DAY 13: Thursday June 14th - Savines Le Lac to Chateaoroux les Alps: 19k, 6hrs: Blue Skies,10°C to 18°C
View through our window, the mountains, lake, bridge and parking lot for camper vans
Walking to Embrun on the main highway beside the lake
Intersport - a European Rebel store. We buy our gas canister and my new Saloman shoes
Out with the old - goodbye shoes
Today was such a good day - it all went even better than planned. Mostly roads as we had decided to make it an easy day after yesterday, and besides, we have shopping to do - a gas canister and possibly new shoes for me.
We awake at 7am to ring Bonnie on FaceTime - well done Bonnie - she just got news she as completed her degree with a double major in psychology and counselling. And we ring Clancy - to see how he went in the exams he had yesterday, and we get to see Chester on video - it's very satisfying to know he is being well looked after by Jackie and Clancy.
Breakfast is simple but delicious - really fresh bread, really hot tea, and a few small caches of jam and butter - it's so easy I can't believe the hotel from 2 days before got it wrong. And our hosts book our next two days for us at Pallon - a very basic refuge that used to be an old church called Ancien Presbytere de Pallon, and the at the Chambre d'hôte in Prelles - but it's full - how dare they be when I had just worked out our stopovers. So we have to book another place coder to Briancon but I'm thinking that if we come across anything sooner when we are walking, we'll stay there and cancel Briancon - it' would make it another 27k day, and we're over marathon days - 20 ish k days are good.
We pack, take one last photo through the window of the lake, the bridge and the carpark fill of camper vans - they are so popular, each town has it's own parking lot for them complete with electricity outlets. We leave at 8.45am, deciding to walk straight down the main highway to Embrun to the Intersport to hopefully get a gas bottle - ours is a super duper Jetboil, but it's been difficult to get the right gas cylinder - it has to be isobutane, not just butane that most stores stock. The highway is busy, but there's a safe shoulder to walk along, with continuous view of the lake to our left, and as we near the town, there's a levee to walk along - built when the dam was built to keep the flood water out of low lying Embrun. It takes us less that 2 hrs to walk the 9k to the edge of Embrun, where hopefully there's an Intersport - and there is - right where google said it would be.
We leave our packs at the counter, Ian gets a new gas bottle - unfortunately they don't have a 100g can, just a 250g can, but we take its- we can't do without our morning coffee. I start looking at walking shoes - my view of shoes is that the have to fit from day 1 - i don't believe sales talk - if they're too tight they'll stretch, if they're too big, they need to be to give your feet breathing room. My current shoes a Keen and I love them - never had any blisters. I also like Merrell as they are American and usually a wide fit, the the Merrell in the store are more like iron boxes - no give. I try umpteen pairs on and finally settle on a pair of Saloman's - I bought these for my first Mont Blanc trip after a pair of Nikes had worn out and they were good. And even better, they're red and black - my favourite colours. We also need to buy some tips for our trekking poles - our existing ones had worn through the rubbers.
We leave Intersport and spy a picnic table - time to try out the new canister and re-arrange our bags to make to larger can fit. The small one fits neatly inside the billy and is easy to carry. Ian sets up the billy and I go the the Intermarche next door - a large super market - to buy enough stuff for the next few days - there's no villages on the next part of the track, Pallon doesn't do meals and there's no where else, and the day after there's no breakfast.
In with the new - love the colour!!
Ian suggests I try out the new shoes by walking around the supermarket - I had planned to wear them on and off during the day to make sure they were OK - I have no idea what I would have done if they weren't. So I bite the bullet and wear them to the shop. I buy the usual dried ham, bullock's heart tomatoes, cheese and fresh bread - and also some small cos lettuce. Back at the table, we have our coffee and finish off the piece of steak rescued from last night. Then it's time to do the deed - chuck away my old shoes, unless I want to carry an extra 1kg of weight for ever. I save the shoe laces - i like the red colour and they might be useful for what I don't know, then walk over to the large bin and say goodbye to my Keen shoes.
This is all picture post card country
We head straight up the N74 busy main highway towards Chateauroux Les Alpes - there's no other way from here. It's not so bad, but quite warm now. And my new shoes seem fine so far. We're well and truly in the Alps now with mountains capped with snow very close, and villages perched high on the sides of these spectacular mountains. We stop for a cup of tea about 1.30 - too early for lunch, we just had a hunk of steak with coffee for morning tea. It's relaxing sitting on the ground in amongst this spectacular scenery knowing that we have a few k to go to Chateauroux Les Alpes - we can see it up the valley. We pack up and the see a picnic table with a view just 20 metres around the corner - damn - oh well, you never know. Twenty minutes late and we're in the town looking for the Relais dec Ecrins - we find it but it's closed, so we use their beer garden to have our very late lunch at 3pm - a wonderful day, 6hrs all up including one and a half hours shopping, 19k walk, with unbelievable scenery in perfect sunshine.
Between Embrun and Chateauroux
AND, my shoes after 10k are just fine - so far so good - I just love them.
30 minutes later, the owner peers over the balcony and we are shown up to our room. Basic bed but with a shower and toilet - a One Star Hotel but who cares. It's good to be somewhere, anywhere, early and rested. I spend 2hrs doing diary in the lounge of the hotel, then we walk down the road for a beer and wine - because we can. And back to the Relais des Ecrins for a mediocre meal. I have cold fennel in some kind of sauce for entree, stewed lamb with rice for mains and white cheese for dessert. Ian has cold soup, quiche and stewed apples and apricots. We're up to bed early. It's been a good day - new shoes and no blisters (yet), a new gas bottle, a shorter easy day, blue skies and the alps all around - what more could we want.