I planned for a long time for this trip, in fact it goes back to 1976, when I married a woman who spoke French – good foresight !

France had always been our holiday destination of choice, and while visiting the Gorge de Tarn in summer 2010, we felt that it would be an ideal place to bring the Trekkers at some stage. Josephine and I went to France at Easter this year to choose and to prep the various walks that we would be doing, plus to find a hotel and to engage a coach company. After that it was all downhill, figuratively speaking.

From an initial group of 21 people interested in travelling, as the holiday neared, the number fell to sixteen.

You could say that we hit France with a bang – that was what our landing on Saturday 2nd July in Rodez sounded like, and having regained our composure, and thanked the Lord for not creating too many vacancies for new Trekkers in one go, we felt pity on our colleagues, returning to Dublin on that return flight, in anticipation of their landing in Dublin. Nobody over-exerted themselves on that Saturday, but got to know the town of Meyrueis and the swimming pool in the hotel.

We had our first walk on Sunday, when we headed for the Point Sublime, which looks down into the Gorge. The switchbacks and the vertical drops down into the Gorge from the coach at one point reduced even Kevin Beegan to silence and we suspect that there were more than a few aspirations whispered as we crawled down to Les Vigan, but the walk itself was a nice easy opener, giving our group their first views, from above, of the Gorge. That evening, at the pool, Paddy gave a masterful display of fearless determination to take on the cold of the water.

We woke on Monday to the rather unwelcome, if familiar sight of rain, but, following a quick Board meeting, a decision was made to change our schedule for the day, and to do what had been planned for Tuesday, each of these activities being out of the rain. Josephine did the negotiations with the coach driver and the hotel owner in flowing French, as the rest of us chided ourselves for not paying more attention at French classes at school, long ago. The revised schedule brought us to two caves and to Mount Aiguol, where our arrival was slightly delayed by a huge flock of sheep deciding to cross in front of us. We fared better at the Grotte de Dargilan where our arrival was marked by a fly-past by several vultures.

Tuesday morning started with a fog rising around the village, so the good weather was returning. This day's trip started with a most scenic boat ride down the Tarn for an hour, and then we came to the tricky bit, as Basil Fawlty might have said; we were to climb/crawl for 100 metres, according to the local Tourist Office. A little assistance was required by one or two, this climb would have had our A walkers begging for mercy. When we got to the end of the supposed 100 metres, Derry O'Hegarty declared it the longest 100 metres in France! The rest of the walk was no problem, in part led magnificently by Derry and Joan Needham. Our journey back in the coach brought us to a tiny village, where we experienced the French solution to road rage; the two protagonists hugged and exchanged three "birdies", for which our driver, on her return to the coach, got a resounding clap. On our return to Meyrueis, even the walk to the swimming pool was beyond many of our crew.

Wednesday was the day of two choices; a B or a C walk, and three took a third option, a day in St. Enimie ! Five took the B option and 8 took the C. The B walkers had to be warned not to look up as we came to St. Chely as the route was rather daunting, but the views would be good. However, both groups, as expected, excelled themselves in their walking; the C's then had just a short time to explore St. Enimie, particularly its coffee shops. Then, with a little help from our mobiles, we all joined up together a short bit outside St. Enimie for the walk back to St. Chely. The prospect of a swim at St. Chely drove us on for the last while and the prospect of a drink at the auberge there was also a spur. This evening we said goodbye to out great driver Aurelie, who had expertly brought us over rather challenging corkscrew roads down into the Gorge, no doubt assisted by the prayers and 'firm purposes of amendment' from us, erstwhile sinners. By now Michael Cotter's losses had risen to two pairs of sunglasses and one sun hat.

Thursday was a day for touring and we decided to do a spot check on the production of Roquefort – the quality police, that was us! They passed with flying colours and some were so taken with the production that they brought home some of the cheese, "Templars" in each case. Noreen O'Brien is a hot tip for a job there packing the cheese, should we be marooned there by the latest ash cloud from Iceland, while Kevin Beegan could make a living, running a laundry – well, at least he has the clothes-line, and the rest would be a doddle!. We then dropped in to see the Millau bridge, the highest road bridge in the world, and it is still standing. We finished our day's touring with a visit to the Vultures site. The day was threatening to rain and we had great fears for the clothes on Kevin's clothes line!

Friday was a day off from any organised activities, and the highlight of the morning was to be the local market, but some people blinked at the wrong time and missed the market altogether. Some of our more intrepid walkers ventured up the hills around the town, but one took a short-cut from the walk and was found, sound asleep at the pool when that walker should have been praying for the souls of the rest of us, at the local chapel. Kevin and his followers made up for this, and they climbed twice to this chapel, which, they told us, was built by the local Protestant population, as option 2, instead of option 1, death, following their defeat in the Wars of Religion. Meanwhile another Trekker was seen single-handedly significantly increasing the yearly turnover of the local patisserie. By now a pattern had developed with most of the gang going to a particular bar after dinner to carry on the discussion about the clock in Dalkey which showed the wrong time. For your own sanity, don't mention this clock at any future walks!

Saturday was a day for our walk from La Maléne to St. Chely de Tarn, and our driver brought us on the 'scenic' route, down the innumerable hairpin bends, which have reduced us all to jibbering wrecks. But, we revel in adversity and we put our best foot forward, (the other one hardly works, anyway), and we headed off up the Gorge. We were most grateful for the shade which lasted for the first hour and then we came to the views of Hauterive and the tricky bits which we negotiated without any problems. We revived ourselves in Hauterive, a village of 1 inhabitant, whom we saw heading off in the cable car over the river, as we arrived. Somebody must have told him that we were on our way! We then headed for the tricky bit of the walk, but, despite terrible warnings about it from Michael & Josephine, we negotiated the scree bits without any issues. It was all downhill from there, except for the uphill bits!

We arrived tired and hot, the temperature being over 30 degrees, into St. Chely and a few beers revived us all. Then back to Meyrueis and the pool. Meanwhile Richard and Joan led a walk for a smaller group to the Chateau de Roquedols, which the Cotters failed to find at Easter. The chateau has had its day of fame, as the Mona Lisa and other treasures from the Louvre were stored there during the War.

Sunday was our last touring day and had a Knights Templars theme, with a visit to St. Eulalie and then to Le Courvoirtrade, these two villages having been started by the bold Knights. Lots of presents for grandchildren were purchased, and when the requisite number of photos were taken, off we headed again, on a route over the Causes, with a brief stop at Cantobre, and then back to Meyrueis. Nobody took a blind bit of notice of the Millau bridge as we headed towards St. Eulalie, so 'familiarity breeds contempt' certainly seemed to apply to our group. Brian Brennan is now catching up on Michael on the losses toll, as he has lost two sun hats. We now have just one walk to go, but the temperatures are threatened to be over 30 degrees, so we will finish off roasted.

Monday was the last walking day and we split into three groups, some doing a hard walk, and the others doing even harder ones. All seemed to pass off without any incidents, the official walk had just six takers and this walk was from Les Rozier to Les Vignes, 12 KM's, but the temperature was well into the 30's, so we appreciated the amount of shade on the route. Richard and Joan led another walk, near Meyrueis, involving quite a climb to the top of the Causse and this lasted about 3½ hours, while Derry and Kevin walked to the local chateau, and back, we presume. The evening consisted of paying our bills at the hotel, Le Grand Hotel de France, which had been excellent throughout, and which we would highly recommend to any Trekker going to the area. We also turned our thoughts to more mundane matters like the bundle of washing to be faced on Wednesday at home. We finished off with an excellent dinner on Monday evening and a lovely thank you from the staff of the hotel.

The spirit of co-operation and enthusiasm, shown by all our group, was a huge factor in the success of the trip – thanks to all.