We drove about an hour northwest to a large lake, the Lac du Salagou, for a hike. The day started off quite cloudy and the mistral (a strong, cool, dry wind from the northwest) was blowing. We were glad for all our layers as we started out over the wine-colored dirt. But wait, I’m getting ahead of myself… As we arrived we saw this:
A herd of sheep, working dogs, and a double livestock trailer blocked the road to the parking area. The dogs were getting the sheep rounded up into a nice tight group. Were they about to be loaded up to go to slaughter? Nope, apparently they had just arrived and they soon headed off to a nearby pasture. How much does it cost to move your sheep around by truck? Presumably not as much as it costs to ferry reindeer over to an island for summer pasture, as they do with reindeer we saw in Norway. How herding has changed in the last century!
This is obviously a big tourist destination in the summer, but the boats we saw were looking a little sad.
We saw a few hikers (after a group of a couple dozen finishing their morning hike passed as we headed out). In a few places along the shore were fishermen’s tents, each with a rack of unattended rods along the water while the fishermen stayed out of the wind by their tents. The fish must be pretty small if they won’t drag the rods, so I’m guessing this is more about the experience than the eating. But that’s true for most fishing, no?
The scenery looked a lot like areas of the national parks we saw in Utah last year: red mudstone carved by wind and water and lots of spiky plants. Running through the red were veins of a harder, white rock. But where did all the gray rocks on the stone walls come from? All we could see was red, red, red.
As we climbed up about 120m (400 ft), we finally found the gray layer. This lake must have been a lot deeper long ago, depositing iron-rich mud that eventually turned to mudstone. All the gray stones rolled downhill, perhaps with a helping hand from the wall builders. We needed a geologist with us on this hike… is my mudstone hypothesis correct? Are those two conical hills in the lake volcanic in origin? What are those white veins – quartz?
As we walked along the top of the hill, we heard a strange bird.
Oops, not a bird! These goats didn’t have bells or tags – perhaps they’re feral?
I chose this hike somewhat at random, using my French hiking trail app to find a place with a reasonable-length loop with hopes of good scenery. It was far more beautiful than either of us expected. A great way to spend a day!
Beyond Our French Adventure 