Julian Gray sends his second report from Leran about the 5th Leran walking expedition. I'm going to take a stab at some of the pictures. I think that's the bridge in St. Columbe and also a view of St. Columbe from above. The photo of the reservoir is Lac Montbel, we are told it's the largest man-made reservoir in Europe (it's minuscule by American standards, and looks tiny from this viewpoint). For those of you who don't know Julian, that's him in the blue shorts with the map case around his neck. Thanks Julian, for the report. Keep em' coming.Dear Doug and Nancy
Life goes on in Léran. We attach some nice photos of the 5th Léran Walkers expedition on Wednesday 1 October. They were taken by our son Tom who is with us for a couple of weeks.
We started the expedition at the bar Le Rendez-vous - where else? It was supposed to be open at 09.30 especially for us, but Marek forgot to tell the Wednesday crew about our assembly and he had to rush to the rescue at 09.40!. After coffees and pre-ordering of sandwiches for our lunch, no fewer than 21 people (many you know like Chris and David, Alan and Eileen, Norman and Shirley, Nigel and Barbara, Neil and Celia, David and Bea, Bill and Sally and dog Gemma, Henny etc, others were delightful Australian visitors) set off in five cars to Mireval, a tiny village in the hills a few kilometers south-east of Leran. We assembled on a ridge with fantastic views north and south, and set off down a very steep hill to Le Peyrat, where we found a disused railway track to the east that took us to the banks of the river Hers. After 1.5 hours stroll along the river we reached St. Colombe sur l'Hers, where we turned sharp left up a steep hill to regain the high ground overlooking the Lac du Montbel to the north. Our path west took us back, eventually, to Mireval and our cars.
We reached the bar in Léran at almost precisely 13.00 hours and enjoyed our sandwiches, lively conversation and several pichets of vin rouge, vin rosé and vin blanc. During lunch we said a special communal "salut" for absent friends in Moab, including Fergus!
Love from us both,
Gwenda and Julian