Charente style sticky mud

Location

Few of us thought that we would enjoy a walk with views last Tuesday (Jan 25) as the morning was very gloomy and murky. However by late lunchtime the sky had cleared somewhat and we enjoyed a pleasant afternoon with no bitterly cold easterly wind to freeze our fingers and noses.

The rendez vous was at the Salle des Fetes in Pleuville. The convoy then set off for the hamlet of La Peranche for the start of the walk deep in the country side along the border of the Dapartments of the  Charente and the Vienne.

The first twenty five minutes was along a muddy track recently churned up by vehicles used for cutting down the trees and hedges bordering the track. Fortunately there had been no rain in the previous week so it was not a river bed as well though there were deep puddles in some places along the way. Luckily for us there was a good high,dry ridge along the middle.

We continued along a dry track through the peacefulwoods before joining a narrow tarmaced road.At this point we had a good view of the surrounding countryside to the north and over the hamlet of La Peranche to the south.

At this point we discovered when trying to clean our boots that the mud was of the super glue variety and heavy too. Even by the end most of us still had some left on our boots.

From here on there was a mixture of ploughed  fields, some woodland , the odd orchard and occasionally some cattle. As these were not our local breed of Limousin there was some discussion as to their breed. The general consensus came down in favour of Charolais. Nearing our destination we descended in to a small valley and crossed a tributary of the small river Transon before climbing back up the hill into the village.

All 14 of us felt we deserved home cooked  Galette des Rois and meringues provided by two members of the groupbefore we set off for home.

The next Tuesday walk (1st February) starts from Les Seraillers  at 2pm