Another perfect morning, in that we had nothing scheduled and it wasn’t raining. When I first awoke I opened our door to get a feel for the weather. Foggy! And cold! But I knew this was only temporary and that the fog would disappear as the temperature rose.
An hour later outside conditions were perfect; an absolutely clear sky and no wind. Over breakfast we discussed our plans. Mary’s involved shops, mine didn’t. For me the whole environment was screaming “WALK, WALK!” But where? Mary was going to walk too, but only a couple of hundred metres. But me, I could see the mountains and the vineyards hanging on them. Being a map sort of guy I dragged out the iPad.
Was there a way to hike on a scenic route for 10km or so without using the car? Unlike in the UK, there seem to be few inter-village walking tracks in France. Sure, there are truly big walking trails but the used-by-the-locals tracks from village to village found everywhere in the UK are not evident. Roads are plentiful of course so I turned my attention to these, especially those which were not attractive to large trucks and speeding commuters.
The iPad maps are adaptable to many situations, as I've been finding. Today I sat at the breakfast table and looked for a circuit starting and ending at home which was close to 10km in length. While there is no conventional scale on iPad maps, the route and distance between two chosen points is calculated by the device, provided that there is a known road, path or similar linking the two points. Within a few minutes I had a possibility, with several waypoints and a total distance of about 9km.
Testing the iPad’s capabilities for such a task was part of my plan, so into the backpack it went, with a 90% charge. For the first time on this trip I forsook the woollen beanie for my kayaking hat, which provides ample shade, necessary today.
Anyway, I set off, doing regular nav checks, as I would if using a map and compass or GPS, at every significant junction, of which there were many. In the event, the iPad made navigation an absolute doddle. When standing at an intersection of five minor roads I was able to see on the map exactly, to a couple of metres, where I was. The selected route was highlighted and the map also automatically rotated so that it was oriented correctly, thus enabling me to see which path I should take of the four options staring me in the face. To cap all this off I could instantly check the distance and estimated time to the next waypoint.
Nav check.
So I strode out and enjoyed the walk. Some pics and comments:
Truly a lovely day!
From a rabbit’s viewpoint.
Gate, definitely not Ikea.
Door in one of the quiet villages I passed through. At first I thought, as you probably did, that this was some lady’s undergarment. On closer examination it turned out to be a baguette bag, with the money bulging at the bottom. Presumably the local boulangerie drops off baguettes in much the same way as milk used to be delivered in Australia.
This was definitely a great way to experience the local area. I’ve found another slightly shorter walk for tomorrow and Mary and I will do it together, taking our lunch along.
Thanks for reading
Kev
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