DAY 2: Sunday June 3nd: St Saturnin Les Alpes to Chaloux: 21k walk, 7hrs: 18°C to 25°C overcast and warm
The view from St Saturnin
It's a pleasant 18°C when we rise at 6.30am planning to get away early. But we still have WiFi so we spend an hour phoning home and sending emails, whilst having a cup of tea from our billy parked on the tiled floor in the bedroom. My hip bones are killing me, with one millimetre of flesh covering them, the backpack belt is causing grief. I grab 2 old T shirts I was about to chuck (Aldi specials at $5 each) and use them as padding. It works - sort of. We pack and leave by 8.30am, stopping off at the boulangerie for 2 bacon quiches for breakfast and a French stick for lunch, then to the Charcuterie (butcher) for some tranches (slices) of dried ham (sec jambon). We leave St Saturnin, cross country roads and pick up the GR6 on our way to Rustrel. After one hours walking we stop by the side of the road for coffee and quiche. Yum, starving.
The boulangerie in St Saturnin
Then into Rustrel where we buy bottled water, then off on the D22 towards Gignac. On the way we see the sign to the Barries, ancient houses of the iron age people, but we keep going. We turn left at Gignac to take a short cut to Chaloux (it's an extra 5k to follow the GR6 around Viens) and head towards Chateau d'Autet. There's a jumble of tracks and paths on this hillside so we resort to the IGN map 1:8,000 which Ian has on his Samsung and voila, the GPS pinpoints exactly which goat track we are on. We stop for lunch on a rock in the middle of no where - bread and ham from the village St Saturnin and a left over tomato from Paris. It's not as hot as yesterday but we are still sweating. We have climbed 700m (peanuts compared to 3,000m in the Alps, but an introduction to walking with a backpack uphill. I am struggling trying to position the weight comfortably on my hips. Ian likes using two trekking poles. I like keeping my arms free to move the pack from hips to stomach and generally manoeuvre the pack into a more comfy position.
Looking back to St Saturnin
Already I'm toting up in my mind what weight I can post home. I had packed for a very cold trip and it is warm. Yes, the Alps are yet to come, but I'm figuring I'd rather have two changes of clothes not three, than carry excess weight, and in my mind I'm adding up about 2kg of extra stuff to post back home. I'm thinking of sending back the trekking poles too. We'll see. When we get to the Alps I might want it all back.
After lunch we follow the GPS signal on the IGN map crossing a myriad of tracks. We couldn't have taken this short cut without the GPS signal. It's pure magic. It's the best thing since sliced bread. The technology is just so much advanced compared to 2010, our last cycling trip. The IGN maps at 1 in 25,000 scale are great. They show every minute detail down to a little dot for each house. BUT, they are useless if you don't know exactly which track you are on. The GPS pinpoints overlays an arrow on the map.
Jan struggling up the first hill with T shirt padding over the hip bones
We continue through beautiful forests. But one track was a pig path - literally. We had come across this before in Corsica. Wild pigs dig up the earth looking for succulent roots, leaving the track like a ploughed potato field - very precarious for the ankles.
At last we hit the D22 and cross the main road. Time for another cup of tea but we are now out of water. Hopefully only a few k to go because its starting to spit rain. The last 2k is easy and we stroll into Gite Chaloux, an old farm house converted into a Gite, owned gy Gilles Rider. A dog greets us in the field. He is friendly, and unfortunately will remember us in the morning. Gilles is there to greet us and we sit down to a well earned slightly warm beer before going up to our room in the loft. The roof slants from 2 feet in one corner to 7 feet in the other - so getting from one side of the room to the other means ducking and weaving but its comfy. The shared bathroom is down the stairs.
St Simiane La rotonde in a haze
Gilles is very helpful and books our accommodation for the next two nights at St Etienne and Jas des Bailles. He is the third generation owner of Chaloux. We have a session typing diaries and transferring photos before dinner.
Dinner is 4 courses - no meat, but still really nice. Entre of salad, main of baked carrots and quinoa, cheese platter then Cake. We sit with a team of ladies doing a painting workshop and 2 French ladies our age (20 something) who are walking the GR4 - it heads in a NW direction. There aren't many walkers on the track. These are the first ones we've seen all day, and we are the first ones they've seen all day. We chat about different GR routes they have walked. Apparently she is an astronomer from Paris and wanted to know why we hadn't heard about a solar eclipse in Australia in November - last thing on my mind at the moment. It's starting to rain heavily. We retire about 9.30.
Tthrough the forest to Chaloux
Our day has started to pan out to a typical routine.
6.30am - wake and pack
7.30am - breakfast and book next night
8.30am - leave the hotel/refuge and start walking
8.30 to 10.30 - walk 6 to 8 k depending on uphill, flat of downhill
10.30am - morning tea for 15mins, boil the billy for coffee -
10.45 to 1ish - walk 6 to 8k
1ish pm - lunch for 30 mins - of bread, chefs, jambon sec (dried ham)
On the terrace at Chaloux
1.30 to 3.30pm - walk 6 to 8k
3.30pm - afternoon tea for 15mins, boil the billy for tea
3.45pm to ?? - walk rest of way
4 to 6pm - arrive at destination and have beer/wine/shower/type diary
7.30pm - dinner and chat - mostly Europeans (very few Americans or Australians)
9.30pm - bed