Tuesday 5th July: Blue skies, a few fluffy white clouds, 15°C to 22°C
Fouillouse to Maljasset: 11k walk: 8.20am to 11.50pm: 3 hrs 30 mins
Leaving Fouillouse
An easy walk along the valley road to Maljasset. A beautiful deep valley and highlight was getting to Maljasset early, at 11.50pm and meeting Klyte, an Australian girl married to Hubert, a French cook, who manage the Auberge de l Cure.
An early morning shower, because we can, and down to breakfast at 7am. Our 4 French friends doing a section of the GR5 are already there as they have a long hike to Larche, our walk yesterday. Breakfast is muesli and yoghurt, bread jam and butter with hot tea or coffee. I pay the 269 euro bill in cash, and we're down the road at 8.20am. The morning is a cool 15°C and the entire walk today is on teh valley road. There's no alternative except to do 2 high cols across to Italy that will take us 2 days not 1 day into Maljasset. We can see Petite Serenne and Grande Serenne, two small villages down in the valley. In 2012 we were only 20k away across the alps walking the GR6 into Embrun.
Petite and Grande Serenne in valley of St Paul/Ubaye
Deep gorge
Tunnel down from Fouillouse
River L'Ubaye
Morning tea
On the road but still magnificent
Alps all around
Arriving in Maljasset at midday
Lunch at Auberge de la Cure
Maljasset from Marble Quarry
Massive slabs of rock Marble Quarry
Embracing the simple pleasures aka missing out on quarry walk
Auberge de la Cure
Gite de Roya
Gite de Roya
The road zig zags down 300 metres and across a small bridge spanning an enormously deep gorge before meeting the valley road at the bottom where we turn right onto the road up the Vallon du Maurin along the L'Ubaye River. It's a verry narrow pretty valley with tall mountains on either side and the road ascends 300 metres gradually as it rolls up the valley. There's quite a few cars travelling up the the road toward Maljasset and we have to step aside to let them pass.
Jenny and Graham are sprinting ahead on this easy walk while Ian stops to take photos, and after 2 hours we join them sitting on a rock overlooking the village of La Barge. It's a beautiful spot for morning tea with the mountains ahead, behind us and on either side, with a creek rushing below. La Barge is only 2k from Maljasset, so it's an easy stroll down the road to the village of a dozen houses and we soon come to the Auberge de La Cure, where Klyte greets us. She has broken her leg whilst skiing and is hobling around on crutches. It's 11.50 and she is about to shut up their little drinks/icecream store until 2pm, but gives us the WiFi code whihc we all use immediately to contact home after 3 days without. There's tables where we can have an early lunch of cheese, 2 tomatoes and teh stale bread we bought 2 days ago from teh camp ground in Larche.
At 2pm, Klyte opens the doors and shows us to our 4 bedroom dorm with a small cubicle shower. It's cosy. We're looing forward to dinner tonight as Hubert is a French chef. Klyte tells us about a short walk up the mountain to the Marble Quarry, which Ian and I do after dumping our bags, whilst Jenny and Graham snooze in the hammocks. It's a really nice walk along the valley, across teh stream and up to the mountain quarry which has been deserted for 60 years. Theres huge slabs of rock precariously perched a hundred metres above us, and it's a bit queazy standing below. The view down the valley to Maljasset with a back drop of alps is beautiful You could say today has been beautiful and different but as stunning as the high alpes.
We're back at 4pm, in time to have a shower, do some washing and sort some photos. Jenny and Graham have already started the afternoons session with a red drink of some description. I renege, as anything to drink too early, and my blog becomes too bloggy.