Sunday 14th September: Sunny Sunny all day, 2°C to 18°C
Chesery to Chapelle d'Abondence: 22.6k: 7.45am to 3pm: 7hrs 15mins
7.30am near Col de Chesery
7am Mist in valley behind Refuge
Sunny day, blue skies, forests, mountains and meadows
Refuge at Bassachaux
Coffee in sun Bassachaux
Col de Bassachaux 1778m
Picking blueberries
It's a 30° slope on gravel
Warning, steep dangerous road
1784 church Tres les Pierres
Lunch in picnic grounds La Ravanne
Fields of Chapelle d'Abondence
The weather is just beautiful - sunny all day with a very cold morning, and warmish with a cool wind in the afternoon. A mixed day of Alps, forests paths, very steep gravel tracks and river walks along the skiing valley of the River Danse to Chapelle d'Abondence. A lazy day which was mostly downhill or flat.
It's freezing when we wake up at 6.30am. There was only the two of us in this 20 person dorm, so I was able to pinch 3 doonas off other bunks - one doona underneath, and two doona's on top, as well as sleeping in a jumper. The poor old dog had to sleep outside and it's 2°C this morning. A quick splash with hot water from the basin and we're packed and ready to leave before breakfast. Breakfast is a bit spartan but the bread is almost fresh and the tea is boiling hot. Simone, our host is very nice.
We leave in brilliant sunshine at 7.45am but in 10 minutes we're over the Col de Chesery and down the other side into the shadow of the mountain. There's sunshine on all the mountain tops across teh valley, but not our side. My hands are burning with the cold as we descend for more than an hour. A short climb up to another Col, the Col de Bassachaux, and it's in full sunshine - with tables and chairs and a panoramic view. It's only 9.15am but it's so nice, we stop for a coffee, and to warm up. The GR5 heads up again into the cold forests, but there's a track down the sunny side of teh mountain that meets it in the valley and it's nostly in the sun. This will do just fine.
The track winds around cow pastures and forests to Le Bezalin, and old dairy farm and then around through the forests with intermittent sunshine to Sur Le Crac. There's a sign at the top of the downhill gravel track that warns of a very steep Tres Les Pierres down in the valley, and there's 6 dot points on what to do and what not to do, all at your own risk of course. And it is STEEP. The average gradient is 20° but In some sections it's 45° and we're leaning so far forward that we're almost falling face first into the gravel. It's relentless down and down for about 1.5k, descending 300 metres, until we finally reach the pretty little hamlet of Tres Les Pieres with a church dating from 1749.
It's easy to follw the road down the valley for a few k until we spy a table and chairs t La Ravanne by the rushing creek. It's only 12.30pm, too early for lunch, but we've already covered 13k and it should only be another 10k slightly down hill along the River Danse to Chapelle d'Abondence where we've booked a B and B. It's a popular spot with campervans pulling over with their picnics.
There's a secondary road that we follow and it soon turns into a track for Nordic skiing, a specialty in this Valley with marked routes up and down the river. The day is just stunning, walking along the valley bottom with high forested mountains on either side. There's a sign to Chapelle d'Abondence but we know the village is strung out and it's another 2.5k before we arrive in the centre. Being Sunday, there's no shops open, only restaurants and bars.
Our Chambre d'Hote, L'Escalade isn't open until 4pm but there's a Bar just up the road where we sit for an hour having a nice cold beer until it's time to check in. Until it's time to check in. We wait for an hour outside L'Escalade in the cold, refer to booking.com for confirmation of the check in time and yes it's 4pm. At 5pm Ian wanders around looking for a WiFi signal so he can phone the number advertised outside, and a lady from the Gai Soleil hotel opposite comes out and in broken French/English, informs us that Thomas and his wife have gone for a motorbike ride in the mountains. Good one! She kindly rings the number for us, and of course there's no answer, then leaves a message.
Within 10 minutes there's action. The young daughter and elderly father turn up at the same time and with hands waving and pointing up to the mountains, they soon let us in with their key and show us to our room. We'll be talking to trip advisor soon!!
The room is ok but after I've had a shower Ian needs to wait 15 minutes for the water to reheat. There's not much open tonight but we have left overs in our food bag. We always have left overs. And so left overs it is - tomato, cheese, dried ham and capsicum with mayonnaise. We didn't need much to eat tonight - no high mountains to climb today.
Time to curl up in bed with our e-gadgets and doodle and google for a few hours, planning the next section around Lake Geneva.