Salin de Giraud

Well we had a beautiful day, Sun was shining almost no wind and nothing else to do so we decided to revisit Salin de Giraud. As this was a planned excursion we remembered the iPad for photos as well as some snacks and water.
We rode up along the east bank of the Rhône to Barcarin, where the ferry is spotting a bird of prey on the way, it might have been a buzzard. We arrived just in time to hop straight on and across we went, the river was definitely in a much calmer and more relaxed state than the first time, but we’ve had no real rain for a few weeks so that makes sense. Once across we headed back down towards the sea not quite on the West bank of the river as the tow path there was a bit bumpy for our not mountain bikes but initially we were on a new cycle lane but this did disappear. On the way down we saw another bird of prey, and stopped at an artificially raised viewing platform to see the salt flats and salt mountain. The info boards told that this salt was used for the roads so wasn’t refined very much. Then onwards to the beach, this one also had a lifeguard station also only open for the two summer months. The beach was very long and apart from the lifeguard station the only features were the wooden teepees that visitors had built out of drift wood. There seemed to be a lot less rubbish perhaps this is because the prevailing wind carries the river rubbish east to Port St Louis’s beach. We stopped for a snack and to watch a family have fun extricating their people carrier from the sand, then back up to Salin for a hot chocolate. The cafe/bar/restaurant is a bit odd it is one big room with a really high ceiling a section that is the ‘restaurant’ a bar on one wall and random decor, photo on next post.John said it reminded him of a church hall or old fashioned community hall. Near the ferry we met a ram with enormous horns and saw two more birds of prey, maybe the same ones again who knows.Read more