The Camargue -- June, 2012

We spent one day driving west from Aix.  My primary goal was to drive around the Camargue.  It is a wetlands area famous for its white horses, black bulls and wealth of birds.  The horses are considered to be one of the most ancient breeds in the world.  The cattle are also native to this area.  Both the horses and the cattle live in semi-wild conditions in the marshy lands of the Camargue.  Except for those that have been domesticized, of course. 

The Camargue is western Europe's largest river delta and is located south of Arles between the Grande Rhone and Petit Rhone rivers.  We drove down the west road all the way to Saintes-Maries-de-la-Mer. 

I hadn't really thought much about this being a seaside resort area, but it is.  You go through lots of relatively wild marshy land and end up in a cool little town (population about 2300) with a lovely beach.  From what we saw, it would be a good place to vacation with a family.  I was glad we were there on a Monday when it wasn't crowded.

We walked along a paved path at the edge of the beach.

 

 

I'm sure it's beautiful at night with these lights.

We were hungry.  When are we not?  So we scoped out the few restaurants on the beach and chose one.  We sat outside and moved once due to the smokers.  I faced this mirror and got a pretty good reflection of the beach houses and the lights.

Trout mostly looked at the beach.  If you look closely, you can see me in the mirror taking the picture.

We had managed to find a decent parking place.  We took the long way back to it, which wasn't long at all.  This cowboy on a Camargue horse with a Camargue bull was the centerpiece of a traffic circle.

So was this fishing sailboat.

Trout wanted to be sure I got a picture of the birds flying around the cathedral.

Here's a traffic circle with a Camargue horse.

Some of the horses are tamed and you can ride them.  There were lots of places along the road where that was possible.

I preferred seeing them like this.

There is a huge bird sanctuary to be visited.  Trout's back was killing him, so he stayed in the car while I went in and walked around.  There is a total of 7KM of trails.  Needless to say, I didn't cover all of them.  But I saw enough to get a taste.

There are other critters in this environment -- especially nutria.

 

I'm not a bird expert, but I think these are storks.

This is some kind of raptor.

And what used to be my favorite bird -- lots of flamingos.  They are the signature bird of the sanctuary and they are everywhere. 

 

It's funny when they play follow the leader.

This leader got way out in front.

But you mostly see them feeding in groups.

There are egrets.

And cranes.

 

And islands through the rushes.

And lots of different birds nesting in the salt ceder trees.

These owls were great.

 

 

 

 

 

And here's another hawk of some kind.

 

 

 

 

This is not my first rodeo, so I decided to make use of the facilities before getting back on the road.  I thought these were uniquely designed.

 

 

 

They were more unique than I imagined.







 

 

So that was our brief visit to the Camargue.  We started getting a little goofy on the drive and since the horses are often referred to as the horses of the Camargue, we started calling everything we saw the xxxxx  "of the Camargue."  Even the near-elderly can be juvenile upon occasion.

Sicily -- Cefalu and Motta

The overnight train from Rome to Catania was sleeping accomodations only. We left Rome at 9:30 pm Friday, September 18th and and arrived in Catania at about 8:30 am Saturday morning, the 19th. The route map is a little deceptive since we actually went on land, not over the ocean. We didn't have to change trains along the way, so that was good.

The train to and from Catania was the only one we took that was loaded on a ferry. That's always a big surprise to people who haven't done it before. They just drive the train right up on the boat. Trout didn't even wake up. I'm glad I did because I was awake to see the water views all the way from Messina to Catania.

The couchette left a bit to be desired. It was very expensive and the beds were already made up when we got on board. At first we couldn't figure out how to get our stuff in the cabin because it was so crowded, but after much bickering (no surprise there) we got ourselves straightened out and settled in and we got to Sicily just fine.

Ramona, Jason and Aidan drove from where they live at Sigonella Naval Air Station and met us at the train station in Catania. They parked close to the downtown market which was hopping on Saturday morning. We had the longest backpack-laden walk of the trip, but we were able to put them in the back of the car before exploring the market. I was too pooped to take any pictures, but we had a nice breakfast in the square before going home to their place on base.

After we visited, rested, did laundry and did business on base for a few days, Ramona took us sightseeing. Unfortunately, Jason had to work, so he's not in any of these pictures.

If you click to the Wikipedia article for Sicily linked above, you see that Sicily is roughly shaped like a triangle. Depending on whose map you use, it sits in the Mediterranean Sea, but the area of the Mediterranean on the north is actually called the Tyrrhenian Sea and the part to the east where Catania and Sigonella are is often shown as the Ionian Sea. The first place we went was Cefalu, on the north coast, facing the Tyrrhenian.

Trout volunteered to drive, but Ramona told him he couldn't, so he took the front passenger seat. I sat behind Ramona and Aidan sat behind her Grampa Trout. Sicily is very mountainous with Mt. Etna always an active presence close to where Ramona lives. The scenery through the mountains is beautiful, but it makes for a very slow drive, so the autostrada was the best choice to get to Cefalu.

We saw lots of hills and farming areas from the autostrada, along with a few villas.

The farmers burn off the crops to prepare for the next planting.

Some of the mountains may be bigger than they seem. On the way back from Cefalu, we hit a tremendous thunderstorm through them. You can see the build up to that here on the way to Cefalu.

We parked in a lot Ramona uses and loaded up Aidan to tour the beach area. Ramona said this was her 4th trip to Cefalu in the 9 months she'd been there when we arrived.

We could see the cathedral on the hill. Visiting the cathedral will definitely be on our "next time" list.

These pictures show some popular views of the beach with the city right up next to it and with the surrounding rocky hills.

These beach businesses are call "lidos." They have restaurants and rentable chairs, lounges and umbrellas. That's great for visitors who aren't carrying those things along with them.

Other areas are public access.

As we walked down the narrow street into part of the town, I had to take a picture of these downspouts.

I loved this gated courtyard entry into these houses/apartments.

Here's Trout on the street.

This is a picturesque ruin along a jetty.

A beach view the other direction.

Not all parts of the beach are smooth.

Trout just had to fool around with Aidan.

It is incredibly beautiful, eh?!

I swear I didn't photoshop this water. This is the way it looked when I shot straight down into it and after I used the Microsoft Picture Manager autocorrect option.

So after visiting Cefalu and some excellent driving by Ramona through that blinding mountain rainstorm, we went to the little mountain town close to where she lives. It's called Motta Sant'Anastasia. It's on the slopes of Mt. Etna. There are great views from here.

And there are narrow streets like in most Italian towns.

We were here once before to go to a bakery with Jason over the weekend. It was a very dangerous bakery -- too cheap and too close to where they live.

As we were leaving, Trout and I noticed this church, but we couldn't pause long enough for me to get a picture. So that's why we drove through Motta on the way back home from Cefalu. We just loved the metal front of this church.

And if we hadn't driven through, we would've missed this Italian experience.

On any trip I always go by my gut feeling about places. In spite of the active volcano and Sicily's reputation, I felt very comfortable and at home in Sicily. I would definitely go back. But before that, there was much more to see on this trip.