Mazamet - Sete

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After a first night of camping (15 years) of a fairly average quality here I am ready to leave for a long stage, 144 km from Mazamet to Sète by the greenway and leaving to Lamalou baths.

This first night camping for so long worried me a little but overall it went pretty well. But of course the quality of the silence is not the same as in a house protected by thick walls: from the tent of the neighbor we perceive all the noises of which a slight snoring, around the campsite there are houses and a road not away which was animated from 5:30. Finallyusing the mattress offered by my colleagues revealed some disadvantages that I will have to check for other uses ...

And here I am, first on the greenway (an old railway)

Very beautiful landscapes are offered to the sight

We cut the mountain by tunnels where light turns on automatically when bicycles pass!

The greenway is not everywhere indicated. A little before Saint-Pons-de-Thommières I drove a bit along the départmentale because I did not see the indication. Along the départmentale road for a few hundred meters I contemplated the green path below, inaccessible. I did not go back which allowed me to buy food in Saint-Pons 🙂

The course is a bit hilly. A regular slope first, then a fairly steep climb before Olargues. Past Faugères we go down quickly to the Mediterranean.

Places a little wild, which relive a little with the tourists of the greenway.

View of Olargue

A place to eat

After descending to Lamalou les Bains you have to go back up to pass the small hills that separate from the coast.
There is little road, and we are obliged to take the national road.
The route I had prepared made me spend a moment on a wide road parallel to the national road. Very good, climb without a car. But then there was a trail that I followed anyway but more suited to mountain biking. Forced to brake hard on downhill or even dismount. I tried to get back on the road at the first opportunity, but still follow a mountain bike trail ... a lot of time and energy lost.

Then from Laurens the road becomes very pleasant and at times we are pushed by the north wind.
There again on the last tens of km it was necessary to manage the water and the thirst with the heat and a course a little longer than envisaged.
Arrived at Fabienne’s, the friend who welcomed me to Sète around 19h!


     

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