Les Orgues d’ille & Castell de Rodès

This morning we were up bright and early at 7am. We knew we had just 70 miles left to go to reach our first official destination of this trip and were itching to get going. By 8am we were both dressed and had Wanda packed up and ready to move but we decided to wait until just gone 9am to leave so we missed the rush hour traffic.
It was an easy drive mostly on duel carriageways at 60mph to reach the small town of Ille-sur-tut and we stopped at the supermarket Super U to get snacks and fresh food for the next day. Even though we went in with a list of 4 main things to get we still came out with 2 huge bags. The thing with travelling is, if you see a food you haven’t tried and it’s cheap you tend to buy it just to see if it tastes as good as it looks.
This time we bought chocolate wafer biscuits that are really tasty, some nuts that are covered in a bacon flavour which are also tasty, some deep white chocolate milka biscuits which we haven’t tried yet and some olives with goats cheese and peppers to snack on.
Our first destination was now just 2 miles away and getting down the tiny roads of Ille-Sur-Tut was abit of a challenge that hadn’t been thought out very well for a tourist destination but eventually we found the camping car parking and Wanda could make some electric while we went for a hike.
We had arrived at Les Orgues D’ille a spot that I had, had marked off in my camera list for about 3 years so we were excited to finally get to view it.
We paid the €5 each to get in and were a little disappointed when the ticket staff told us it should take us about an hour to get around but off we went.
We were lucky in the fact that there was hardly anyonelse there and it was really sunny so we had the best views. It is an amazing site, very much like Bryce Canyon in Utah but on a much, much smaller scale.
We could spend days in Bryce and still not see it all. Here, a quick walk around in a loop and your done.
We were glad we had seen it, it was special but not spectacular and we got some lovely photos and another memory, now it was time to move on.
We drove a little further down the road to find an from a camping car company we had used before but when we pulled up to the barriers we were greeted by barking dogs that had been tethered to the only motorhome there so I quickly replotted the sat Nav and we headed for a little Airè in the village of Rodès.
We knew we were going to have to pay for this place but there is a gorge walk we wanted to do and an old castle we wanted to see. We also need to top up the water tanks so paying €5 for a park up and €3 for water seemed like a good deal.
Our hosts welcomed us, a chunky little french man and his wife hugging their little dog and they showed us where to park. He looked a little taken back when we said we only wanted one nights stay and looking at the 7 or 8 other campers here they all look like they’ve started to take route. Infact the camper next to us has a caravan attached and that lady is serving food.
It was now 3pm and the sun was baking down at 23°c, Wanda was making plenty of electric so we made a cup of tea, caught up with our social media and then went hiking to the Gorge.
It was a short hike to initially get to the gorge and then a 4km trek along an ancient viaduct with running water to view the remains of an old chapel right on the side of the gorge, we had truly breathtaking views. We had goats to keep us company on the other side of the aqueduct as we hiked on further, hundreds of them climbing the steep mountainside next to us and as we came to the end of the path we turned over a little footbridge and then took a climb up the side of a mountain to the remains of the Castell de Rodès, an ancient fortified castle from 1080. It is amazing how much of the original castle is still standing and how far it spread through the town that is there now. There are still archways in the town that used to lead up to the castle.
We arrived back at Wanda just after 5pm, it was finally starting to cool down and after dinner we sat and chilled watching the clouds travelling over the nearby mountain tops with the windows open and a cool breeze blowing through.Read more