Sunday 10th July: Blue skies cool to very hot 15°C to 30°C
La Chalp to Briancon: 23k walk: 7.40am to 3.40pm: 8 hrs
Waiting to start our last day
Today we walked into Briancon - the last leg of our 320k hike from Menton on the French Mediterranean. The longest day yet at 23k over the Col des Ayes at 2477, then down 1300 metres to Briancon at 1180 metres. No injuries, no hiccups, all went according to the plan over 22 days.
We need a 7.30am start. There's storms predicted late this afternoon and we want to be off the mountains before. We all have breakfast of muesli and yoghurt in our own rooms and meet outside at 7.30. By the time everyone has rubbed on sunscreen and filled water bottles, it's 7.40am when we finally get away up the road to Brunissard. There's a fork in the road, the right to Col d'Izoard, where we walked yesterday, the left to Col des Ayes where we're going today.
Canicross event
Canicross event
First Canicross competitors
Blue skies on way to Col de Ayes
Up through the flowery meadows
Col des Ayes 2477
Briancon 15k away down valley
Snow at the top
Morning tea with a view
Down through the flowers
Rock climbers on vertical wall
Briancon getting closer
Last lunch on the track
Celebration after 323k Hiking
Past a camping ground, then to a car park filled with cars, bikes, cyclists, runners and dogs - its a canicross event where people either run or cycle with their dogs. Up the track a bit and there's a checkpoint man who tells us the cyclists are coming through soon, so we wait five minutes to see what happens.
In five minutes, the first cyclists come though, seemingly towed by dogs out front on a leash. There's no fat dogs here. One dog, a German Short Haired Pointer, had pink booties on its feet to protect them from the stones. Time to move on up a gravel road which goes on and on for a about 4k before turning into a zig zag track up through the meadows. It takes us 3 hrs to get to the Col des Ayes at 2477 metres, a climb of 730 metres. It seemed relatively easy walking up a good graded gravel road then an easy, but steep zig zag track. There's a patch of snow at the col which will soon disappear in the heat. It was a hot walk up.
Cuppa tea time for Ian and myself while we wait for Graham and Jenny who make good time and were pleased to do it under the regulation set time. We can see right down the valley to Briancon, almost 15k away and 1300 metres below but the view of the alps is a little haze, a sign of the on coming heat. Down through the meadows, we encounter another flock of sheep, protected by their patou, their very own personal security sheep dog. But unlike our previous encounter, this one lets us pass with no nasty incident. Jenny even got to pat it when it came up close to her.
Down past the Chalets des Ayes, a cluster of houses with a bar restaurant doing a roaring trade as it's Sunday. Further down the road splits, the main traffic road follows the gorge down, and the GR5 follows the gravel road to the left, along a contour. After 2k, we can see we need to go down a steep forested track to meet the valley road and when we meet the road again, it's 2pm, time for lunch. The only shade is under a pine tree on a sloping ledge. But it's now quite hot, so shade is more important than view.
Lunch is the statutory cheese, tomatoes, ham and boiled eggs with bread and butter. We dilly dally for an hour, reminiscing on events of the trip before heading down the road and joining the main road at Villar saint Pancrace. For Ian and myself, this completes our GR5, as this is the point where we joined the GR5 in 2012 to walk from Briancon to Chamonix. We pass the railway station and the ticket office is deserted, so I take the opportunity to take in my printed vouchers for tickets I'd booked on line from Briancon to Avignon on Tuesday 12th to see the Tour de France on Mont Ventoux, and from Avignon to Paris on July 16th where we'll stay for 3 days before flying home.
After checking Ian's GPS, we find the Edelweiss Hotel about 1k from the station. It's 4pm and the small Hotel has just opened. We're dying for a beer and I'd like a perrier on ice - no ice - and after a quick drink in the g=hot lounge we go to our rooms to watch the end of the Tour de France which finished in a raging hail storm.
Meeting downstairs at 7pm, the manager tells us which restaurants are ok in the town - we had previously thought we'd just do a picnic, but it's Sunday and all the shops are closed. The centre of town is filled with French soccer supporters waiting for the clash between France and Portugal in the European Cup final tonight. We have to weave our way through crowds, tables and chairs, and eventually find a quiet pizza place where we can also order chips and salad. It's very nice and we leave to join the throngs in the street until kickoff and return to our rooms to watch the final on TV. France has the better of the game, but Portugal wins 1-0 in extra time. Bed after a tiring day.
France versus Portugal