Almost there! What better way to start the final day than to go in the wrong direction? We followed red and white markers out of Aspremont but that turned out to be the GR51. Needless to say, the GR51 does not go to Nice but instead wanders off towards the west without actually reaching the Mediterranean until Cannes. Thank you, friendly French woman who ran after us and pointed out the GR5!
Read MoreThe last long day of the GR5! The hiking was much like the previous day’s second section: dry, rocky landscape with well-maintained paths. And it was horrendously hot. On leaving Utelle, we passed a small chapel (Chapelle St Antoine) where there is a button that starts the chant of the month. When we were there it was apparently “Silence is golden”, set to the music of 4’33”
Read MoreAfter a sleepless night (curse you festival!) we found that our clothes hadn’t really dried either. It wasn’t just the rain; they were engrained with three weeks’ worth of sweat. Or, as we so eloquently put it: “saturated with the essence of eeeeergh…” We even developed a new punctuation mark for this, the “accent yuch!” which looks like a tilde ~ but tilted 90 degrees so it’s vertical. It needs to be put over ever “e” in the word “eeeeergh” and is used to indicate stinkiness and disgust in general.
Read MoreThe first of three long days. It started with a very long, very gradual descent. First around the alpages of Refuge the Longon, taking care not to let the dogs follow us. A sign at the refuge informed us that if we took the dogs, we might as well take the cows, too, but I hate cows so the dogs had to stay put. We were definitely out of the high mountains though. Most of the day we walked through the forest or along broad tracks between villages. The first of these villages was Roure, which clings to the hillside overlooking the Vallée de Tinée.
Read MoreWe left Roya early to escape the hordes of flies. We were definitely fitter at this point; the 1000 m climb felt a lot shorter and easier than it did at the start. We quickly left the forest behind and climbed further up into the valley beneath some dramatic cliffs with vultures hovering overhead.
Read MoreWell, that was our last night camping! Of course there was a thunderstorm during the night so we had to wait for the tent to dry. Once it was completely 100% dry, we packed it up together with the sleeping bag, mats and other camping gear and dropped it off at the post office. We’d had a look at the map and realised there would be no further campsites.
Read MoreThe GR5 guidebook suggests hiking from Bousieyas to Auron in one day, and on towards Refuge de Longon the next day. However, this would mean two fairly long stages (26 and 31 km). We decided to split it in three (the alternative suggested by the guidebook) and end the first day in St. Étienne de Tinée. This meant a very easy day for us, so we started out on sandals again.
Read MoreI woke up on the cold hard ground because all the air had gone out of my sleeping pad. It was the middle of the night but Jasper must’ve noticed me being awake because he asked what was going on.
Read MoreA long day with a boring start. The first 11 km(!) are along the asphalt road. They have actually made GR5 paths a short distance from the road near the river, but we kept losing this path so eventually we gave up and just followed the road instead. It’s not a busy road and the views are good. Near the end of the roadwalking the river runs through a dramatic gorge crossed by a stone bridge, Le Pont Châtelet. After crossing the bridge we followed the GR5 which luckily left the road, and began our climb up through the forest to reach Fouillouse.
Read MoreApparently we are very noisy campers (or maybe it’s the fact that we have “Stayin’ alive” as our alarm clock). We packed up our gear early in the morning and Jasper went off to the bakery to buy bread. When he came back our unfriendly neighbour stuck his head out of the tent, glared at us and muttered ominously in French to person or persons unknown inside the tent, of which we just about caught the angry words “sept heures trente”. He then asked us if we were going to stay long. The whole exchange was just slightly too aggressive to be called passive aggressive. Besides, in what country is seven-thirty considered early for hikers? This was a hikers’ campsite, after all.
Read MoreBreakfast was pains aux raisins in the morning sun! We said goodbye to our friendly neighbours and headed off on another longish GR5 day. There was a bit of road-walking at first, but most of the first stretch to Château-Queyras was along beautiful forest paths. We were both pleasantly surprised by the Queyras. Despite the wild mountains and rock formations the landscape is very green and pretty. Kind of like a Midsomer Murders episode but with mountains instead of murder. Lac de Roue was a good example of this.
Read More“Rest days are for the weak,” we said to ourselves as we struggled to walk down the stairs of our hotel. Actually, it wasn’t that bad. Yes, we were sore. Yes, our feet still hurt. But we were going to continue walking because that’s what we set out to do.
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