Saturday 2nd July: Slightly overast skies warm with a late shower, 18°C to 23°C
St Dalmas Le Selvage to Bousieyas: 12k walk: 9.20am to 2.20pm: 5 hrs
Roxanne and Jan from Belgium
Another spectacular day in the Alpes crossing the Col de la Colombiere at 2232 metres with views on all sides to the Alpes provence to our North and the Alpes Maritimes to the south. Tomorrow at teh Pas de Cavale, we cross the border of between these alps.
Today is an early start because Anna and Flaurent, our hosts, are driving up to the Lacs de Vens to do a hike with their family, their son Faust, brother Tim and friend Minnie from Scotland. So breakfast is early at 7.30am. Bread and butter with home made jam, yoghurt and muesli, with syrupy coffee (the way the French like it but not me). We strip the beds so Anna can get the washing started before they leave for their hike and pack up. After a chat with our Belgian friends who are going to the Refuge de Sestrieres high up the top end of the Vallon du St Dalmas, we walk out of this pretty village through the narrow paved streets.
Climbing up and up
St Dalmas le Selvage
Up through the flowers
More up and up
To see this magnificent view
And this magnificent view
Through fields of flowers
Tracks, flowers and alps
Col de la Colombiere in sight
Col de la Colombiere 2237m
Morning tea at the col
More spectacular alps views
And mor craggy alps
Bousieyas down below
The track climbs steadily upwards through fields of flowers with views back to St Dalmas Le Selvage where we can see only the church peeking out to the side. It's quite warm climbing and in 2 hrs we've reached the Col de la Colombere at 2232 Metres, a 700 metres climb up from St Dalmas at 1500 metres. Time for a leisurely morning tea sitting in a shallow divet at the top of the col to avoid the cool breeze. At midday, we make a move to walk down. The sign says 1hr to Bousieyas, but we decide to walk down the easy grade of teh gravel road and soon the 6 house village of Bousieyas comes into view. It's a strange valley. This side of the mountain we're trekking down is almost fully forested, but the opposite side is spartan meadows and bare mountains.
Today is Saturday, so every motor bike rider in Switzerland, Italy and France seems to be on this road. Bunches of thirty at a time whizzing up, and another forty whizzing down. The valley is abuzz with roaring engines. At 1.30pm, we reach the bottom, and stop under a shady pine tree near the rushing creek for lunch. Left over butter, stale bread, one tomato, half a capsicum and a hunk of cheese we've bought from Anna in St Dalmas. It's very tasty it's one of our more spartan lunches.
As we're walking the last 100 metres into Bousieyas, it starts to rain and we walk a little faster. The first place we come to is the Gite Communal Bousieyas, with dozens of bikers drinking and having lunch under the umbrellas set up for protection for teh sun, but now more useful in teh drizzly rain. Another few steps up a paved path and we see the sign to Le Clef Vert, our chambre d'hote for tonight. The door is unlocked and we enter to get out of the rain, preparing to stay for a few hours before we think the place opens at 4pm. But we're lucky and Michel Pesce, our host for the night, welcomes us and shows us to our rooms - we've booked 2 double rooms. We speak a mixture of French and English, and manage to find out there's WiFi with a visa card like code, and that dinner is at 7pm. We're no sooner settled in when teh rain comes tumbling down - the first time we've seen heavy rain the whole trip.
The place is basic but almost new, and the showers work really well and they're hot. We only want to wash a shirt and undies today as it wasn't a long day and not too sweaty. Michel tells us that it's likely to rain tomorrow and thet there's snow on the col tomorrow. But a check of teh Meteo France tells us that it should be fine and we've spoken to several hikers in the past few days who have come over the col and not mentioned teh snow, so it can't be too bad - we think.
There's a lounge room upstairs where we can sit with good internet connection. It's still drizzling outside and quite cool now so we're pleased it was only a short day and that we got in before the heavy rain. After washing and showers, we're down to the Gite Communal de Bousieyas, having a drink with our Danish friends Peter and Rikki. The reain has eased but it's cold by the time we wander back the 50 metres to Le Clef Vert where Michel has already laid out the table and lit the fireplace.
Dinner is milky vegetable soup, followed by garlicky potato and chicken pie, then sherbet icecream and sliced fruit. We chat for a long time to Peter and Rikki before going to bed. Michel repeats his concern that we must be over the Pas de la Cavale before midday to avoid any afternoon storms so we're mentally prepared to get up early and go.
Motorbikes buzzing the valley
Lunch by the stream Bousieyas
And then it rained
And then it rained - heavily
Dinner cooked by Michel Pesce by the fire with Peter and Rikki