Footprints

Another day , another venture into the mountains . Recent forays had created confidence that this ageing body was capable of more . Why not revisit Tour Masanne , at only ? 793m;  17km  from home, that would take (me ) 5/6 hours . Ah , another suggestion has just been made , to finish with a meal  at Argeles Port ; so a less strenuous route planned . A later start , dictated by sartorial lunch preparations, meant that the route was down to two hours now .

Still I’m off with a spring in my step , enthusiasm enhanced by thoughts of food . I was following a series of fire tracks for ease and speed . It was yet another still day .With no noise , or anyone else, it was as though I had these vast spaces to myself . Being a responsible walker, I enjoyed this little bit of wilderness , leaving behind only my footprints , and taking with me only pictures. Ah if only mankind emulated this example.

The folds of the mountain side had been created over the millenniums by fast flowing river torrents .Vegetation has softened the slopes ; wind and rain smoothing exposed rock, itself covered with moss and lichen . Natures harmony .

It’s much, much , drier now , with those torrents making only maybe yearly appearances. The landscape had stopped evolving . However  nature has now been rent asunder with the gash of the fire tracks . Fracturing rock faces , and tipping the detritus on the slopes . Man’s footprint writ large. The tracks themselves a response to mankind induced climatic reverberations.

Turning a corner and the sound level dramatically increased , reaching a crescendo as  I crossed the ‘Route Grand Vitesse’. Feeling somewhat smug , I traversed this carbon emission generating contrivance; knowing that my releases that day , so far , was sustainable. My diminishing carbon footprint was further enhanced by a meal of shell fish , somewhat offset by the odd glass of wine. Clearly I am not yet carbon neutral .

Argeles has some 800 boats anchored in the port . Perversely very few are at sea at anyone time . The commune is engaged in a public consultation exercise to , amongst others ‘Engage the port and its neighbourhood in the ecological transition ‘ ( Google translation); i.e. to expand for another 240 . Despite the promotional wooly words , the main objective. The port and boat construction will represent a size 14 carbon footprint . Still I suppose with sea level rises forecast between 0.5 and 1 metre by 2100; the boats will provide sorely needed alternative accommodation .