|
Caves: In the need of some physical exercise I rode my bicycle up a steep track to the entrance of the cave while the rest of the visitors came with a jeep. It was fairly hot with almost 30 degrees and the other visitors threw baffled looks at me as I arrived. When the door to the cave entrance was opened a strong thermic wind, created by the difference of the constant 5 degree temperature inside the cave and the mountain summer outside, blew into our faces. Once inside I cooled down my overheated body very quickly. We followed the tunnel dug by the water company who originally wanted to use the mountain for their purposes. After a walk of about a kilometre we reached the cave. It was not one of these caverns that stun you by these bizarre artworks, which stalactites and stalagmites can create over centuries. It was the sheer size of the caves that knocks you off. The cave has almost 200 meters of altitude and 450 meters of width. You could place several cathedrals inside this monstrous hole. Once outside I tried to compare the size of the cave to the size of the mountain and started wondering about when this mountain would collapse with such an enormous whole inside.
Worth a visit if you are in the area and want to break away from summer heat for a few hours. It´s also possible to do extended cave climbing excursions in here. Just avoid doing the ascend by mountain bike in plain summer, even so that on the way back down, the tourist jeep won´t have a chance holding following you.
Mimizan: Mimizan, what else. Not really lonely at the beach. But the sandbars handle even larger onshore mush. We came here in the afternoon for a quick stop on the drive back north to cool down a bit from the heat. As there were just surf schools and beginners out on the ocean I managed to sneak in for a quick 10 minutes session in board shorts and grab two set waves before I got back behind the wheel refreshed.
next page >>>
|
