A walk down the Aveyron

Summer seems to have arrived overnight so taking advantage of the good weather we headed off on one of our favourite local walks.  The starting point was Pont St Blaise the ancient bridge over the river Aveyron below Najac.  The river was very swollen because of the week of rain.  We headed along the right hand bank for 15 mins (passing by a house and hydraulic generator).  Then we took a zig-zag path straight up the hillside through woods.  We joined the GR36 at the top of the hill on a broad track & followed it south through Mergieux (holiday village) and down to the river.  If you turned right here on the GR36 it would eventually lead to Laguepie, but we turn left and come off the GR36 following the river back to Najac.  Halfway back you need to head up to the railway bridge and cross the river continuing the walk on the left hand side.  Then it's a pleasant flat walk back to Pont St Blaise.

We were the only people walking, but did see six canoeists shooting the rapids (looked fun but scary).  The highlight of the walk was spotting an otter, our first sighting in the Aveyron. The walk is about 10 miles in length and took us four and a half hours including a stop for a picnic lunch and otter admiring time!

(This is the view of Najac from the top at the beginning of the walk.  I took this photo last Summer - yesterday the sky was bluer, but of course there were not so many leaves on the trees!)