#11: [22-Feb-24]

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#3: [24-Jul-04]

#2: [13-Jul-04]

#1: [08-Aug-01]

30-Jun-2005 -- After a very hot day climbing Pic Saint Loup and visiting Sommiers with its Roman bridge we made two calls on the way back to where we were staying, near Ganges. One was to stock up on wine in St Hyppolyte du Fort and the other was to an unidentified patch of garrigue, the local name for the large area of infertile limestone plateau just inland in Languedoc, on the the road to Anduze.

I remembered some detail about the campsite so looked for the turning and parked in the site. It was a very dry and barren place but there was plenty of shade.

As usual the walk in following the GPS was different to the return, involving some thorn dodging in the scrubland. The zeroes appeared easily near a very small cairn, no doubt left by a previous visitor. The place was in a clearing amongst the scrub, inhabited by grasshoppers and butterflies. It was still at 17:00, very hot.

The views were of the garrigue in all directions, the main road could be heard near by. The geology dictates what the land use is, this place is on a big block of limestone, rain just runs away into the rock and the thin dry soils are of little use to agriculture save for grazing goats. Nearby there is a change as fields of sunflower and vineyards suggest less barren ground.

On return to the car I met the owner of the campsite. He was originally from Jersey and moved to the mainland over 40 years previously. He knew of the confluence but not its exact location, he was grateful for my offer to show him exactly which patch of stoney wasteland was the spot.

We returned, this time I knew the track and the 200 metre walk was scratch free. This is the first time I have ever met anyone at a confluence, a far cry from some lonely waste in Scotland.