There is no doubt that I shall remember 2013 for its appalling weather …. once again the bank holiday weekend arives and high winds Bf 5-6 + showing all along the southern Brittany coast.
On these occasions it is usually easy to find some reasonably sheltered water on the Golfe du Morbihan. I have wanted to return to the Golfe at some point to visit the Tumulus on Ile Gavrinis, now the Tumulus is open to visits so a phone call was made to get us booked in, we learnt that actually it was full because this weekend it was Fete du Golfe and accordingly the whole region would be swamped by leisure boaters…. We changed our minds !
This photo by Françoise Berland shows what to expect !
We went a little further north up to the Crac’h estuary where we would get some reasonable shelter from the westerlys. La Trinité lies in the estuary and is a popular natural port, again on a bank holiday weekend it makes no sense going to such a popular tourist destination to find parking, instead we searched the opposite side of the estuary and found easy parking next to a slip at Les Presses on the opposite side of the Estuary
Shortly after launching we crossed the main channel to witness a ‘near miss’ between two sailing craft, there was plenty of shouting probably translating as ‘ I say old boy, you need to revise your Col Regs’
This weekend was the ‘Armen’ race, some of the boats were already in La Trinité so we decided to pop in and take a look.
This Trimarin, is quite an amazing boat, have a look at the video for some footage taken during the race.
Close up on the water shows the incredible form of the hulls
The seafront at La Trinité was looking great, but as predicted very busy
We continued up the estuary passing under the road bridge, the waterway here becomes immediately quieter, but does look a little industrial. On both sides of the bridge are stocks of rusty iron frames used to carry the oyster sacks .
Further paddling takes you into the more usual environment of mud flats and marsh, there are always old hulks left slowly decaying in the water, which in a strange way look quite attractive as they they slowly blend into the landscape.
When we approached this boat we could hear water noisily filling a compartment inside, it really sounded like a large tap running, which seemed rather strange in this abandoned boat, but it was of course the rising tide breaching some internal bulkhead.
Tidal mills were an important feature along these waterways, many have been restored to full working order while others have been turned into a variety of different types of accommodation, sadly others have become derelict.
On the upper reaches of the estuary we came across this rather ancient cross, it is located in a most remote spot likely to be on the property of the Chateau du Kervihan, getting out to take a closer look was not so easy … Mud is mud wherever you go ! but here we found a thin layer a brown mud which lay over a deep thick heavy black mud that stunk ! Thankfully just a few meters to cover with some rocks on the way
It was soon time to turn with the tide and return back to our start point, the sky had clouded over some and the wind increased, but as always it was good to be on the water and we both enjoyed our trip. On reaching the slip we found a large queue of ribs and small cruisers lined up waiting for their turn …….. one of the great joys of kayaking is being able to slip in when we want without obstructing anyone.