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Narbonne.
Photo by Benh LIEU SONG published under Licence.
View over Narbonne.
At last, at last, Narbonne at last.
I have long wanted to race from Narbonne as I believe it is the ideal preparation race for Barcelona and Perpignan in the years to follow. At last we, in the UK, will have the opportunity to put that theory to the test as in 2009 Paul O’Leary is organising an Open race in conjunction with the Narbonne International.
I have long wanted to race from Narbonne as I believe it is the ideal preparation race for Barcelona and Perpignan in the years to follow. At last we, in the UK, will have the opportunity to put that theory to the test as in 2009 Paul O’Leary is organising an Open race in conjunction with the Narbonne International.
Narbonne is a city in the south west of France with a population of about 50,000. It was once a port and was the site of the first Roman colony outside of Italy, established in 118BC. It was the capital of its province in the 8th Century and retained an importance until the 14th century when it suffered a decline due to a change in the course of the River Aude. This led to a change in the coastline and left Narbonne, now, about 15 km inland from the Mediterranean sea. Its importance grew again through the 19th Century along with the growth and expansion of vineyards and the wine trade and in modern times is an attractive and popular tourist destination.
As a race point it offers pigeons the challenge of finding their way out of the Bay of Lions hemmed in by the Pyrenees, the Alps and the Massive Central. Their task is to find a route through or around these significant obstacles and two primary choices are to be made because if you look at the map and diagram you will see that the direct route to the UK is blocked by mountains.
As a race point it offers pigeons the challenge of finding their way out of the Bay of Lions hemmed in by the Pyrenees, the Alps and the Massive Central. Their task is to find a route through or around these significant obstacles and two primary choices are to be made because if you look at the map and diagram you will see that the direct route to the UK is blocked by mountains.
A direct route to London would involve a journey of 594 miles but early on would mean flying over 3,500 ft mountains.
There are two ways round these mountains the first being to follow the Canal du Midi West to Carcassonne and then round via Toulouse. This would extend the journey to some 647 miles but would only involve flying over 1,500 ft hills.
The other route, and clearly this is the one that most pigeons will take as it is the direct route to Belgium and Holland, lies North east through the Rhone Valley. Whilst again this would involve only 1,500 ft hills it would extend the journey to 723 miles.
There are possibly some shorter ways through these obstacles but there are also some blind alleys so the only way pigeons will learn to negotiate the territory is by experience and that is why this should produce such a useful and interesting race.
Nigel Lane
Nigel Lane