Tuesday 21st August: Weather 19°C to 25°C sunny, slightly overcast. Warm then cool in Chardonney
Pont Boset to Chardonney DAY 2: 10k walk: 9.00am to 1.30pm: 4hrs 30 mins: 700m Ascent, 100m Descent
Accommodation: BnB Le Temps d’une Pause at Altitude 1450 metres
Ostello Lou Creton di Lui
Heading up the steep sided valley
ChMorning tea on old railway track
What do I do with this cat?
Tor des Geants (TDG) signs
Pretty TDG track to Chardonney
Steep valley sides
Scrambling over boulder falls
Directions to next two hiking days
Ian practising with his new camera
Fruit & nut bun with slab of butter
Beer with Ham, olives, tomatoes, cheese bread and butter
Highlight today was getting to the really pretty village of Chardonney at the head of the Camporcher Valley, surrounded by steep mountains and feeing that our journey through the Gran Paradiso was about to begin.
Awake at 6.30am. Getting better at sleeping in. Time to pack, re-organise, email home and shower before breakfast at 8am - a buffet of eggs, meat, Yoghurt, jams cheese and butter together with milky coffee - the best coffee we’ve had so far. Our host Andrea sees we are closely examining our map and explains the best way to walk up the Camporcher Valley to Chardonney is to follow the signs for the Tor des Geants (TDG) - an ultratrail race held in September each year. I had already created this gpx track in Google Earth, downloaded from the Tor des Geants website, however this track was not marked on any paper map I have - not the 1:50,000 nor the 1:25,000. There was no obvious path up the top end of the valley. In fact the TDG track is not a track but a collection of paths linked by roads through villages and called the TDG ultra trail. That suits us fine. At least we’ll have waymarkers to follow.
We set off at 9am, intending to follow the TDG signs with yellow arrows, however the TDG race runs in the opposite direction to our walk, and the path was not easy to follow in reverse. But there wasn’t a real chance of us getting lost as we generally just had to follow the rushing torrent. The path criss crossed back and forward over the torrent and passed through the small villages of Piole and Savin where we then turned uphill to an old railway track used for logging. Good time for a cup of tea. A bit further on and we pass through large clearings in the forest which had been logged many years ago and now was just open meadows. We met a man, his son and his dog - no wait, it’s a cat trotting along the path. They are collecting mushrooms and the cat has clearly been this way before, prancing up and down the path back and forward like a puppy dog.
The cat wants to follow us and I’m afraid it might do so and then get lost. But on reaching the run down village of Outre L’Eve, there’s a small road with a few parked cars and the cat immediately stops at it’s owners car waiting for them to catch up. Good! I had visions of having to deal with this cat at the end of our walk.
There’s a few day hikers heading up the number 4 track, probably to Lago Vercoche but a little further on we leave them and turn right to follow the TDG signs towards Chardonney. The path is very stony and in places we have to clamber over boulder falls but it’s still a pretty walk with glimpses down the steep sided Camporcher Valley and over to the larger village of Mellier on the opposite side of the gorge.
At 1.30pm, we roll into the busy village of Chardonney. This is the last of road access and obviously very touristy with hundreds of picnic tables under the pine trees, all numbered and ready to be booked by visitors paying 6 euro per table. There’s a post with a collection of directions for the next stages of our walk on the Alt Via 2 - tomorrow is Rifugio Peradze at 5hrs 45 mins, the day after is Cogne, at 9hrs 20 mins from Chardonney, making it a short walk of just under 4hrs.
Another 50 metres and we’re at our home for tonight - BnB Le Temps d’une Pause where there’s a middle aged Italian couple sitting outside waiting for their guests to arrive. They speak French, so we are able to communicate a little bit, and soon we are shown to our small bedroom, with an adjacent bathroom. Just perfect and so clean.
We dump our bags and walk 100 metres up the road to the Mini Market to buy lunch - otherwise it would have been a few nuts and raisins from our packs. Ian chooses a piece of quiche, and I pick a whole fruit and nut bun, specialty of the region, plus a small block of butter to go with it. Back at our BnB, time for a cup of tea with our quiche and buttered bun before spending a relaxing afternoon in our room blogging and checking the day's photos and tomorrow's maps.
At 5pm, we’re up at the local bistro having a beer - not as nice as last night at the Trattoria in Pont Boset, but it’s a beer. An dinner? 7.30pm, probably be eating after 8pm. But the Mini Market is still open, so 20 euro worth of cold beers, cheese, olives, bread and ham and we’re back at our BnB in the little kitchenette beering and dining ourselves. One more guest arrives. We think it’s a 2 bedroom place with a shared bathroom. That’s ok by us, I mean me. Less likely to be woken by those who need to get up in the night!
At 8pm, we’re in bed ready for a longer higher and harder day over the 2,800 m Col de Fenetre and into the Rifugio Peradza.