We were to meet in Sète, carpool to the Parc de Bessilles, and hike Les Coteaux de Bessilles forest trail. It would be a short 6 kilometers, over in plenty of time to barbeque for lunch, visit, and catch up!
Well, we're nothing if not adaptable, and today gave us ample practice! Our parking lot was closed due to The International Pétanque Tournament, but we all eventually got to the parc. A quick check of the picnic grounds told us that barbeques today were prohibited - further investigation said that the entire department had this in place, due to the dry conditions and the wind. "K" saved the day by having us to her house, where we used her stove and had our end-of-hike party :-).
Our hike started out as a fairly easy trail,
past wild rosemary,
through forest,
with plenty of flowers
(and more almond trees!)
to an overlook to Sète, across the Étang de Thau.
Then, things... changed... Our very easy trail suddenly leapt up this cliff-side - it did not seem prudent for our recovering commander to go further on this route.
We split our group; several returned on the trail taken so far, and the rest of us continued. We had a few steep up-and-downs (we were glad of the decision to split our group), and of course,
more flowers,
more rocks,
and more forest!
At one point, we crossed over from one trail onto another, and ended up going a few extra kilometers - I'm calling it the scenic route...
 |
| Scenic route: green, but then turn left onto the red trail |
After our hike, we all convoyed to K's place and had our fabulous indoor barbeque - our commander declared it a new tradition!
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