Friends and an afternoon on the Larzac Plateau

While at Lerab Ling, I made 2 new friends and caught up with Jan, an old friend from Sydney
(he is the General Manager of Lerab Ling). Jan and I 'left the building' for a few hours to do some touristy stuff.
The first photo is Muriel from Paris...we did a weekend retreat together on Loving Kindness (Muriel does similar work to me). The second photo is Edgardo from Argentina - I spent time with him and an Aussie called Fay. Edgardo and Fay run the farm and do an awesome job with a huge array of fruit, vegetables and herbs grown using bio-dynamic farming methods. I planted heaps of lettuce and strawberries. I behaved myself: no tangoing in the veggie patch with Edgardo :))
The rest of the photos are taken around the Larzac Plateau (10 minutes drive from Lerab Ling). Larzac is a remote limestone plateau that is from another time and would be one of the most unusual places I have visited.
The plateau is like a stage set for the best school excursion ever - cave men, pre-historic structures, conspiracy theories about how things got there, an ancient Roman road, rustic walking trails, medieval villages, Templar knights, pagan temple ruins, wild herbs in abundance, unexpectedly dramatic geological phenomenon, controversy with proposed but crushed oil drilling ....on it goes. Also, lots of foodie farms (home of Roquefort cheese) and sheep about.... all this with few tourists to jostle with.
The area is doing it tough with the economic crisis ... saw some gorgeous renovated barns for sale at around $150,000 AUS.
Check out the neolithic megalith .....I look pretty weird next to it ... Jan was attempting to simulate me lifting it a-la-Japanese tourist FaceBook shot.
Next is a dolmen. A dolmen is a neolithic tomb (6000-3000BC) which contained artefacts including weapons, tools and bracelets.
Then we wandered on to La Couvertoirade, a very well preserved fortified town. La Couvertoirade was built by the Templar Knights during the 12th and 13th centuries. I spotted an image for a potential book cover, so we went back the next day and took a whole heap of shots-that was such fun!!
Finally ......
out of nowhere on this wild plateau, appeared Cirque de Navacelles (final photo), a HUGE geological cavity carved in and surrounded by windswept mountains.
As you may have noticed, my blue coat is a constant companion - it has been a godsend and comfort .... kept me warm and dry everyday since I left Sydney.