It’s been a funny ol’ day. I need to back up a little, though.

Yesterday we trotted off to McD’s for a dose of McWiFi to post some blog entries, all of which were lurking in Windows Live Writer on my Dell Inspiron laptop. I switched on said laptop and … nothing, nada, nichts, not a single wireless network showed as being available. Meanwhile, Francine was tapping away happily on her Sony Vaio laptop with not a care in the world. We both tried everything we could think of, all to no avail. Mr. Grumpy’s blog entries remained unposted.

Back chez le camping, Francine fiddled again, apparently with magic digits and lo, a couple of very weak wireless networks appeared, though none to which I could connect because of security. We left the settings exactly as they were overnight and, heartened, this morning returned to McD’s expecting success. Expectations, sadly, were short-lived; I switched on and … nothing, nada, nichts, not a single … well, you know. Wisely, as an erstwhile seasoned professional, I had taken the precaution of copying my blog entries from my recalcitrant heap of crap Dell machine to Francine’s much more reliable Sony, courtesy of which blog entries were posted and spam emails deleted.

We’ve had some heavy overcast all day so photography wasn’t featuring high on our menu. We did, however, toddle up to a high point to see if any paragliders were going to glide past photogenically – paragliding is a popular form of entertainment in these vertiginous parts. Alas, no paragliders were present. This, however, did drift past below our vantage point on a pair of those barn doors I mentioned in a previous post and, furthermore, Francine had her camera out with the correct lens mounted as it did so. This is one of the local population of Griffon Vultures (Gyps fulvus) captured on pixels and, though there isn’t a handy size comparison in shot, believe me, it’s BIG. Well done Francine! [Maybe Francine is a professional?]

It began raining shortly afterwards. We returned to Guillaume for the afternoon.

I may have to drive over this piece of Dell rubbish, accidentally, of course, or trip and fall into the Dourbie river with it. Maybe I could stumble and fall on it on my way out of an abortive McWiFi trip to McD’s? It’s only 6 months old; I’ve had to re-install it three times already, Windows keeps saying the hard drive is about to fail and the wireless is now playing up. Maybe I should use it as a portable wheel chock. It would certainly do a better job than it does as a portable computer.

Another long hop (for us heading south) of 300 miles-ish from La Brenne to Millau, home of the magnificent Norman Foster designed viaduct. Apparently, Norman Foster also designed that so-called Gherkin building in London but everyone has their off days. The elegant Millau viaduct, on the other hand, is worth a trip all by itself. This time, however, we just wanted an interesting intermediate stop on our way to Les Alpilles at the western end of Provence.

Millau is surrounded by gorges and cliffs. The main river flowing through it is the Tarn which has cut it’s impressive Gorges du Tarn to the north-east. We headed for our favoured Millau campsite, which stands on the lesser river Dourbie with its smaller but nonetheless picturesque Canyon de la Dourbie to the east. We checked in and found a very pleasant river-side pitch away from the press of Dutch crowded around the only open sanitaire block.

The rivers and gorges around Millau attract wildlife. Not long after we had pitched up, one of the more endearing smaller winged residents captured our attention. Once you’ve heard the “peep” call, you know a Kingfisher (Alcedo atthis) isn’t far away and, sure enough, we saw the tell-tale blue iridescent flash as the little darling shot up the river to one of its favoured perches. [And before anyone asks, no I didn’t get a picture of it, malheureusement. What do you think I am, a professional?] Sadly, our Collins Guide doesn’t actually mention the wingspan of a Kingfisher, only its length (17cms/7ins of which 4cms/2ins are the beak). So, I’ll estimate its wingspan at 20cms/8ins.

Later in the afternoon, almost as large and impressive as Millau’s viaduct, what must be the area’s largest winged inhabitant put in an appearance. Judging by the reaction of the other bird life where it flew, I suspect it wished it had appeared somewhere else. This apparition was an awe-inspiring Griffon Vulture (Gyps fulvus). If you look at the distribution map in Collins, it doesn’t occur here but I can assure it does, and in quite large numbers. It was re-introduced together with some legal changes allowing carcasses to be left on which it could feed. This bird is massive, the 380 airbus of the European avian world, dwarfing even the larger eagles. Collins does quote the Griffon Vulture’s wingspan (WS) – nothing like a bit of consistency, is there? – at 2.6m/9ft. This bird doesn’t actually have wings so much as two bionic barn doors grafted to it’s fuselage. Thus, Collins really should quote its Barn Door Span (BDS). It’s still a huge 2.6m however you look at it which makes it about 130 times as large as the diminutive but utterly endearing Kingfisher.

This particular vulture was a little unhappy because it was being harried by two Carrion Crows. The crows, not particularly small birds themselves, were flying side by side and together did not quite match the span of just one of the Griffon Vulture’s barn doors. As the vulture tried to manoeuvre to elude its attackers, the resultant aerial display reminded me of the Battle of Britain Flight, the Lancaster bomber lumbering around accompanied by its attendant lithe and agile Hurricane and Spitfire fighter duo. [And before anyone asks, no I didn’t get a picture of it, malheureusement. What do you think I am, a professional?]