Leaving Aigues Mortes we start towards the Camargue (Rhône River delta) and our first stop is Sainte Marie de la Mer. The town is the only significant one close to the Mediterranean Sea in the Camargue and is important as a pilgrimage destination for Roma (Gypsies), who gather yearly in the town for a religious festival in honor of Saint Sarah. We stop near the beach to look at the water which is cold this time of the year and take a few pictures of the church before moving north trying to see the animals and birds for which the Camargue is so well known.
And we do not have to wait long to see the bird we most wanted to see. Just a few miles out of town on a couple lakes we notice a few pink spots so we stop and take a look and as we hoped they are flamingoes. We take a few pictures of them unfortunately from afar and then not far away we find the next on the self decided must see list – a meadow of Camargue Bulls.
On the way we also see a beautiful and otherworldly saltpan that we have to stop and take photos of. It is quite unusual as most land has been reclaimed at the edges of the protected natural area.
Next on our last stop in the Camargue we stop at a farm , domaine de Mejanes, where we do a walk around the farmland and marsh to see Etang de Vaccares and hopefully more birds and flamingoes.
What we find however is the third and last on our must see list of animals – the Camargue white horses – actually quite a few of them. They are beautiful and we enjoy watching them for a while.
We also see birds, maybe flamingoes, but quite from a distance and a few more Camargue horses. And then after the hike of about 5 km we leave the Camargue and drive towards Arles our next stop.
