Pyrenees : Part 11 - Day 5 Evening : Dune du Pilat

Day 5 (Evening) of Pyrenees Drive

Here is a summary of what is spent on Day 5.

Route: Bordeaux -- Dune du Pilat -- Biarritz (sleep for the night) 

Must-Incur Costs :

(1) Toll from Dune du Pilat to Biarritz - EUR7 (it is not a must-incur if you don't use the highway but we did because we wanted to get to Biarritz before it gets too late)

The Story

050915: We left Bordeaux at about 6.30pm, and reached Dune du Pilat by 8pm. The reason we go to Dune du Pilat is to see the sunset. Thank goodness the day is long during the summer, and it only gets dark by 830pm. One has to pay parking of EUR4 but coincidentally, there was no one manning the place when we exited it at 10pm. We were lucky then, to save EUR4. 

The Dune of Pilat also called Grande Dune du Pilat is the tallest sand dune in Europe. It is located in La Teste-de-Buch in the Arcachon Bay area, France, 60 km from Bordeaux. The dune has a volume of about 60,000,000 m³, measuring around 500 m wide from east to west and 2.7 km in length from north to south. Its height is currently 110 meters above sea level. The dune is considered a foredune, meaning a dune that runs parallel to a shoreline, behind the high tide line of a beach. The dune has been observed to move landward, slowly pushing the forest back to cover houses, roads and portions of the Atlantic Wall. (Source from Wikipedia)

 

 

It was just a short walk from the carpark to the sandy path. Probably a 7 minutes walk. Or maybe lesser. Then, everyone starts to remove their shoes because it is easier to walk in the sand. But be warned, the sand is cold! I wore back my socks because I could not stand the chill. One can opt to walk up the sand dune or use the allocated stairs. We tried to walk as fast as we could up the sand dune but it was proven very difficult as we were racing against time and fine sand. We could see the sun setting. What we thought was 30 minutes turned out to be 15 minutes. We found a spot to see the sun set. It was not the highest spot on the sand dune, though. The view is gorgeous. As soon as we stopped to sit, we could feel the chill, and I was shivering. Thank goodness I brought my fleece jacket with me, although it was of no use while we were huffing and puffing up the dune.

Then, Prof Sweet Tooth gave the brilliant idea of going to the 'other side' because it looked higher and he wanted to see what lies behind. He said that the highest point of the sand dune is the 'other side'. I looked and him and said - It's sand. He was disheartened and thinks that there is a different landscape. He was very intrigued to find out. So, I agreed because we were already here and decided to satisfy his curiousity. We walked for about 15 minutes, reaching the supposed peak, and saw a few guys seated there. He looked ahead and thought of walking further. I looked at him with a disbelief look. He changed his mind after he realised it is going to be tiring and it is just sand.. So, he stood at the supposed highest point, and kicked more sand onto where he is standing to make it a definite highest point. We took turns to stand on the 'most-definitely-highest-point' now.

We walked back to the carpark, and I stopped at the washroom. I saw a defibrillator inside which I thought I was very necessary. At the carpark, we heard 2 animals rummaging the rubbish bin. My friend thought they were dogs. I disagreed and said that they were wild boars from the shape of the animal. I was right. We hurried inside the car because the distance between the animals and us were just 20 steps away! We drove on to Biarritz and slept by the roadside. Again.