Time to head home from our week's holiday in the South of France and we leave the villa at 10:25am. We've decided to go back a different way to avoid driving through the Alps again so it's la autoroute for 700 miles.  TJ (my wife) suggests that we take a detour to the Camargue, probably the best birdwatching site in the whole of France and one of the best in Europe. She's feeling sorry for me because I didn't have a chance to do any birdwatching whatsoever during the week. I'd love to go there but I'm reluctant because of the extra time it will add to the journey. The birds win out in the end and we reach the Camargue by 2pm.

It's a vast expanse of perfectly flat land full of freshwater marshes where the Rhone and a number of other rivers reach the sea. We drive past acres and acres of rice paddy fields dotted with Little Egrets and Cattle Egrets. I get excited when I spot a Harrier drifting over the fields but it's too distant to tell what kind it is - probably Marsh. At one point I spot a group of birds for which the Camargue is famous - Flamingos. It's strange to see them in the wild after seeing so many in zoos and bird gardens. We spot a raised viewing platform up ahead and stop to get a better look around. A single Flamingo is in the field close by and there are Black-winged Stilts everywhere as well as a few Coots and Moorhens. I spot four large rodents in the water. They look for all the world like beavers and it turns out that's exactly what they are - European Beavers.

We carry on driving, heading out of the Camargue because it's getting late and I vow to keep going and not stop the car if I see any other birds. 30 seconds later I hit the brakes as a Marsh Harrier gives great views as it drifts along to the right of us, a Black Kite flies past on the left and a Crested Lark lands on the road in front of the car.