Walking up Volcanoes Part 2: Puy De Dome with Bethan

The day after Puy De Sancy, we climbed Puy De Dome. This is another volcano, and again is higher than anything in the UK at over 1400m. Bethan should be proud to have climbed the second highest of my 40 hills, and she did it without the aid of a cable car!!

When Rach decided to 'upgrade' her hill, Bethan decided that she would like to upgrade hers as well! Puy De Dome is a mountain just asking to be climbed, and if you visit the Auvergne, you really have to make the trip. The volcano is visible for miles around, and the highest of a chain of volcanoes in this area. There is a road that winds it's way to the top, but we parked at a col and climbed. The first car reached the summit in 1913, but the toll road only opened in 1926. It took us about an hour to get to the top, walking up a steep, switchback trail all the way up. The views were great, but would have been better if the weather was clearer. As it was, we had to settle for a slightly misty day, with a bit of light rain at times. You could still see the local volcanoes with their craters clearly visible though.

Thankfully there were lots of benches along the way to stop, rest, and admire the impressive views. When we did eventually arrive at the top, it was to discover a large plateau. Apparently, this is a very popular spot locally for hang-gliding and parascending. With the weather being a bit iffy, we saw no one today engaging in either sport, which was a shame. The area at the top is so large that a famous challenge was set in France a century ago to be the first person to fly from Paris and land their plane on the top of Puy De Dome. There is a statue celebrating the achievement of Eugene Renaux who was the first to manage this in 1911! There are quite a few other things to find on the top as well. There is a visitor centre, which was strangely closed, and a radio transmitter station. There are also the remains of a Roman Temple, which had subsequently been turned into a Church. Clearly the lofty location had inspired thoughts of higher things.

We walked all the way around the top, and ate our baguette and cheese (a very French lunch). There were plenty of other people around who had also walked up, some in very inappropriate clothing (handbags and silly shoes...) but they all seemed to manage it! Coming down was much quicker!

The weather gradually deteriorated as the day progressed. By that evening we progressed from showers to rain, and then thunder storms. I've included a video here of the rain coming down at the campsite. It was heavy, and quite exciting. It actually rained much harder later that night!

Thank you, Bethan, for managing to climb this hill with me - the second highest of all my 40hills, and with no 'cheating' by using a cable car!!