Saturday 27th August: Weather: 19°C to 26°C: Warm and sunny all day
Day 11 Pont St Martin to Sassa: 11.0k: 8.45am to 3pm: 6hrs 15 mins: 1 x 15 min stop
Ascent/Descent: Ascent 1,901m, Descent 810m, Total up and down 2,711m
Accommodation: Etoile du Berger Sassa
Ancient Pont de Moretta
Forest walk from Bayreuther Hutte
After Pont de Moretta
Through the Ash and Hazel nut trees
Chapelle de Santa Margherita at top of steep climb at 2.30pm
Finally we reach Hotel l’Etoile du Berger at Sassa
View from our window L‘Etoile
Ian studying the route for tomorrow
Day 11 highlight was climbing 800 metres from Pont St Martin through the terraced vineyards, to some some point high above the terraced vineyards looking down on several valleys before descending to Perloz and the Pont Moretta before a really steep climb up to Sassa and the delightful L’Etoile du Berger at Sassa.
It was a hot night, then cooled down in the morning to 19°C. We’ve slept in undies and singlet beneath a light sheet. It was hotter with the windows shut because of the mozzies. But we’ve awoken to a lovely day and the start of the AV1 on a route we haven’t done before. Breakfast in our room is our own concoction of muesli and yoghurt and a hot cup of tea. We’re still re-arranging what to take and what to leave behind at the Agriturismo La Grange where we will leave our stuff bag for the next two weeks.
We leave at 8am and say goodbye our host who has minded our gear for the past 2 weeks as well as 4 years ago, and stroll down to the the Agriturismo place to leave our bag until we return on Sept 11. It’s only about 1.5k away but along a busy busy highway that leads to the Autostrad, the main motorway up the valley. So we shortcut through the fields and someones barn, to reach the place where Martine is waiting for us and greets us to take our bag and shows us another shortcut back to town where we’ll start our walk at the Pont Romano.
It’s 8.45am when we start the official AV1 walk, known as the northern half of the Tor des Geants, across the Pont Romano and immediately we’re confronted by a set of steep stairs that go up and up and up then along ancient paths on the terraced vineyards. It’s 10.15am when we reach the top of we don’t know where but it’s at a height of about 1,000 metres and we’ve just ascended the 650metres from Pont St Martin in 1hr 15 mins. We’re tired, as for the past 2 days we’ve been walking downhill with not much uphill, so it’s a slog on a warm day that’s already 22°C and humid. Then there’s a long descent into Perloz, an old village with narrow cobblestoned streets. The gorge below is too narrow to squeeze in a footpath, so the AV1 goes up and over a mountain to the wider part of the gorge near Perloz. It’s 10.45 am when we sit on the ledge of a retaining wall in the shade to have a cup of coffee with an Arnotts Spicy Fruit Roll which was stashed at Pont St Martin with our stuff. Yum!
There’s still a descent into the gorge which we cross at Pont de Moretta built in 1710, emerging on the other side at Tour d'Hereraz. Then the ascent begins up the other side through little Hameau (Villages) either inhabited or in ruins, along ancient paths until Lillianes comes into view in the valley below. It’s now 26°C and we’re both hot and sweaty but it’s at this point that we know we are in for a steep ascent - 500 metres up over 2 kilometres - that’s an average of 25%. It’s steep and relentless as the path touches on the zig zag road that winds it’s way up the mountain side and after an hour of slog we reach the Chapelle de Santa Margherita with a large clock ancient accurately showing the time at 2.30pm. This marked the end of the very steep section and suddenly the path becomes flatter as we wind our way up to the delightful L’Etoile du Berger, busy with visitors for Saturday lunch. We arrive at 3pm.
We’re shown to our attic room and it’s just wonderful. Lined with timber , it looks very new. There’s a sofa, a large comfy bed, the largest shower we have had so fa on this trip, but best of all, there’s a balcony in the sun to hang our washing. We’re starving. We’ve not had lunch, but we need to get our washing done as it’s been a hot sweaty day. Rather than take our cheese and stale bread downstairs in full view of the lunch time visitors, we heat in the room at 4.30pm before going down for a beer and to sort photos sitting in the sun.
We’ve already picked the dinner menu but have no idea of what we are getting. Best to just nod when the waitress seems like she’s recommending something. When offered a choice we just said we’d have one of each please. By 7.30 we’re starving again. Entre was spag bog (me) and cheesy macaroni (Ian). Dinner was steak and veggies (Ian), mine was pork roast and veggies. The pork won. Dessert, which we saved for morning tea was apple strudel. We return to our magnificent room in the attic. I had booked this directly but if had been booking.com it was definitely 10/10. We hauled in our washing from the balcony - all dry - and packed as much as we could for an early start before bed at 9.30pm.