Squirrels and storms

I spent, as I ha d planned, another day and night in La Mas having a wonderful time doing nothing. I popped out for a short ride to pick up some shopping and stopped off for a slice of pizza from a bakery overlooking some a big patch of coastline being battered by some pretty high winds. Unfortunately my pitch was sheltered by the headlands, so I spent another night sweltering away! I broke camp for an early start the next morning and aimed inland towards a town called St. Martin de la Craux. I had left my camera in the campsite office the night before and rather predictably I had forgotten to pick it up when I checked out. I realised this about ten km into my mornings ride (after heading up and down a rather large hill) when I went to take a quick photo. Adding 20k onto my ride did not leave me in the best of moods, and after all that I even forgot to take the photo when I reached the same point again! The heat of the day soon asserted itself as I neared Martigues, so I stopped off for an hour to enjoy a late breakfast at a roadside break area before heading off again into the heat (mid 30's). Although still very hot, the humidity here is much lower than Italy so at least it feels a little cooler and isn't quite so draining when out on the road. That day's ride was great, including a huge straight stretch of road with barely another user and a huge tailwind behind me meaning that I averaged my speed out at around 35kph for a considerable time - not bad going when laden as heavily as I am! The campsite was a real find - only about 35 pitches, but family run and with a lovely swimming pool on the side. I pitched up in the shade and headed for the pool and was pleasantly surprised by the lack of small children running about screaming their heads off, something I have come to expect on most campsites recently. I spent a couple of days in Camping Le Craux, taking advantage of plethora of bars in the village and a handily located Super-U within walking distance to stock up in the necessities. After a couple of days spent primarily by the pool, and watching an army of ants devouring a piece of roast chicken near my tent I packed up my bits and headed off again, this time towards Lunel for a campsite called Bonne Ports. I had high hopes for the site, and passed up the opportunity to stop off at a couple of others in my haste to get there. This proved to be a serious mistake, as the campsite was awful. Expensive, crowded, noisy, bad (and expensive) wifi connection etc. etc. etc. They even managed to screw up making a pizza, deciding that instead of pepperoni on an Americana it should in fact be a bolognese sauce topped off with potatoes and half cooked. Not good. The only real positive to take from it was the local wildlife and I spent a lovely quart of an hour or so being shouted at by the resident squirrel whilst trying in vain (me, not him) to grab a couple of decent photo's... The scenery around here is great - vast tracts of sun-scorched wilderness surrounded by lush vineyards at the heart of the Languedoc wine region. The scores of singis offering wine tasting are a sore temptation, but unfortunately probably best avoided whilst travelling a velo! Early next morning we had a pretty serious thunderstorm, with some monumental rain meaning that my departure was delayed until late morning, but the break in the heat meant that I could forego my midday break and cycle strait through, which I duly did, taking in a little bit of Montpellier before arriving in Frontignan for the evening. If you take a look on the map around the area, you will see how the land lies - a spit of land jutting out from the coast, barely connected to mainland at either side. My campsite was in the middle of this spit of this beautiful outcrop, with the roaring sea on one side and a lagoon on the other - stunning. I had taken a look at a couple of other places during the day - the first was (far) too expensive whilst the second boasted no facilities other than a basic toilet block (by this time the temperature was creeping back up and I was gagging for a cold beer). The third was a camping village/resort of a type that I typically try to avoid, but seeing that my GPS battery was running very low it seemed prudent to at least take a look. Thank God I did! Although the basic tariff for high season started out at €50 a night, I w met by one of the owners who offered me a much more reasonable rate of €16 a night, for the placement, wifi and use of their rather lovely swimming pool. A bargain I think you'll agree! Sure enough, I made good use of the pool, the bar, the restaurant and the wifi. I had planned to stay for another night, but the weather reports going forward looked pretty dire so I headed out again towards Agde, between Frontignan and Narbonne which is where I find myself now! After a pretty tiring ride I fell upon the highly recommended Camping La Neptune gratefully. Last night brought forth a truly awesome thunderstorm - about half an hour of flashes of lightning in the distance before the storm moved overhead for about quarter of an hour accompanied by a deluge of heavy rain and bolts of lightning falling pretty close to where I lay in my tent, including one crash that seemed only metres away - feeling the earth shake, hearing the distinct crack of the fork rather than a distant rumble and with the air itself fizzing in the aftermath, then listening to the sounds of the storm receding off in to the distance! Really awe-inspiring stuff! Today is, as expected after a show like that, much cooler with almost complete cloud coverage. It's still low 20's, but with the scattered rain showers I'm pretty glad for my day off! Next in my sights is Narbonne, then heading across the bottom of the Pyrenees towards some old friends in Biarritz - I'll let you know how it goes, but that's ciao for now!