20/05 day trip La Grau de Roi

Camargue horses. Unfortunately no action shots this time


My best flamingo photo - sad about the tail

Today we went down to the Camargue by bus and then went on a 4x4 "safari" which turned out to be very enjoyable. The town we went to is called La Grau de Roi - a working fishing village and beach. We got to see flamingos up close but none of them obliged and took off just for the photo opportunity. These particular birds were quite young so they were not very pink. They become more and more pink from consuming prawns in the ponds. They are hilarious when their knees start wriggling as they stir up the pond bottom. Apparently they can't float because they are too big so even though it can look like they are floating, their feet are always on the bottom.

Then we stopped to see the salt works which has been going on since the 13th century. Some ponds were pink and others were blue. The pink ponds were pink because of the prawns in the water and these were the saltiest ponds so where the salt was extracted from.

We passed by a town called Aigues-Mortes which sounds like people died of a fever but actually means place of salt. It is a walled town built in the 13th century from which one of the Louis went on the crusades. There is a story about one of the towers in the wall of this town. Apparently after a battle between the English and the Bourgogne ?? there were so many dead, they didn't have time to bury them so they stacked them in the tower with layers of salt between the layers of bodies.

Aigues-Mortes

The Camargue was drained of salt water by the Romans and they began growing vineyards here. They dug canals which are filled with fresh water which keeps the salt water away as fresh is denser than salt water. How clever were those guys??
Now there are the wonderful Camargue horses and the bulls which are used for French style bull fighting described as "playing with the bulls" in the Arena. Anyone who wants to risk body and limb can jump into the Arena and try to pull a string with a small red rag tied to it, from between the bull's horns. The people of this area are clearly besotted with their horses and bulls. Bulls are chosen for their intelligence and are raised close to the horses so when there are horse and bull events, the bulls do not intentionally hurt the horses (so we were told by our guide, Vanessa, who has two Camargue horses and is in the thick of it when there are events of any sort).

The Camargue horses are born black and gradually change to white.
We called in at a ranch and had a look at the ring where they train the bulls for the bull fighting events and also the races used for vet work - similar to at home of course. Had arvo tea which included a taste of a sausage made out of Camargue bull - boo hoo.

Saw typical houses of the region which are thatched with the reeds from the marsh lands (these reeds are exported), the houses also have the shape of a ship's bow to deflect the wind as the area has strong winds.
Went to a vineyard and tried their wine. Don't know if this is done at home but apparently they pick the grapes for white wine and rose before the sun rises (to prevent a headache the day after drinking). Red wine grapes are picked at midday. White wine grapes are pressed and then put in vats with yeast but the red wine grapes are put in the vats with the yeast and pressed later.