Postcard from a walk last weekend with GOC to celebrate the club's fortieth birthday. Whilst I have been a member for, I think 35 years, I have not been a regular participant in recent years. This was not an energetic walk and there were a number of stops for various cakes contributed by us all, mine was a small Dundee cake. You'll see that the weather was kind at least during the walk. A number of similar walks have been organised by the different groups within GOC celebrating the birthday.

I'm not a founder member of GOC and no I wasn't the longest standing member there today. Several people were from the original East Kent group which was organising walks even before the founding meeting of GOC at 1974 Gay Pride in London. We shared several moments of recollection of another world!

A few days of good hiking in the mountains with Pascal and Hervé from Marseille. We stayed in Hervé's flat in Embrun, a cathedral town on the banks of the big river Durance as it comes down from the Ecrins and the Alps to the Mediterranean near Marseille.

The big lake is the Lac de Serre-Poncon, one of the series of waterworks that supply Marseille with plenty of water from the Alps. The little lake is at 1460m altitude and supplies just the village of St-Apollinaire, whose church you can see in my picture top left. The GR50 is the long distance footpath tour of the Lac de Serre-Poncon.

The rocks are the Aiguilles de Chabrières, 2403m. We didn't get that far as the weather was building to a storm for that afternoon and we had to descend after enjoying lunch at just over 1900m.

Not the South Downs and not East Kent either. Nor Belgium: Cuges-les-Pins to Gémenos, Provence - July 2014

The Calanques that I wanted to hike are shut due to fire risk. Entirely reasonable but a disappointment. So I spent ages online yesterday sussing buses for an alternative. The big advantage of buses is that you don't have to do a circle walk. In this case that's enabled me to walk over a medium sized hill from one valley to another. Cuges les Pins to Gémenos; 400m up and 400m down with a ridge walk along the cusp of the col that I passed over. That was walking through a herb garden of rosemary, thyme and lemon balm at the edge of Mont Ste. Baume.

Cicadas everywhere as a constant background chime, louder than even the gusty wind. Lower down, the cicadas were joined by the chirps of individual crickets. No water high up so not a good place for overnight camping though it would be a good place to view the sunrise and the stars.

I think this and the Calanques are pretty much how Corsica is, but without the Corsican bandits and with the convenience of a bus ride home

There was a convenient bar near the bus stop which served a suitable cold "pression" Amstel beer whilst the bus arrived.

Quieter day tomorrow and also not to overdo the sun thing.

Here's my postcard from Thursday's hiking. One of these is a sheep! That was an exceptional day both for the weather and also it is many years since I have hiked 750m up (and down) over 8 hours. That's what happens if you train in the Alps (last week) and then try the Lakes.

On the picture bottom right, I hiked up the valley on the left, around the ridge  to the peak High Street, 828m, which is on a Roman road, though not much trace now remains of the Romans, and scrambled down the ridge on the right, Riggindale.

I hiked Haweswater, Gatescarf Pass (666m), Mardale Ill Bell (750m) and High Street (828m).

And not forgetting my physio exercises for my triceps. Some gym views are better than other though I need to progress from a 1l water bottle to a heavier weight! And not my best form.