These sites are open to the public for upload of route gpx’s descriptions and comments : social networks for hikers.īefore 2015, the Parc National des Cévennes published hiking foldouts in little booklets with a green folding cover. Many websites now provide access to large databases of hiking routes (VisoRando and VisuGPX to name 2). The WMTS service has become ubiquitous (in the many web and mobile apps for hikers) and the service is mostly free for non commercial use. ![]() The “Institut national de l’information géographique et forestière” or IGN for short has moved most of its services online. Things have changed enormously since then. Those days are gone and, incidentially so is the free blogging service once hosted by MidiLibre. No slippy maps, no altitude profiles, just still images and a few lines of text. The information consisted of a picture of a base map with the circuit superimposed in jpg format. When our club first put a hiking track online around 2012 we used a free blogging service hosted by the Montpellier based newspaper MidiLibre. (The above notes about the history of the site are excerpted from this reference). Much has been done to keep the site open with firebreaks and thereby favour the return of natural endemic flora (ex corn cockles, wild snapdragon, plantain etc) to an open milieu. The area contains rehabilitated stone cabins (known as capitelles), several waymarked walking routes, mini arboretums including a substantial collection of almonds and oak varieties, lookout points, educational exhibits etc. This time the reconstruction of the area required a rethink and the result is a modern landscape park, less prone to fire, with more open spaces and many ethnobotanical features. This might have been a mistake because in 1989 a huge fire destroyed about half of the Clos Gaillard forest and many, many hectares beyond (over 600 in total). After a major fire in 1974 the municipality of Nimes decided to reforest the area. Then came the fires – here and there – intermittent. Modern farming developments and related population shifts to urban areas left the area mostly abandoned to scrub forest by the mid 20th century. This site – the Abîme de Bramabiau – is open to visitors from spring to autumn but closed in winter (too much water and anyway no visitors). Of course – visits only available when the water is not raging and this means guided tours only – no free roaming. Tickets are purchased near the highway and the guide takes you down to the base of the cliff, into the diaclase and through a labyrinth of galleries, mini-canyons, waterfalls and caverns created by raging waters. From Saint Sauveur, the trail runs uphill back towards Camprieu and very close to the diaclase and the raging bull. The abandoned village was eventually purchased by the French forest management authority (the ONF) and is now at the centre of a fine arboretum. This village, about 4 km from Camprieu and in a difficult to reach spot, was the original centre of town, but was progressively abandoned in the late 19th to early 20th century in favour of Camprieu – easier to reach by road and location of a new church. The whole impression is strange : why such a church and village in the middle of nowhere ? The answer, it seems is that the surrounding land was very fertile, and subsistence living from agriculture was feasible. The village consists of a substantial church, a set of fortified farm buildings and a cemetery. A few paces further along you reach the remote and also abandoned village of Saint Sauveur. Eventually the path emerges near an old stone farmstead – imposing but nevertheless abandoned. This hike starts from the small town of Camprieu and heads steadily downhill into the Aigoual forest, following ancient cobbled paths through a humid valley. In the picture, we see the entrance to the cave, and in the distance a sun-lit area resulting from a partial roof collapse deep in the cave. This disappearance point is known as “la Perte” – the loss. ![]() Soon after, the river enters a sizable cave and about 100 metres into the cave, the river disappears underground. At a point near the town of Camprieu, the river flows off the granite bedrock into an area of karst limestone. ![]() The Bonheur meanders across a flat granite plateau and filters through various bogs. One of them is called “Le Bonheur” (Happiness) ”. Several rivers arise on and around the peak. Local geology is complex – granite bedrock, karst topographies and schist. The name Aigoual derives from the root word “aiga” meaning “water” in a number of romance languages and dialects. In an a very wet year, the total annual accumulation could reach 4 m. Annual rainfall averages around 2 m per year (yes metres – not centimeters). Mount Aigoual, the second highest peak in the Cévennes, is a wet place.
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