Exploring the Crozon Peninsula

Four fantastic walks and a paddle that showed us the beauty and power of the coast and sea.

We arrived here at lunchtime, so had only half a day to do some walking. We were hoping that this proved more successful than our previous trek at Le Conquet, where we had miss timed the walk and ended up getting a bus back. This was another cliff top and beach walk, so we had high expectations.

We were not to be disappointed. Although the landscape appears very similar to what we left behind in Cornwall, the quality of the light, being further south, really enhances the colour of the sea and the definition of the shadows. The beaches are long, clean and mostly deserted. We were also surprised by the warmer weather, even though we were now into October.

We were joined by many French walkers, who also seemed to be enjoying the landscape. Mostly elderly couples and probably lots of motor homers, which was nice to see.

The paths here are larger than we are used to, and better maintained, although not so clean. Too many French petit dogs we fear, and owners who are less conscious of their environment!

The winds and the currents here appeared to be at conflict with each other. A battle commenced with waves coming in from two directions. Also probably caused by some underlying rocks.

Surfers still make no sense to us, we think they should be renamed as bobers. This is all they seem to do, bob up and down in the waves. There is very little surfing going on, even though the waves appeared to be perfect, but what do we know? Other spectators seemed to agree. We got bored, again, and moved on rapidly.

The waves were so fantastic you can later see them in a video. The small black dots are in fact the surfers, so you can get an idea of the scale of the waves

Gorse and heather covered the clifftops, we are still being really lucky with the weather, bright pale blue skies with scurrying clouds, but no rain.

The coast is littered with small islets and bits of partially submerged rocks. It is easy to see the power of the waves and the processes of erosion that have taken place over the millennia.

The updated iphone software being used to its fullest extent, we are loving those panoramas, so expect to get bored by them. Yes, the beach was really that wide and that deserted, no Photoshop here.

What a way to end the trek,but the day was not over.

Later on we took a bottle of wine down to the beach to enjoy the sunset

The fading light reflected off of the masts of the boats resting in the harbour, we would get much closer to them tomorrow, if the weather was good. We had been quite intimidated by teh strength of teh waves, but it appeared from the guide that the western side of the peninsular suffered the brunt of the force of the Atlantic, leaving the eastern side, in its shadow, much calmer.

We continued our preparations for the next day, by opening another bottle!

You will note the new route maps, not as good as British Ordnance Survey, but needs must,lets hope things improve in other countries.

Duration    3 hours

Distance    13 km

The next day appeared calm, which was good as it was time to get the kayaks again, the first time this side of the channel. Would the French waters be kind to us? An early morning mist covered the cliffs on the horizon, should we be worried or would it clear as the sun warned up the coast?

It was a couple of hundred meters carrying the boats down to the sandy beach. Luckily the tide was in and therefore the sand was not that wide.

As usual, we put Susana in first, missing the breaking waves, she pulled herself forward, paddling out of trouble. I was not so lucky and received a boatful of water as a wave broke over the front of the kayak. It had not been that large but I was now sitting in a cold puddle of water. I paddled over to the harbour wall to tip it out, not such a good start!

Paddling through the boats in the harbour.

Islands dot the coastline, extending into to sea, getting smaller the further out they project as they get eroded by the waves. It is quite dangerous to pass through them as the currents are quite unpredictable with the water forcing its way through the gaps.

At high tides most of the beaches are covered and you get to experience the full force of the waves as they crash against the cliffs.

The noise as water rushes into caves, holes and crevices, creating percussion like explosions, is so strong that we have to shout at each other to be heard.

Beneath the waves, amongst the seaweed, we noticed lots of small jellyfish, pulsating as they moved through the water. Susana tried to capture them, precariously holding her phone close to the sea. I feared we would be one mobile less by the end of the paddle. We never did get a good image of them. Trust us, they were lovely. We must get that underwater camera!

Whilst paddling we also came across several strange creatures, very ugly indeed, although others may see them as beautiful. We have yet to determine what they are, but are continuing to research them. Any ideas?

We do not want to describe this in any great detail, we want to leave that to your imagination, although I can guess some of the comments we may receive from Susana’s brother Roberto. We may need to moderate these I fear.

They were put back in the sea. We tried to forget about them as we were just about to have lunch. We found a small pebble beach with no one in sight. By the end of lunch, we had been joined by several boats, and some divers, isn’t that always just the way? Maybe they were attracted by our stinky cheese!

Nice colour coordination between kayak and wetsuit.

And back to Susana’s obsession. She advises me that this one does not appear in her book and she may need more. I fear this may get expensive, and increase the weight of poor Dora. It is also likely to impact on any small present budget we may have (note to Roberto).

Kayaking route around Morgat

Duration   3 hrs

Distance   7.9 km

The next day we headed to the north of the peninsula. Not many photos for this walk around Pointe de Espagnols, which looked back towards Brest. Susana was not so happy about this as we had not enjoyed our drive around the city that much. We got quite lost and she ended up driving Dora around many small and narrow streets! She had hoped we had put Brest well and truly behind us.

It was quite windy and the sea was tumultuous and choppy.

Quite a shock as we came around a corner to uncover this tank which must be from World War II!

This area held an important strategic position during the war, and was heavily protected by the Germans with many fortifications. This panorama is taken from inside a gun emplacement.

Duration   2 hrs

Distance   7.5 km

The final day in the peninsular we undertook a walk which was recommended by Stephanie. We were concerned about the length as we had started a little late, and therefore cut it short, but ended up doing two walks. In hindsight, we are sure we could have completed it in one go.

The start was at Pointe de Pen-Hir, where a series of island continued out to sea. This is not a sign you would get in the UK, where you are more likely to get a fence and ‘No climbing’. We got to see several climbers hauling themselves up the cliff face that day.

The eroded rocks created beautiful forms of stacked blocks, perfect for climbing.

Hidden in a small depression (won’t tell you why we were there!) a tomato plant had established itself, probably from some discarded picnic.

For lunch we stopped at a bay where people were ‘bobbing’ in the water, Even they got bored and gave up, try another hobby.

A gull shared our lunch with us on the rocks. She liked banana, not so keen on plums, though.

On our way back from the bay, which looks quite small, before heading towards Pointe de Dinan.

Note the two walks at each end of the bay;

Pointe de Pen Hir

Duration   3 hrs

Distance   13.2 km

 

Pointe de Dinan

Duration   1.5 hrs

Distance   2.8 km

We ended the day with a short walk around the Pointe de Dinan, but spent quite a while looking at the waves and the rocky features that they had created over time. There were some really impressive caves, stacks and arches.

VIDEO

The fisherman seems so small, perched precariously on this rock. Not sure how successful he is and if any fish could survive the crashing waves.

We ended up walking over this arch, the waves so violent beneath.

A short video of some of the waves, we have also started with some video we took while at Morgat. We spent quite a while sitting on this soon to be island (when the arch collapses), watching the powerful waves that seemed to get bigger and more violent as the time went by.

 

 

A little further round were more arches.

The sea rushing through and onto the beach.

A beach we could not get to, alas.

It wasn’t until we got to Pointe de Dinan that we realised the full extent of the bay. Impressive eh. Our lunch was on the sandy bit to the far left.

GDR and SM