Pretty Flamingo(Manfred Mann)-An Afternoon in the Camargue with the Flamingos-11th May 2016

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It is amazing how the dirty washing creeps up on us and it was time to get the washing bag out and get the clothes through the machine and out onto the line so we could get out exploring the Camargue and find ourselves some flamingos.

Thankfully the washing machine in the apartment had a shorter cycle than most of the other front loaders we have had to use and the washing was done in reasonably short time.

The sky had started out quite clear this morning but had clouded over a bit as we prepared to set off for the afternoon after a lunch of rather tasteless French made baked beans. Despite the fact that they have plenty of red and tasty tomatoes in this country they haven’t as yet worked out that you need to get those tasty tomatoes into a can of baked beans to give them flavour. We only consumed half and we think the rest will be for the waste bin.

We headed off into the heart of the Camargue not really knowing where to go to be able to view flamingos but were encouraged by a sign that directed us to the Orthonological Centre as we were filling up with petrol.

We were very pleased that we had seen the sign as finding flamingos in the wild would have been very difficult and it would have come down to a game of chance to have seen.

At the centre they were there in their hundreds over a number of small shallow lakes.

We were also able to view them taking off from a lake for a flight, watch them in flight overhead at relatively low levels and also landing in the lake.

A small number, usually young birds stay all year at the centre while the older birds fly south to Africa for the winter. A few years ago the number of birds was ravaged by extremely cold temperatures and many of the birds that stayed over winter died. The numbers are now back on the increase again.

They are fascinating birds to watch. They look ungainly with their knees bent backwards when they are walking forward.

Watching them take off was also amazing as they basically ‘ran ‘over the water to gain speed and lift to get into the air. They then made their bodies streamlined and looked like a pencil in flight.

Their landing was also interesting as they slowed their speed and circled to reduce altitude and then just drop the last few metres to hit the shallow water and come to an immediate stop.

The park had a figure eight track to walk and so we got views of the flamingos from different angles as we walked around.

Initially we were thinking of just doing the 4km track but we were enjoying our walk so much we continued on to do the full circuit which must have been close to 10km by the time we finished.

Part way on the first leg of our walk we came across a rat like creature happily munching on grass who wasn’t at all put out by our attention. We never did find out exactly what the creature was although we did see another one on the extended walk. Even the extensive description of the birds and animals that we might see in the park on the wall at the entrance did not seem to cover the creature.

The guy in the ticket office did explain that the whole walk, if we did it, needed to be done as a figure eight. However we chose to ignore the arrows when we started the second leg and paid the penalty when we thought we were coming to the end of the long walk and found we couldn’t get across a small canal of water to the exit without going back up to a bridge we had started from and then down the other side of the canal which must have added at least another 1.5km to our walk! It pays to follow the instructions sometimes.

The centre was well into the Camargue and so we carried on down to Saint Maries de la Mer which is where the Camargue meets the Med.

It was a busy small town and we took a short stop to take a look at the beach which wasn’t that great in relation to others on the coast.

We struck workers heading home at the end of the working day as we drove back to Beauvoisin and most of them were in a hurry to get home whizzing by us on narrow roads well in excess of a safe speed that we thought was more applicable for the roads.

We had hoped to have pre dinner drinks on the patio but the sun had retreated behind some cloud and that had bought the temperature down to a point where it felt just a little chilly to be sitting out in the open air. Never mind perhaps tomorrow.

It had been a great day and we achieved what we had wanted to do with our time in the Camargue and that was to see the flamingos. And who knows we might get to see more tomorrow.

PS:enjoy an 'oldie but a goody' in Pretty Flamingo on Youtube

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