Things to remember:
- A howling but unfeasibly warm wind whipped up at about 4.00am and remained until about midday. Thunderstorms had been forecast but didn't happen.
- The first reserve I visited today was closed, which meant a 20 mile detour to the Pont de Gau Ornithological Park: a 'family friendly' birding spot that's as much tourist machine as it is ornithological park. Not that it's badly done, or short of wildlife once away from the sanitised epicentre.
- I spotted: crimson speckled moth, a leucistic redshank, seveal purple gallinules, numerous black-winged stilts and a couple of bar-tailed godwits. I also found a red swamp crayfish wandering incongruously on one of the trails.
- I've never seen a leucistic redshank before and returned the crayfish to some emergent vegetation. It turns out (unsurprisingly) they're an introduced species and considered a serious pest.
- Post reserve I started the trudge north late afternoon stopping only for some diesel, French bread and some carrot râpées: all three vital for the ongoing journey.
- At the spot shown now (pic). Quiet but eerie...
Post composed at 21:50 on Monday 20th October from my intended overnighting spot: N 44.25424°, E 04.03986° / http://maps.google.com/maps?q=loc:44.25424%2C04.03986