Total ascent, 1519m.
Total descent, 1819m.
Wednesday, 9th August.
Dinner last night was not as successful as the previous two, as I found myself on a table set for 4 with 3 Italians who were deep in conversation. Still at least I've got reading material. The food though was once again fantastic. The refuge is manned by 2 girls and a lad, all very friendly, and none of whom can be over 25. Before dinner when they weren't serving they were on their phones (I think they had wifi, but not us), then they disappeared and produced a delicious 3 course meal!
People kept turning up for coffee, beer, etc, pretty much until it went dark. I've no idea where they were likely to be heading to once they left. A group of four came in, asked for tape, used it to stick one of their walking boots together and left again straight away.
The wind during the night was horrendous, and for some reason I kept waking up and worrying about the Spaniards (they were taking a difficult route today)! Then I started having odd dreams, such as a worm that got into my ear and buried itself half inside my head to feed, with the other half developing tentacles (I'd been reading about ticks!), and getting weighed down whilst walking by my iPad because I'd downloaded too many e-books onto it. I was frantically trying to delete them in a snowstorm when my alarm went off, again at 6:30. Despite my obvious worrying the wind had dropped and it was a glorious morning. I went down for breakfast and spotted a devastated campsite downhill from the refuge. It was I think the Italian equivalent of the Duke of Ed'Award and explained all the people coming in yesterday evening. I would have passed them all without hesitation for spending a night in that wind!
Silhouette of the rifugio this morning, post wicked wind.
Today was the best day of the walk without a doubt, helped enormously by the fantastic weather. It was also the most difficult, though I intentionally made it so by tackling a peak late on. The start was a 600m pull up to Col de Fenestre, where I was to leave Italy for good and enter France. I was able to do so with no problem, but I'd been informed that this wasn't always the case, and that during WWII a large number of French Jews tried to escape to Italy (after Italy's surrender to the Allies) via this col and were caught and sent to concentration camps. I need to find out more, but the col felt sombre as there were still a couple of old buildings up there and a small memorial.
The border. It's some walk to that pizzeria though!
I was relieved to descend into France and suddenly I was not alone. This area has a number of good family-friendly loop walks, albeit walks that require a lot of effort, and as I headed down I passed innumerable French people heading up. Both the French and the Italians seem to think nothing of taking their entire families up 500m ascents to find a good lake to spend the day by.
As they all greeted me it gave me the opportunity to decide, having mastered "Buongiorno", how I was going to say "Bonjour". Most of the people passing me said the first syllable at a higher pitch than the second, though plenty did the opposite and the grumpy ones said both syllables at the same pitch (both low!). I spent some time thinking about how I greet people in the morning in English. Well for a start I don't say "Good", which just leaves "Morning". Out and about I say the first syllable lower, but at work I'm sure I say the first syllable higher, unless I'm in a bad mood when they're the same pitch. I saw a pattern developing and opted to greet people with a higher pitched second syllable, which is what I'd been doing all along.
I didn't hang around the valley floor as it was busy, so set off for the second ascent of the day. The entire Fenestre valley is stunning, so it was a delightful walk. I'd hoped to get a butty with 'not tired' bread before the ascent but the cafe was closed. On its own nearby was a cheese shop so I went for a look. All I wanted was a lump of cheese and a piece or two of bread, but after a few cheese samples it became apparent that she sold nothing else, just cheese. I withdrew empty-handed and she gave a resigned shrug to suggest that this happened quite a lot.
On the way up to col 2. Or was it on the way down from col 1?
At the top of col number two were 5 pretty lakes which I walked straight past as I've seen plenty. I knew that a swift descent and ascent to a third col (oh yes, count them!) would give me time to get to the top of a nearby 2500m summit, something that's not easy to do amongst the high peaks. It was a good move, as the view of the 'biggies' from there was the best I've had. And it was a very British summit, a lump with grassy ridges heading off it.
As I'd now given myself a 1000m descent (again) I spent far too long on top, but it was hard to leave. I did notice though that the Alps had narrowed considerably during the course of the 8 days, and behind me in France were mere foothills (relatively speaking). For the first time I could also, in the distance, see the Mediterranean. It now felt like the end of the walk was near, and it is.
View from the summit...
...a very British summit. Where's that cloud come from, it isn't anywhere else?!
1000m descents have become much easier since it cooled down a bit, and I was soonish (as in 90 minutes later!) on the lane at the bottom of the valley. For the first time in 5 days I walked into something that can be called a village, and to my accommodation. It's called Relais des Merveilles and it's a gite d'etape. And I'm not sharing anything. To explain, they have rooms and dorms, and I booked a room. 3 nights of squatting over a hole in the floor was enough, I wanted to sit. To get to my room I was led through the plebs section, pausing only to sniff the air and to give thanks. It is however, as the rifugios were, half board, so we all eat together at the same time. Tonight I will sit in the corner on my own and look aloof, because that walk was a whopper!
Which country am I in again?!
Stats Zone:
Note 'off piste' summit.
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