Hiking the Plateau de Thaurac

30-9-2010
Originally uploaded by cspatrick

Thursday, September 30, 2010 Day 92
We got up and got moving this morning, as we had to be at the tram at about 9:00. We were to be picked up at the Occitanie tram stop at 9:20 for today’s adventure. Last night Roger went out to dry our clothes at the laverie around the corner, then detoured to pick up some sausages wrapped in croissant dough. This morning we packed those into our small backpack along with water, apples, gum and the last of our meringues. We arrived at the Occitanie stop and began looking for Jan, who offered us a ride. We followed her instructions to cross the parking lot at the Occitanie and look for her in a fairly-new gray Renault station wagon, but none was visible. We spent about five minutes walking around trying to be sure we were at the right place before she showed up. I didn’t think I knew her, but she was at the book club meeting last week, so she at least knew who she was looking for. She was just running late.
We assembled with others at a nearby grocery store parking lot, and a total of seven of us got into two cars and headed for a walking tour about 45 minutes away. We were to walk on the Plateau Thaurac. We were joined by Mariannick in Jan’s car, and three others went in Maggie’s car. The drive up to the small village at the commencement of the hike was pleasant – Roger pointed out that we could have been driving around Abilene, with lots of scrub brush, some trees, lots of dry soil. In the distance, we could see Pic St. Loup, one of two large upthrusts of rocks which allegedly drifted from the Pyrenees. We arrived at our destination, put on our hiking shoes and started out. The initial portion of the walk was a labor-intensive rise across acres of broken rock – more strenuous than we expected. Once we cleared the heavy areas of rock, we came to an area of more rise but better walking surface for a while. We passed a farm of barking dogs, goats and donkeys, then went on up, the road rising before us all the way. We reached a point where the road narrowed to a well-worn path, and still we continued to rise. We finally reached a point of fairly level ground and walked along. Our leader, Mariannick, had a GPS with her, which was sometimes a help and sometimes a hindrance! Mostly we followed a pretty regular track, but occasionally she wanted to point out a scenic view to us and we left the track for a smaller path, or sometimes no path at all. She wasn’t always successful in finding us the scenic view. The plateau is not what this flatlander thinks of as a plateau. I expected a sort of barren mesa, from which we would be able to see the opposite side of the plateau. I sort of assumed that we would march around the rim of the plateau looking at the scenery from all different parts. No such luck. The plateau is filled with scrub brush, and it is not precisely flat, but the path travels up and down over piles of scattered rock. I have never seen so much rock in my life – much of it in brick-sized pieces as if a rock crusher has been at work here. In actuality, it is the nature of the rock which has caused it to crumble over the centuries and create obstacles to walking. See the photo for an example. The path led at times to some scenic views, but never were we able to see the opposite side while atop the plateau; indeed, I could never have said we were “atop” an plateau, since the scrub and the rise and fall of the path served to obscure our view.