The Auvergne (5)

Our next outing was to Puy de Sancy, which wasn't far from Chambon - over the mountain pass, down into Montdore and up to the car-park for the cable car station. At 1886 metres (6200 feet), Puy de Sancy is the highest mountain in the Massif Central, part of an extinct stratovolcano.  4 minutes ascent  from the car park in the cable car brings you up a further 455 metres, leaving the final ascent to be made up 846 wooden steps, to protect the mountain. It's still a pretty steep climb, some of it is almost like a ladder. From the top you have a panoramic view in every direction - we even caught a brief glimpse of Mont Blanc in the distance.

view from the upper cable car station

This photo is actually from our second climb. I've inserted here because you can see the trail we took as our descent for the first expedition ; it runs to the left below a viewing point, and then along the ridges of the craters until it's time start the descent - or continue even further.

After descending from the peak, we took the turn towards the left at the Pas de l'Ane, and then at the next junction we took the right path, along the Val de Courre. I can't remember the distance; unfortunately I've deleted the photos I had on my phone which had details of the path we were following.

The summit, seen from the cable car station.

Looking down over Montdore

One of the crater lakes, similar to Lac Pavin

Near the end, a last, easy part of the climb.

Looking up towards the upper cable car station

I don't have a good head for heights, so some of this wasn't easy for me, but it was still very enjoyable. However, for the difficult parts I couldn't take any photos, as I had to concentrate on just looking ahead of me, trying to ignore the sheer slopes on either side. Once we got to the easy part when we were climbing down the mountainside rather than scrambling along the crater ridges, it was much easier and I was able to enjoy the scenery and wildlife. Again we saw a lot of birds of prey - near the peak we saw a raven and a black kite, and some sort of eagle as well as many buzzards. 

Near the bottom, we could hear a really unusual call. At first I thought it was a bird, but it was so loud that we paused to look and look - and were rewarded with spotting this little marmot. I've added a video - there's a fair amount of wind noise, but you can hear his call and how it echoed around the valley. They are quite small, and he was a long way away, so it's only a for-the-record photo. C was able to see him through the smaller spotting scope which we had brought with us.

August Favourites

Again there are quite a few, since I played along in real time with about half the DTGD challenges over on Splitcoast. 

The birds and the bees...

...and that Monday morning feeling! I was yawning all the way in to work this morning. It's not a brilliant photo of the stork yawning, but it's something I've never seen before.

The bee was collapsed on our back doorstep one day last week. He got rather sticky on the honey from the spoon but lapped it up with great gusto, and after two sessions supping away, the next time I went to check, he had gone. I wouldn't normally be comfortable getting quite so up close and personal, but he seemed so exhausted that I didn't think there was any risk of a sting.

The Auvergne (4)

Most evenings we went for a walk around part of the lake - there was a trail through the forest from the back of the campsite, or we could walk along the road. There was a board-walk around the lake where necessary, and we really enjoyed the peaceful atmosphere there. You can see the busier, lake-side part of Chambon across the lake in these first photos. In the second one, you can see the mediaeval chateau de Murol, built in the 12th and 13th centuries.

Campsite weather vane.

View from the campsite 

The Auvergne (3)

One of our outings was a trip to Lac Pavin, which is a meromictic volcanic crater lake. In other words, there are effectively differnt layers of water in it which rarely mix, maybe not even for decades or centuries, resulting in quite different environments at each water level. In most lakes, the  surface and deeper water levels intermix at least once a year.
 The volcanic crater is approximately 1000 metres in diameter, and is filled by the lake, which is 750 metres in diamter and 93 metres deep.
We nearly didn't go on this trip, as it was very foggy even when we left the campsite, and as we drove higher towards the lake, it got mistier and mistier...but we persevered.  With the brighter summer evenings, I think this was the only time we needed to use the car headlights.

 It was a little under a five-mile walk from the cafe at the car park, up the side of the mountain to the summit of Puy de Montchal, down and up through a small crater and back down the far side of the lake - by which time the sun was really starting to break through.
At the summit, we had a lovely chat with a group of French walkers who, like us, were stopping for a a snack before continuing their trek. The path we were following was very well way-marked, and while we needed to consult signs on a couple of occasions, we never thought we were at risk of getting lost.