The Tarn in Full Flow

Delights, dramas and disasters!

Our day started well when we discovered that from the balcony of our hotel we could see the largest of the extinct volcanos that I mentioned yesterday.

The main photograph presented here as my Blipfoto shows the river Tarn in part of the Gorges duTarn, in torrent mode as it passes through a confined section. This undoubtedly a most scenic and delightful area, with very steep, and in some places sheer, slopes rising perhaps 2000 feet or more above the river level. To get here, we had descended over 6 km of hairpin bends. All the slopes that could support them were covered with trees whose leaves showed a fine variety of autumnal colours.

It had apparently been raining heavily around here for several days, and the Tarn water level was geting well on towards flood level. The lower car park where the fire people ("Pompiers" in French, very appropriately) are working is partially submerged.

Because we were making quite good time on our journey south, we had decided on a detour in the gorges, intending to drive upstream along the Tarn, then to cut across to the Gorges du Jonte, more-or-less parallel to the Tarn. I found a "short cut": a "white" road on the map. It turned out to be an exceptionally steep single-track "road", much steeper than the initial descent,with numerous very sharp hairpins, requiring first gear almost throughout. But we ultimately made the 2000 to 2500 feet up again, and it was a relief to change up into second gear.

From here we joined the Jonte at the little village of Meyrueis, and very beautiful the gorge seemed to be for the first 6 km or so. But then disaster struck! The continual rain of previous days (and now starting heavily again this afternoon) was dislodging stones and rocks that were falling on to the road. I failed to avoid one modest-sized one, and there was a tremendous bang, followed almost immediately by the oil warning light coming on and the audible alrm sounding. I cut the engine asap, and coasted down to a fairly safe space (remember that these roads can barely take two cars travelling in opposite directions). It was obvious that the sump had been damaged fairly severly by the impact in view of the almost instantaneous loss of oil pressure. Indeed, the dip-stick showed zero oil. So here we were on a deserted road, essentially in the middle of nowhere, with the small village 6 km back uphill, and the next town about 40 km ahead.

I thought that the only thing to do would be to flag down a passing motorist, and by great good luck, the first person to come by was exceptionally helpful, and drove me back to Meyrueis, whence he had come in his 4 x 4 with his children and dogs... Mme stayed with the car. Our saviour took me to the local garage, where everyone was very kind. But we had to wait ages for the breakdown truck, which was already out on a mission, and had itself broken down... Eventually , we got our car back to the garage and onto a ramp, where we could easily see that almost the entire bottom of the oil sump had been ripped off.

So now , a new sump has to be ordered from Paris, and it will not arrive before Tuesday afternoon, which places the last stages of our trip (and the committee meeting that is the excuse for this trip) in jeopardy. We'll see. And, of course, we do not know yet if the engine has been ruined.

Meanwhile, we hired a Citroen C3 from the garage (very lucky they were a car-hire outfit), and finally made our way on to our friends who live in a village near Pézenas. It rained and it rained, and lightning flashed non-stop all around us. Very dramatic, but a bit wearing after the long drive (and the hairpins, and the loss of our car). But we finally got to the village. There, in the midst of an intense thunderstorm, we discovered that the instructions on how to find our friends' house had become mislaid in moving all our luggage from our Polo to the C3. We enquired at local shops in the village for the location of the "Impasse" whose name we did recall, but no-one knew of it. So now we spent 90 minutes in and out of the car in the storm, trying to reach our friends with our mobiles, but the signal was non-existent in the car, and VERY poor outside in the rain. One network refused us altogether, but finally I did manage to make a connection, and our friends came and rescued us. We were just a few metres from their house. The subsequent warm fire, glass of Irish Whiskey, excellent fish soup made by our hostess, and lots of red wine were never more welcome (especially since all I had eaten all day was a glass of orange juice and a caramel desert [don't ask!] for breakfast). Only water betweem 9 am and 9 pm!

We have learned that the flooding round here is so serious that the main road from Millau to Pézenas is cut off (although the autoroute is still open). We'll go to look at the flooding tomorrow (Saturday) afternoon.

Meanwhile, we reflect on a troublesome day, with enjoyable sparks of great sightseeing. At least no-one was hurt, and we got to sleep in the bed we had originally expected to be in.