Another first today, it was dark enough this morning that we had to
turn the lights on - summer is coming to an end!! Of course the other
reason was that there wasn't any sleep-in today as a quick drive up
the road to Pau airport was required as Kerryn is re-joining us along
with our token Englishman - Dave. That will ensure a cosy van for a
week.
A little investigation of the map, and we decided our plan for the day
would be to head north-west and find a beach somewhere up the coast.
Travelling through Grenade-sur-l'-Adour we found a very typical French
local market in full swing - this should be a bit more fun than a
supermarket. A few veges, meat, bread and €30 of cheese (I think it
was a case of too many chiefs, not enough indians) later, we continued
up through the flat plains of the area until we reached Biscarosse
Plage and our first glimpse of the deep blue Atlantic Ocean, with some
pretty impressive waves rolling in.
A picnic on the beach with some good cheap tax-free Italian bubbly, a
swim in the relatively warm sea and bit a sunbathing was the order of
the afternoon. Just down the beach from us, the National French
Championships for freestyle jet-skiing was getting started. We only
saw a few of them practicing, but it was pretty impressive watching
the jumps, twists and backflips as the riders used the waves to launch
off into the air.
We only managed another 15 minutes of driving before we reached the
highest sand-dune in Europe - Dune de Pyla. At about 110 metres high,
and 3 kilometres long, this sand-dune is quite a sight and it's a real
slog to climb!! But once we made it to the top, the reward was a
brilliant view over the other side to the sea, and of course a
magnificent sunset. Finally, the last treat as we returned to camp -
a run down the dunes. We probably contributed to the problem that all
the local campsites have with the sand-dune. Apparently it is
swallowing up everything eastwards at a rate of 4-5 metres per year.
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