24th September

We have really enjoyed a few days on the Ille de Re. We had a wonderful bike ride along the island’s cycle paths. This island is famous for salt - there are still vast areas of salt pans where salt is `harvested’ as the sea water evaporates from these shallow marshes. It’s quite incredible to see. The famous salt is quite rough and has a yellow tinge [well, yes, the farmer’s dogs were in attendance!!??] - we didn’t try it! As the industry has reduced, many of the salt pans have returned to natural salt marsh which attract thousands of sea birds. It is a fascinating place. Paul’s `detour’ was quite interesting - being a D. of E. leader his map reading skills must be sound, mustn’t they?? So he must have `planned’ for us to end up carrying our bikes for over a mile of rough, rocky sea wall….only to find it ended in a creek…and the tide was rising…fast…so we had to wade across….carrying bikes…like I said, the island’s bike paths are very good!!!

We also discovered the daily market in St Martin. We have never seen so many varieties of fish!! We bought one and cooked it and ate it - it was delicious, but we haven’t a clue what it was!!
After a few days we needed to get out of the harbour, which was quite claustrophobic. So we headed for an anchorage through the bridge en route to La Rochelle. Again we were joined by a dolphin! Just as we approached the bridge [which joins Ille de Re to La Rochelle] we saw something black in the water ahead - of course we always think `rock’!! But it rolled across the surface a few times before swimming alongside the boat - it was the biggest dolphin we have ever seen!!