Le Lac de la Dathée

Posted by Rosie

Simon has been away for much of this week, dog sitting at some friends' house which meant when it came to my birthday on Saturday, he wasn't here.  No worries, we simply arranged to meet up at the house from where we could walk around the nearby Lac de la Dathée.  With the 3 terriers Simon was looking after as well as Poppy and Saari we were a bit apprehensive that we might lose some of the dogs but actually, except for our 2 sneaking off at one point to raid a bin and one of the terriers trying to outrun a cyclist, they all behaved really well.

The Lake is a flooded reservoir and the walk around it is just over 6kms long, with strategically placed signs showing how far you are from the barrage at any given point.

Our start point - 6.1kms to go!

Lac de la Dathée

Beautiful views all round the lake

 
Of course it was not all walking - there were trees to be climbed:

How high will they get?

 And water to swim in (if you are a dog):

A very happy Poppy

Our aim, however, was to walk all round the lake so boys were brought down from trees and dogs persuaded out of the water and our journey continued.

On the barrage so 4.2kms to go!

Our canine friends - Saari, Poppy, Gallette, Gimly and Beth

Along the way we saw some interesting and even weird sights:

For example we have absolutely NO IDEA how this fish came to be wedged half way up a tree!  It did however remind me of this Einstein quote:

“Everybody is a genius. But if you judge a fish by its ability to climb a tree, it will live its whole life believing that it is stupid.”

Flying Fish?

Sadly, the many alder trees around the lake are under attack by a ferocious non-native pest.  The caterpillars of the alder flea beetle (a relative of the Colorado beetle that can decimate potato crops) are so numerous that many of the leaves have been stripped back to their skeletal veins.  They may look pretty but it must be damaging to the trees.

Alder Flea Beetle larvae

This triffid like plant caught our attention - it is in fact a member of the umbelliferae family, a large group of plants which includes carrot, cow parsley and hogweed amongst many others.  I think this may be angelica but I am not at all sure though so perhaps some-one more knowledgeable can correct me if needs be. 

An emerging umbelliferae

Nearly home!

If walking is not your thing Le Lac de la Dathée is also good for bird watching, fishing (you will need a licence), cycling, sailing and rowing (there is a boating school) or simply enjoying the scenery with a picnic.   It is about 40 minutes from Eco-Gites of Lenault and well worth a visit.

Have you got a favourite lakeside watery walk you like to do?