Water and Old Stuff

We woke to a clear chilly morning beside the reservoir - our altitude is about 2,500ft. We emptied and filled before hitting the road to our first stop of the day.

We’re heading for the Cubservies Waterfall but we don’t have an exact location. I have a possible parking place which is apparently the starting point for a walk. We knew the road to the village of Cubservies was going to be narrow when there was a 5 tonne weight limit at it’s start. In fact, the other end, when we exited had 3.5 tonne and 2.5m width limits!

We arrived at the parking place but decided it was too far from the waterfall so we carried on along the road. It got narrower and more windy as we made our way towards the village. Finally, and without mishap, we arrived at Cubservies where we abandoned Kiki in the middle of the road and walked the short distance to the overlook.

The waterfall was very impressive - it’s one of the highest in Europe measuring over 90m tall. The longest drop which is visible from the viewpoint is about 30m high. Returning to Kiki, we unblocked the road - nobody was around - and continued our slow winding progress looping back to the bigger road.

Next stop was Lastours where we parked in a car park by the river and had coffee. We had come to see the Cathar castles which are perched on a rock high above the village. We could see one castle from the car park and on reading the information boards, we discovered that there is a viewpoint above the village. Leaving Kiki, we walked the 2km up to the viewpoint. It was well worth the climb - the view across the valley to the castles was great.

We returned to Kiki for lunch before continuing to our stopping point for today. The town of Villeneuve-Minervois has an Aire de Camping Car next to their sports hall. Leaving Kiki, we headed out of town on a 4km hike up to the Vieil Homme Dolmen.

After an hour or so of continuous climbing we finally arrived at the top of the world - it seemed like that!  There are two small dolmen which have views for miles around. We could see the town where we’d left Kiki in the distance - it looked a long way!

We returned to Kiki, downhill all the way, a lot quicker than the uphill journey. We had our meal and settled in for the evening.