Green lanes in France : part 2 — The Dordogne gets narrow
On day one off-roading we came across a 110 defender and a couple of fat Toyotas with roof tents having a bit lunch in a farmers field, they where most helpfull and allowed me to copy there entire portfolio of tracks.
This included a route from a different magazine and it started back in Beynac, we have no Tripmeter except an App on the phone but there where more waypoints than the other routes to ensure we are on the correct route, Now then, being a bit of a geek and having the odd gadget I had with me Oziexplorer on the laptop and a GARMIN GLO Bluetooth gps, these had all worked happily together at home and the day before, but after typing in all the waypoints and arriving at a very crowded car park in Beynac, then watched idiot French Tourists jam themselves and a tour bus and a canoe bus into a tight end spot of the car park for 20 minutes I fired up the setup confident my ace navigator would have a easy time to find that the GPS would not talk to the laptop Milly sat quiet and watched a nerd take deep breaths and finally give up we went blind into the Northern land of the river Dordogne, we found the first turning but the French are cunning, since the route was published they had installed Dead end signs and this did throw us off for a while , …… after 3 trips around a very nice little village, the track where nice and easy with great views, it took a bit to learn what the author had drawn but we got the hang of it until we tuned out onto a main road by a small memorial.
we drove up and down the road and we where sure we had the correct trip reading Milly was sure that the tiny track on the left surely couldn’t be it, but she was wrong .
it was a tight twisty track up above the valley and into an amazing forest we emerged right in front of a abandoned chateau with its overgrown church pearing from the undergrowth from here on the track got better/worse depending who you talk to.
it was getting late and I decide we could camp here…. that was my decision Milly’s was slightly different and very vocal, so we headed out and found Chateau Cammarque.
I have found this website simple and clear on what to see in France.
http://www.francethisway.com/places/chateaucommarque.php
Here we camped in the grounds and I pointed out that when you camp IN the forest you can see who is watching, but when you camp in a small open field edged with dark woods then the ghouls are watching from the dark shadows, it didn’t go down too well. .
here is the route we took from this article. Download full pdf scan and you will need a password for the .zip try here thanks to the Allmakes centre for sponsoring this.
and ZIP file with Oziexplorer route and waypoints HERE Just to make your life easier.
