A check of the weather forecast and the conditions at breakfast convinced us that we would not tackle the long walk today, and that we would take the opportunity to travel with the bags to our next hotel in Loubressac. This meant missing the opportunity to visit the Chateaux de Castelnau, but we had learnt that it was not open to the public on a Tuesday, and with the length of the walk we could not afford to spend to long there.
After breakfast we packed our bags, settled our bill and resumed our place on the terrace outside the hotel. The morning weather had improved and the sun was burning away the clouds, but then we had experienced this before, it was what the weather did around midday that was important.
We had about an hour to wait, but this extended to two hours, however there was plenty about to entertain us. Yesterday I had heard the calls of Blue Tits from a hole in the side of a nearby garage, and we had watched the adult birds move backwards and forwards across the river collecting food. This morning the calls were louder and spread out. I wnet to explore, and found young, recently fledged Blue Tits in the trees, and on the garden furniture next door to the hotel. This one was having trouble holding on to the chair frame and kept slipping down.
The parent birds continue there task of feeding the youngsters, and I counted at least five return trips across the river to the denser trees on the other side in the space of ten minutes. The incessant calls of the young birds continued indicating where they were, and that they were still hungry.
In these situations I can't relax and sit still, and I was walking alongside the river. As I did so I noticed a strange shape hanging of one of the concrete fence rails. Hanging from the rail, clinging to the empty skin case of its previous self was a Golden-ringed Dragonfly.
The dragonfly has a life span of about a year, the majority of which is spent under water, where the nymph is a very aggressive predator. With the right weather conditions once the nymph is fully grown the metamorphosis is completed by the nymph usually crawling out of the water up a plant stem. In this case the nymph crawled out of the water, up the concrete bank, up a concrete post and along a concrete rail. I found the dragonfly clinging to the split skin, or exuvia, in the middle of two posts.
It was pale and motionless as it hung there, but you could see the colour developing as we watched it. The sun was out, it was warm and we were beginning to wonder if maybe there wouldn't be any rain today.
I would re-visit the dragonfly every so often, and after a time it had moved from clinging to the exuvia, to hanging on to the concrete rail.
Every so often damselflies would appear, and I can only assume that they were coming from a similar process, crawling up the plants that were lining the edge of the river by the bank. They were difficult to catch once flying but I did manage to photograph this male Large Red Damselfly sunning itself on a leaf.
It was also no surprise when movement on the side of the bank turned out to be a Viviparous Lizard.
It was probably hunting the various insects that were taking advantage of the warm sunshine, and maybe even the damselflies.
Just before we left, I noticed that the dragonfly had gone, safely dried out and off into the sky to hunt and seek a mate.
The taxi finally arrived and we set off in the beautiful sunshine. Over the past few days in Beaulieu I was fascinated by a set of circus posters that advertised the "Plus Grande Hippopotame du Monde". There was a picture of a Hippo with jaws wide open, I remarked to Helen that bizarrely I would like to see this, although I knew it was totally cruel to the animal, if in fact it existed.
Our journey to Loubressac took us through the town of Bretonoux, and as we came out of the built up area I noticed a circus tent in the disatnce, and said to helen I wonder if that is the circus. As we passed the circus, at the front of the tent was the Hippopotamus in a small pen. It was big, but having seen hippo in the wild, and almost running into one in a jeep in Kenya, it wasn't that big, and it looked totally wrong, and I regret now even wanting to entertain the thought of seeing this magnificent animal in a captive condition when it should be freely roaming.
Loubressac is a medieval fortified village in a magnificent position on a hilltop overlooking the valley.
Our hotel was just outside the village, but commanded some amazing views out across the valley in full sight of the Chateau de Castelnau that we had missed due to not walking. Despite the lack of rain, we considered we had made the right decision as we gazed out across the valley.
I was able to zoom in on the castle to get a slightly closer view. It is visible for miles and commands a position overlooking four valleys and three rivers. It was built to protect the borderlands between the old regions of Quercy and Limousin, and was an important fortress in the One Hundred Years War, where it was impregnable to the English.
On the lawn below us a Painted Lady butterfly flew low across the grass, pausing every so often to inspect the flower heads of the clover.
The weather was still behaving so we decided to walk into the village, find a place to eat our picnic, and then explore a little the area around Loubressac. From the hotel we walked along the road past farm buildings and small cottages. The gardens were all well kept apart from one where in amongst the overgrown grass were Pyramidal Orchids that were attracting bees.
The village is a mixture of renovated buildings and those that have been around for sometime. A large car park accommodates the numerous visitors arriving by car and bus, and as we walked into the main square one building was being used by House Martins and many were nest building.
We walked around the narrow lanes where once again there were many shutters arches and lamp shades.
From the main square we walked to the chateau, where a bench overlooked the valley below. Here we stopped for lunch watching a Kestrel, several Black-veined White butterflies and a single Hummingbird Hawk Moth feeding on the Valerian flowers.
After lunch we set off down a small footpath, the route we would have arrived into the village on had we walked all the way from Port de Gagnac. This came out onto a road where a crossing was surrounded by fields. The fields spilled down from the walls of the chateau in the village, and looking up we could see where we had just eaten lunch.
As we stood debating what to do a Black Kite drifted over, dropping from height over our heads.
The Black Kites spend the summer here in the Dordogne, leaving in the autumn south through the Pyrenees.
They will cross the channel to the UK, but have yet to make it a stronghold. Interestingly here in France we have only seen Black Kites.
We decoded to walk down the road, again following the path that we would have arrived on. However we took a left hand track that wound its way through fields, the hope was that this would bring us back into the village. Along the verge were plenty of scabious and trefoil, and on these Adonis Blues.
There were signs pointing to the Chateau, and I decided to follow these. The fields were full of flowers, mainly scabious and daisies, and with the flowers we could see butterflies.
The most numerous being the Black-veined Whites, and they were difficult to pin down, but finally one stopped and I was able to get in close
Then I came across something I had hoped we would have seen earlier in the trip, an orchid, and not just a small orchid, this stood about 50 centimetres high.
Long trestles hung down from the flower head, and the sepals. This is a Lizard Orchid, a common species found on limestone habitat. Here you can see the detail inside the flower.
There were a few more in the area as we walked along, the first exciting orchid find of the trip.
Smaller brown butterflies were disturbed from the grasses, and I thought these could be skippers, but when one settled it was clear it was a Burnet Companion, a day flying moth.
Another moth had a striking resemblance, also, to a skipper, this time a Grizzled, but it was in fact a moth, probably Latticed Heath.
We now had a choice of paths, and I opted for one that wound downhill through woodland. However before we entered the wood there was a clump of Pyramidal Orchids nicely framed by the dark background.
A little further on a group of dead branches were lit by the sun, and a pair of lizards were taking in the warm sunshine.
The path wound downhill, signposted to the Chateau. As we reached the bottom it became painstakingly clear that the route we were taking would put us back at the Chateau de Castelnau. There was nothing else for it but to turn around and head back the way we came, and to follow the signs that showed the qucik route back to Loubressac.
However every cloud has a silver lining, and as we headed back along the path Helen pointed out a large bird of prey flying up from the ground. We could make it out circling in an attempt to gain height but could not get a clear view.
Finally it appeared above the trees and glided overhead gaining height.
I thought at first it might be a Short-toed Eagle, but it actually was a Honey Buzzard.
Gradually it gained more height and started to drift away, possibly the best views I have had of this bird of prey.
We walked back up the winding path through the woods, and then retraced our steps through the fields. Then it was a case of walking up a path back into the village, arriving in the main village square where we stopped for a drink.
Walking back to the hotel it started to rain, but this did not last long, ad I spent the rest of the afternoon sitting by the pool on the terrace watching the shower storms dotted around the valleys.
Dark skies were around us as can be seen from this panorama, but the rain did not return.
Ahead of dinner we sat with a drink on the terrace, behind the buildings of the village the sky was dark, and the evening sun lit up the buildings with a golden glow.
A little later on in the evening with the sun lower in the sky a rainbow appeared in the east of the valley.
Gradually more and more of the "bow" appeared across the sky.
The full panorama shows the spectacle that was unfolding as the sun set.
As the sun sank lower the intensity of the rainbow colours seemed to increase against the darlk clouds away to the east.
Dinner over we retired to the room. Tomorrow we were intending to walk once again, albeit a circular walk around the area. The forecast hadn't changed, but today's weather had made us a little more optimistic.
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