Camargue Ornithology Park

We had a rough night with lots of wild wind rocking the van and heavy rain and woke up to showers. However it cleared up very quickly and we soon had some sun and warmth.

We then decided that we should use the unexpectedly good weather to go to the Park Pont de Gau Ornithologique.

We were taking sandwiches so we needed bread. I went to the campsite shop - it was closed. I dropped into reception who had told me at check in that it was open - a surprise to them.

I then tried the shop along the road - bread was already sold out.

I then walked another 5 minutes to the little supermarket and waited in the checkout queue for 15 minutes to buy 1 loaf of bread. By the time I got back to Glenn in the campsite I had been away for an hour and was a bit cranky.

We then made a packed lunch and then got on our bikes and cycled for 5km out of town.

We got into the park and we were stunned to see lots of flamingos up close. They are normally notoriously shy - but they didn’t seem bothered about people. There was also a stork, heron, egrets and ducks.

We continued and saw lots of flamingos everywhere. As a result there are lots of photos - sorry.

Their underwings are a very bright pink and black but it’s hard to catch them when they take off or flap their wings. This was my best try to capture it.

Glenn was in heaven as there were also lots of other species - lots of snipe, curlews, rails, red shanks etc etc

There were a lot of people on the initial 2.5km track. However there were few on the more remote 4.5km track.

There was a small drink place at the initial flamingo pond where we stopped in between the 2 tracks. It was very pleasant to relax and watch everything that was going on.

There was also a lot of information on the birds- particularly the flamingos. There was a large memorial sign to the main flamingo researcher Alan Johnson who originally came from Nottingham but then spent most of his life in the Camargue. He helped solve the problem of the declining flamingo numbers there by getting an artificial island set up in a remote lagoon and stopping the military overflying the area. That also stopped the flamingo from being bothered by foxes and wild boar. The numbers are huge now!

The flamingo are now settled in the park with the controlled water levels and have learned that humans won’t bother them.

There were good reflections later in the day.

After walking the 7km we came to the last bridge to take us to the gate. There was a cheeky heron who was surveying the park from his top spot that he didn’t want to give up. After 5 minutes and us gradually moving forward he eventually moved on.

We then cycled the 5km back and had a cosy dinner of chicken cacciatore and went to bed exhausted again.