Retracing old tyre prints south to St Paul les Dax
Zagan is hiding among the pine trees on the edge of the largest forest in Western Europe at St Paul les Dax (N43.73518, W1.07822). We said we’d get some miles under his wheels today and we have, our map now has us on the same page as the French Atlantic coast and Spain.
We set off just after 10am following a quick chat with our neighbours Henne (sorry if I have spelt it wrong) and Onno (I’ll never forget how to spell this, he described it as Oh No!). They were heading off out on their bikes for a look around and we chatted about good places to stay – like us, they love a free spot!
The first hour of the drive was spent arguing with satnav who knew only of narrow country lanes that would be quicker than the nice big wide road with a white line on it that I could see on my aged map. She finally came round to my way of thinking although she sulked for the final three hours of the run.
We tucked ourselves in behind ‘shadows’, vehicles going about the same speed as us so it doesn’t look like we’re holding up the traffic. These shadows can be trucks, caravans or as was the case today, both.
This shadow is towing the van and brown caravan, and yes it’s doing a u-turn in the path of an oncoming truck – only just made it!
Another of our shadows today squeezed through roadworks ahead of us only to hit the red and white plastic barrier into the work crew. The crew were uninjured, but not very happy, Jay made sure we took a wider line past them.
Driving through Les Landes
After that it was mile upon mile of dead straight roads flanked by forest as we travelled through Les Landes. In the map I drew a new orange marker line beside the green one that I drew four years ago when we travelled these same roads, our destination today was chosen due to familiarity. When we passed this way in 2011 we stopped at Dax and used the laundry which is 50m from the free aire. The aire itself is next to a main road so we didn’t stay the night, it would have been noisy. Once again we haven’t stopped there, opting for another aire in the forest just a few kilometres to the north.
After all that driving neither of us felt like doing the laundry, so that excitement is planned in for tomorrow. Instead we went for a walk around the lake and woodland footpaths nearby.
Looks like we’ve headed back into Autumn
Le Lac de Christus
This chap and his mates were all hanging out high in the trees
The sun was shining and the paths were filled with people out for a stroll. The playground packed with toddlers being helped by their parents and every inch of space in the bouleodrome was taken up by serious games of petanque. So this is where all the people are!
No need to bend down to pick up your boule at the end of the game now – magnets on string are all the rage here.
The aire here is now full (word must have got out how nice and quiet it is) and we’ve planned a jog around the lake in the morning ahead of a run into Dax for the laundry. Last time there was free wifi in the laundry, so everything is fully charged to enable us to download updates, photos, open links etc. that people have sent us without gobbling up our data allowance. See, laundry doesn’t have to be boring!
Ju x
We have travelled that long straight road time out of mind. It is like the Mayenne, dreary and inevitable, something we just have to travel through to get somewhere better. (Sorry, I am getting old and grumpy.)
The cormorant on the tree has an interesting story. I can’t recall it all, but large flocks of them are in the mountains around Dax, Lourdes and Pau. They have taken to eating inland away from water for some reason. Trouble is their droppings are toxic to trees so with large numbers of them the trees they favour are being killed off. There is more to the story than this, but it is well over 10 years since we saw them and we did not write it down when we heard it from locals.
thanks for your response yesterday and it’s probably for the best that you can’t get Sky TV at the moment especially if your a fan of the Walking dead (Ricks trapped in a Motorhome…again}, by the way it’s 2:15am and your last photo has me thinking I’m ready for bed…..I’m seeing a Giant….or a very small man.
Hi I have tried several times to unsubscribe via link to no avail. Would be greatly appreciated if you could unsubscribe me. Thanks Steve
Hi Steve – would love to help but I can’t find your email address in our database old chap – can you drop an email to julieandjason@ourtour.co.uk with the address I need to remove and I’ll take it out without delay. Many thanks! Jason
I’d check the forecast before heading over into Spain – we’ve just been told they’re getting a lot of rain at the moment! -Jo