20km - 650m de dénivelé qui méritent d'être faits
Au programme: une grotte chargée d'histoire et une vue unique sur toute la région (des Cevennes à la Montagne noire, des Alpes au monts de l'ESpinouse et au Pic Saint Loup) sans oublier la traversée d'une magnifique forêt de pins Salzman et le passage par le superbe Mas d'Estagnol
We are lucky that Jacques (the leader) is now on chomage (temporally unemployed) so he has time to organize hikes during the week. Jacques is a very nice guy, knowledgeable of the area, good organizer, and patient; he reminds me of Scott, my friend back home in Vancouver.
We carpooled from Montpellier to the trail head, about 30 km from the city. People here are really into carpooling which is good for us, mostly for 2 reasons: gas is expensive, and parking is limited, so the fewer cars the better.
The trail starts from the beginning by gradual switch back. We gain elevation quite fast and the views are amazing. The vegetation is different here, it is dry and desert, there are olive trees and others that don’t know the name of. Jacques stopped and pointed to us this very interesting tree, that has different leaves and the top and different leaves at the bottom; at the top the leaves are softer, and the bottom there are stronger and…so the leaves can not be eaten by animals. Also the leaves are harder and “glisant” on the top (the part facing up, so protects for getting to dry) and softer and moistures underneath – very interesting.
After about on hour hike we stopped to visit a “grotte” = cave. It is a fairly big cave and it is free. We needed lamps to get in, not all of us had lamps, but we all share and helped so everyone got in the cave and visit. It is a deep cave with red walls, stalactites and stalagmites. For a few minutes we decided to sit quiet, I could hear only our breathing and the water dripping on the walls. It is hard to keep quite and listen to silence….eventually someone start giggling and then it was all over with our “meditation” experience. Our group in the cave:
Back in the sun we kept climbing up; it did not take too long to make it to the top.
On top the view is magnifique and the wind is strong- hey we are on top of the world; we took tons of pictures
We sat down below the peak a bit away from the wind to have our picnic; we all had our food, and then we start sharing our goodies. We had coffee, tea, different kind of cookies, and Swiss chocolate from Switzerland that Ramon the Swiss guy brought with him; ummm, Swiss chocolate from Switzerland taste much better that Swiss chocolate that we buy in Canada- why is that??? no idea…hope one day I will make it to Switzerland.
This hike is a loop; after picnic we continue on flat and start descending. We stopped at Estagnol – a deserted site for a short break , water and more goodies, pictures and more chit chat.
In the group there are a few people that speak English and most of people understand English a bit so conversation is always very mixed French and English.
In no time we are back to the cars – was this hike really 20 km? I guess because the hike was so scenic and company so good we had fun too much fun and the hike didn’t seem long at all.
After hike we went for refreshments to a restaurant in a small village called St Jean de Fos.
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