Today we set off for Gouffre de Padirac which, for the uninitiated, is a mother-of-God great big hole in the ground. Thanks to N. from TTL for suggesting to go and see this.
You can take stairs or a lift and descend 103 metres down this huge hole and then enter and smaller cave to take a guided tour along course of an underground river. Along a large stretch of the tour, the river takes up the entire passageway and the only way along it is by boat. The boats are paddled along by a tour guides, and I couldn't help but think of this experience as a kind of bizzaro Venice. The water at some points was over 6 metres deep, but so clear it looked to be only about a metre. I imagine it was pretty cold but didn't stick a hand in to find out. The cave is spectacular. One of the stalactites, still active, is over 75 metres high and the roof at the highest point is 95 metres from the floor. Over 40km of caves has been explored so far and still more yet unexplored. Recommend to anyone.
After Gouffre de Padirac, we decided not to go back go Montignac, even though we had already paid for a 3rd night. The cost in fuel and extra time in backtracking made it more worthwhile to just keep going on. We headed on and eventually pulled up at a campsite, just outside St-Pierre-Lafeuille, called Quercy Vacances. No one seemed to be around in reception, although the door was open. We could also hear a very loud, intermittent, whirring, buzzing sound coming from somewhere very close by. We eventually noticed a whiteboard sign saying that the managers were temporarily out, but to find a spot and come back later. We came back 5 times over the next few hours but never found anyone about. The campsite was pretty dodgy anyway. There were only about 5 or 6 sites occupied and the toilets/showers were down a set of stairs around the back of a building backing on to woodland. Not particularly safe and the whole site was a bit isolated. Quiet though. (NB: the next morning on the way out we finally met one of the campsite managers and paid him. We found out that the whirring, buzzing noise was the reception's computer. The guy kept kicking the computer to stop the buzzing but, not surprisingly, it eventually just crashed. Probably need to invest in a new one, mate)
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