France 2025, Days Seven to Nine, The Journey Home

We decided to stretch out the journey back home so after checking out of Le Moulin de Pensol we headed to an AirBnB at Lemere near Chinnon for the night and visited the wonderful Chateau du Rivau. The next morning we spent the day around Chinon and the Fortress and then headed further north for a night at an eco-farm called L'arche de ma nature.

Sadly it was then time to make our way back over the Channel via a quick stop at a patissierre in Rennes and then back to Ouisterham-Caen for the ferry to Portsmouth. There was a bit of interesting marine life on the way back. 

An excellent little trip and nice test run for some longer adventures out of Portsmouth (our new escape portal) planned for next year (hoping to drive to Corsica for the WP bird ticks I need there) 

Mediterranean (Balearic) Shearwater. Had a couple of these. Also one distant large shearwater sp. Also had a couple of Black Terns and a few Common Terns, Fulmars and Gannets. 

Storm Petrel sp. Had these two petrels on the sea presumably European Storm Petrels.

Common Dolphin (above and below). Had a couple of pods of these. Also had Harbour Porpoise.

Something big and fishy- presumably a Blue-fin Tuna. 

Great Darts (above and below). Had these at the eco-farm and also had an Orange Underwing sp hawking by day in the garden. Also a few other bits in the Lepiled. 

The new mini Lepiled- the new addition to the moth trapping kit. The whole thing packs down into a small bag but the best feature is that the specialised LED lights (design to emit frequencies that maximise insect attraction) are powered from a standard power bank. Having such a light weight and relatively powerful bit of kit certainly opens up opportunities for more comfortable moth trapping travel and access to remote areas. As we took the campervan to France on this occasion I also took the 125W MV Robinsons to compare the performance which still out performed the lepiled but the lepiled was not bad. 

Chateau du Rivau

Chinnon Fortress (above and below). There was a large Cattle Egret roost in the trees along the river and Kingfishers were darting around. Had Hoopoe and Black Redstart nearby too. Lots of Cattle Egrets and a few Great Egrets were along the road on the journey too. 

The nab with Selsey Bill in the background- interesting to get a different perspective from all the hours seawatching from the Bill 

Back at Portsmouth