed to drink down a wasp which had inveigled its way to my beer bottle.  It stung me on my tongue, prompting me to spit out the beer all over the vans foot step. R was not impressed. She leapt for the Epipen, but, hey, that’s an injection! Instead, I ate a couple of anti-histamines and spent the rest of the afternoon and evening being really miserable. No supper for me tonight, but i did think a JD & coke would help anaethetize my poor tongue. R said, unhelpfully, that I sounded like a bad imitation of Sean Connery, ie rather shlurry.

13th September 2024

Another cold, windy day. Sun was about. I was up early and walked out of the campsite to the marshes at 8.00am. Unfortunatley, without a long walk, 8.00am is the earliest you can get out, There are many dog walkers at this time, (frightening the birds) and the sun is already quite high. Quite a few herons and egrets were fishing along the ditch, The ones close to the sea were tame and never moved. The further away you get, the more wary they became, and it was impossible to creep up on them.  Out  on the lagoon there were some Flamingos close to the shore, but as I approached they moved away.  Not a very successful birding drip.

Walking back along the fence, the numerous dragonflies patrolling the fence had been replaced with house martins / swifts / swallows. They were gorging themselves on dragonflies in the lee of the fence.

R was doing the washing and was having difficulties paying, so I rushed back.  Then a call she was successful and had paid by contactless, Why does she insist on plugging the card in and tapping the number.  It is not more secure. Mind you a washing machine that needs a credit card for payment, is new to us! Later we went back to put the washing into the tumble dryer.

After washing and drying we walked into town, visiting the Friday market.  Lots of tat and knives on sale, along with vegetables, salt, chicken, cheeses and meat.

Buying nothing we started a search for a restaurant. Using Google maps we did a compromise on Google ratings, the food type, and whether anyone was eating there today.

We in the end chose the ‘La Cour’ where we had Ricard, pink wine, baked mussels with cheese and a salad. R’s starter salad caused a bit of confusion, it was a main course salad so I also tucked in. Mains I had a bull steak, while Rosemay opted for a more veggie dish, while she muttered about leather handbags being easier to eat than bull. No puddings (no room!), but an espresso and a local Camargue Pastis each.

Back to the campsite, via the small supermarket for the next few days’ food.

Still windy. Noticed some food bags in the van had been chewed. R said this was friction wear in travelling. I was not so sure. We had also started to hear sounds from behind the sink. Tonight I spotted a mouse in one of the cupboards, but it rushed over the top of the back board and disappeared. Later I saw two mice come out from under the fridge. They disappeared quickly underneath again. Not good.

During the night we could hear then scrabbling around.  The wind also rose, and eventually we dropped the roof down, so we could get some sleep.  The other VW at some time during the night did the same thing.  The wind on the Meteo France was gusting at well over 60k.

11th September 2024

The wind was still strong from the North, but it was a little cooler today. The sky to the North was shrouded with thin clouds, which stopped at the sea border.

We went for a walk along the beach to the East. The marshes and lagoons were on our left. The lagoons were devoid of avian life, except for the very occasional Egret and a large group of flamingos on the furthest away lagoon.

We headed inwards and were surprised by the amount of glass. We came to the conclusion that much of the land was reclaimed and built up from a rubbish dump, or dumping ground for builders’ waste. The odd circuit board was found along with old concrete.

Walked towards the main lagoon and had our Sad Gits conference call. Only us, Simon and Richard today.

Back then towards the campsite, lots of dragonflies around.  Time for lunch.

After lunch went for a swim. Not many other people swimmimg. It was also clouding up. Despite the strong wind, the sea was calm, the wind coming off the land.

Quick walk to the shop to stock up some more beers.

Supper of duck and duck fat chips.

Rain started to spit as we went to bed.