I have wanted to go to the Camargue since finding out that it is one place outside of Africa where you can see wild flamingos. I woke up early, packed up and set out for this little marshy corner of the world.
I got to the Parc Ornithologique du Pont De Gau right on opening time, slathered myself in sunblock and mosquito repellent and headed in. The first animal I saw was called a Coypu, basically like a large water rat or a small beaver. It was kind of cute in a bristly way!
After watching it for a little bit, I rounded a corner to be greeted by FLAMINGOS! And mosquitos! Oh they were vicious (the mosquitos, not the flamingos). It was steamy and early morning so I think they were out in force. But the flamingos made up for it. Man, they are weird birds. Pretty, but weird. Their knees bend backwards while they walk, and they filter the food out of the water and dirt by tilting their heads upside down and shaking them around. The zookeepers came by every now and then to throw more handfuls of rice into the water, which resulted in a flurry of activity! I say zookeepers, but the flamingos were free to come and go as they pleased - in fact, several of them flew over me as I entered the park.
I was there for hours watching them! I have also whittled my 1000's of flamingo photos down to the few below. It was absolutely one of the highlights of my trip to be able to visit this park.
There was also Camarge horses in the park, but it was stinking hot that day, and the thought of walking around the 8 km loop of the park was not appealing. Guess I'll just have to go back again. With industrial strength mosquito repellent.
