Monday 5th September: Weather: 16°C to 26°C: Cool morning warm almost hot sunny/cloudy day
Day 20 Oyace to Ollomont: 10.0k: 7hrs: 8.45am to 3.45pm: 1 x 1hr looking for track plus 1 x 30 min stop
Ascent/Descent: Ascent 1,000m, Descent 1,000m, Total up and down 2,000m
Accommodation: La Grande de Francois Ollomont
Landslides Tor de Geants re-route
Repairing landslide damage Oyace
For sale - renovators delight Oyace
Can’t be the low track to Ollomont
Dead end track to Ollomont
Back tracking to find a new track
One hour later on the Right track
Beautiful Views of the Aosta Valley
Track slippery with round pine cones
Morning tea at Dessous where track meets road with distant Alps view
Fabulous views above Ollomont
Col Bruson which we never climbed
19 hours walk to Courmayeur
19 hours walk to Courmayeur
View from window in Ollomont
Day 20 highlight was finding the right track. The Tor des Gents put out an urgent notice that the AV1 between Oyace and Ollomont was closed due to landslides on August 6, that were not reparable in time for the Tor start, it’s been re-routed via a lower route not over Col Bruson at 2,508 metres. Ok, so we head to the Oyace Community centre to find out what’s going on and they re-confirm the AV1 Is closed and give us a map of the lower route. Good, except it takes an hour to find the path out of Oyace. Then we’re on our way an hour late. It wasn’t well marked but still a wonderful pine forrest walk overlooking the Green Aosta Valley, then a gentle ascent on a panoramic horses trail to Ollomont. An interesting day.
Awake at 6am and we already know that the AV1 is closed over Col Bruson due to Land Slides and the TOR des Geants organisation has sent an alert that this section from Oyace to Ollomont has been re routed to a lower level.
"ATTENTION GIANTS +++++Route change for TOR330 and TOR130+++++I n the stretch of trail in Oyace, following the well-known landslides, the path has been modified.”
So we’re not in a hurry to leave La Tour Hotel as the new route is 4k shorter and not as much ascent. There’s time to go down to a leisurely breakfast of bread butter and jam and a really hot cup of tea or coffee, then dilly dally and phone home to the family. We leave at 8.45 and call in to the Community info centre who confirm that the AV1 is closed and give us a map of the new route and point out the communications tower that we need to head for. Sounds easy and off we go.
There’s a lot of reparation work going on around Oyace and this part of the Alps is prone to snow avalanches in winter and land slides in summer. The track is easy to the tower and then there’s no track. We ask a man and his dog and he points us to a track. 30 minutes later after wading through high grass and clambering up and down gullies, we decide to go back and find a belly arrow up another path. This is good until it too finishes in a dead end and it becomes dangerous enough for us to decide to return to Oyace and walk down and around the valley road to Ollomont. But on the way back, Ian spies another yellow arrow up a different track, and it’s looks good. We’ve lost one hour finding the right track but eventually it’s all OK.
The track winds it’s way around the hillside through the pine Forrests with fabulous views down into the Aosta Valley. It’s a very Up and Down track so although we’ve not climbed to Col Bruson, the Ascent and descent were still substantial and it’s a warm 26°C, so very tiring. At times the track was very slippery going downhill over little round pine cones like large marbles - slow going. After 4 hours at 12.45, the track meets a road and there’s a walking sign to Ollomont. Time for a very late morning tea by the side of the road but with great views up and down the valley. Coffee with a couple of Arnott’s Spicy Fruit Rolls brought all the way from Australia goes down well.
There’s signs to a Panoramic walk of 40 minutes up to Ollomont and it certainly is panoramic with view up and down the valley. Passing through the village of Ollomont, there’s signs where we’ll be going tomorrow to Rifugio Champion as well as a sign to Courmayeur - 19hours!! We’re only 4 days away now. Our Hotel La Grandze de Francois is about 1k past Ollomont up the old road then on a footpath. Just when we know we're near the hotel, who should pop out from a side track but our UK friends Chris and Tim. They actually did the climb to Col Bruson, and found it mostly OK except for a few slips and slides and wash outs. But w’re just pleased to have taken the low route despite getting lost at the start. I guess the Tor des Geants Organisation had to play safe based on Oyace recommendations and officially re-route the track.
The four of us walk another 100 metres to the Hotel La Grandze de Francois, arriving at 2.45pm and we’re welcomed and shown to our adjoining rooms. It’s such a bright sunny breezy day that Ian and I shower and do all our washing - again - it was all done last night but today was very dusty and it all needed doing again. The chairs and table downstairs in the sun make a perfect clothes line. Lunch is our still fresh cereal bread and cheese with a hot cup of tea - too early for a beer at 3pm. Then I blog and Ian emails while sitting on the bed watching the washing dry, waiting for dinner.
Time flies and at 6pm we head over the the restaurant for a beer, Ian a Bllonde beer, me a red, and it comes with a small platter of salami, cheese, breadsticks and peanuts. It’s a cosy setting and warm while we enjoy a beer and snacks. At 7pm the dining room opens, and sure enough our UK friends turn up, having been before us to have a beer and snack platter and returned to their room There’s only us four plus the Belgian for dinner.
There’s framed hand written collection of documents hanging on the wall above our table, and one of them is a marriage certificate between Francois and Leonardo in 1705. I ask our host what it means and he explains his whole family is descended from this married couple and hence teh name of the hotel La Grandze de Francois which means the farm shed of Francois which was converted into 6 bedrooms for the hotel. Our host then explains the menu, and Ian chooses the half board for 30 euro which is a choice of any two meals from the starters and main plus a dessert and he chooses a spinach pie plus a lamb grill. I choose a la carte and have a huge salad and chips, but somehow Ian has also ordered two side dishes of salad and chips so we have an abundance of chips and salad which doesn’t go to waste. Dessert for Ian is mascarponi and berries. We chat to Chris and Tim over dinner before retiring to bed at 9pm full as a goog.