Canoe trip down the Dordogne - Souillac to Beynac
2nd half brilliant weather!
22.09.2013 - 25.09.2013
remember above map we are travelling along the river
Sunday 22nd Sept 13 (day 22)
Our only objective today was to find a shop that sold camping gaz as we were on our last cartridge and did not want to move on without a backup.
Woke up to a brilliant sunny day that stayed that way the whole day. I kid you not - not a cloud in the sky. The only white we could see above we caused by jet streams criss crossing way above. Perfect day for drying all our washing that Lyn put through the machine last night. This was all outside hanging from the portable clothes line, trees and railings.
We had a leisurely breakfast of poached egg on fried bread (no toaster) and then headed out to the shops to find gaz. As it was Sunday the shops close at 12.30, but we only had about 1 km to walk to a big department store. With a sigh of relief they had our gaz and we purchased 2 cylinders to be on the safe side.
We walked back slowly enjoying the sunshine. Again I have to say it, there was not a cloud in the brilliant blue sky. Such a change from previous day - lovely.
We lazed the day away, Lyn checking on the drying situation of all our belongings and me catching up on loading photos and blogs. Lovely relaxing day.
At about 5.30pm we decided to go out for a bit of a walk around town - it was still brilliant sunshine and I have to say it again - not a cloud in the sky to distract from the perfect blue.
An hour later back in our 'tithome' that is what they call this cabin we are in, we had some duck pate with a glass of chilled wine, then went and had a hot shower before dinner. Lyn found another hole in the air bed, that is why it when down after my half arsed repair job, and put on another patch, so it should fair well when we need to sleep on it again tomorrow night.
But tonight we have another night in a soft warm bed with a hard roof overhead. Lyn turned on the heater in her little room and now the whole place is toasty warm. It has been a nice little break in between but I'm keen to continue down the river and fingers crossed this weather stays with us for a few days more.
Monday 23rd Sept 13 (day 23)
We set an alarm to wake up at 8am as we had to be out of our 'tithome' by 10am. Taking the opportunity we needed the time to have a cooked breakfast and pack up our gear again. Everything had been removed from its wet bag so it could be washed, dried, aired or all of the above. Also we had to leave the cabin tidy and clean as we had to pay a 360 euro deposit for contents and cleaning at check in. On checkout they did not even check, and we got our deposit back no problem.
At 8am the weather is hard to predict for the day, the sky is grey and there was a bit of fog around being close to the river. However by the time we were pushing the canoe into the water at 10am the sky was brilliantly clear and my favourite shade of blue. As you can imagine we were happy - shorts and t-shirts today!
The river was calm and mirror like and the current enough that we did very little paddling, taking advantage of the rivers natural movement just drifting along. We only traveled about 12 km and this took us about 4 hours. We even managed a few stops on the way to take photos of distant castles. Paddling to the river side and getting in and out of the canoe, we now consider ourselves masters of the canoe!!!
But I brag too soon because of course there was a campground on either side of the river at Carlux, the place we wanted to stop for the night. Of course we chose the side where the camp was closed, so we had to paddle directly across the current about 50 metres to get to the other side. This may sound easy and probably is for 'masters of the canoe'.
The water is only knee deep but this just means the current is stronger and after a gallant attempt we were loosing and I could see we were going to end up down stream and past the campground altogether. This was not a good thing. Only option was to step out of the canoe and physically pull it ashore. Which is exactly what I did. Like I said it was only about knee deep and there was no way we were going to get there by arm power alone.
This camp ground was open and is beautifully situated right on the river side. We passed this camp when we were cycling last week and I commented on how nice it looked. So I am glad the first one on the other side was closed.
We had lunch, then set up the tent. Still a beautiful day we walked the 1 km into a small village of St Julien de Lampon. Not much there, a few shops, a small square and a pub. So we sat in the small square, ordered a beer from the pub and watched the comings and goings into the few shops.
Hot shower that was not the kind where you continually need to press the button to keep the water flow going. This is the norm in all the camp grounds so a free flowing hot shower was nice.
Tonights camp dinner was paella in a can (which tasted a lot better than it sounds). Quite a good meal actually and was complemented by half a carafe of Rose which Lyn went and purchased for 4 euro ($6) from the onsite cafe. Remember we are camping so food in a can is a must for when we stop at places where no fresh food is available.
We were wrapped up in bed by 9.30pm.
Tuesday 24th Sept 13 (day 24)
We had a very cold night last night. And the bloody air bed went down again so Lyn had an extra uncomfortable broken sleep also. We think maybe the patch we have used is too old as the glue does not seem to be drying and is staying tacky. Will have to try repair with bike tyre patch, but they are back at the hotel which means one more night of it going down and it's my turn tonight, err. Airbed is the last thing you want going down on you(haha) I can assure you!
Up at about 9ish, breakfast and then a leisurely pack up. The sky is blue and clear again so we can expect another beautiful day, which did eventuate.
Today we departed at 11.15. Again we did not do a great deal of paddling, mainly just drifting and steering. Just before 1pm we floated into Grolejac (this was the starting point where we collected the canoe) for directions of where exactly they were to pick us up tomorrow. While there we walked up to the supermarket we had visited earlier on in the week to get some bread for lunch. Of course the supermarket was closed 3 hours for lunch, but luckily there was a bakery where we could get a baguette.
Back on the river we floated a little down stream for about an hour before stopping on a small stoney beach for some lunch. It was beautiful.
We encountered a few more other canoes on the river today, even more than the weekend. We even had a quick chat with a couple from Sydney who just paddling a quick 5km afternoon trip.
The campground I had chosen for tonight was of course invisible from the river, but we now have a keen eye of what to look for and with a quick turn around and a little frantic upstream paddling we managed to get the canoe to shore. Only to discover it had closed for the season anyway. It was still early so onward downstream we continued. The next one we spied also took a bit of frantic paddling to get to the shore. This one was open, however it was a 5 star camp ground and wanted to charge us 22 euro for one night. This was too much - although they did have a heated swimming pool - and when I looked at the site they had allocated us it was a dirt/muddy bit of ground that was obviously kept for scabby river travellers. As we had not yet paid we floated on away. Bugger them!
Next one also closed but across the river we spied another so now used to frantic paddling we made it across barely missing some dutch idiot swimming in the river who could not recognize that we had no control of our vessel. Serves him right that we almost decapitated him. I find the Dutch we have encountered holidaying in France are the most unfriendly people so far. Anyway this camp ground was open and lovely and only 14 euros and is now home for the night.
I write this just before we start to cook dinner, which is veal couscous (another wondrous meal from a can) and have sent Lyn up to the bar to see if she can get any takeaway wine.
Another perfect day - weather wise and travel wise and the English neighbours have just offered us a glass of wine! Cheers! Very lucky they gave us 2 very full glasses of classy cask wine, love those Poms.
Wednesday 25th Sept 13 (day 25)
Last night Lyn came back empty handed, cheapest wine on sale was 11euro and we have no idea what it was like so out of our price range. Lucky for us our UK neighbours had many litres of cask wine that they were more than willing to share with us in exchange for giving us shit about the current Australian rugby and cricket teams. Hey copping a bit of sports shit was worth the wine!
Waking up this morning after we had encountered a not so freezing night - although uncomfortable for me as I was on the flat bed. 8am there was still a heavy mist, which hung around until 10.30ish. I was up early as I wanted to do a short hike up to Domme a village on a nearby table mountain.
After a quick coffee and some bread and vegemite I made the walk up to the 150 m high village. The hike up the bush path only took me 30 minutes, Lyn stayed behind at the camp to start to pack up. It was lovely at the top but the view was zero. It was like being above the clouds the mist was still so thick across the valley. I ended up staying there for over an hour before the view of the river and surrounding countryside came into view. However the climb and the wait was worth it as the views were amazing.
Back at camp Lyn had almost everything packed ready to go, so after quick coffee we loaded the canoe for the last time and pushed off. It was just before midday.
We did not have far to go again today, so were able to take it very easy. This stretch of the river is obviously the most popular as we encountered more canoes and kayaks in the first hour than we have in last 7 days. Lots more to see on the riverbanks besides just trees. Villages and castles everywhere for the eyes to feast on. This was nice but we were grateful for our quiet solitude days we'd had just us and the river and the only noise being nature.
But these different features also made for an exciting day for us to see things as well. Nice busy day to end our canoe adventure. We stopped at the touristy town of La Roque Gageac in search of bread but the only bakery was closed until 4th Oct so we had to do with leftover baguette from a previous meal again. It was not really a problem as we stopped on a stoney beach opposite the town and watched the busy river traffic go past until it was time for us to join them.
Back on the river for our last couple of hours there were more castles and impressive chateaus to be seen. Weather was fantastic again today and what a brilliant conclusion to our experience on the water. woo hoo!
We made our pick up destination dead on time, arriving only minutes before our pick up van. We were driven back to Grolejac in less than 30 minutes, the same distance that had taken us the last 2 days to cover.
We agreed it was a great experience and the first few days of rotten weather only made the remainder of the trip even more enjoyable.
We are in the Du Pont hotel again tonight, our bikes and luggage still in the garage where we had left them a week ago.
Tomorrow a new adventure starts as we are back on Sofia & Fonsi.
Posted by Cindy Bruin 05:35 Archived in France Tagged dordogne Comments (3)