Tour du Mont Blanc day 7

We were again practicing the very unnatural un-hurried morning, we stayed for a hearty bready breakfast and left by 7.45. It was raining, and we were to ascend le col de la Seigne back into France. The ascent was more relaxed than yesterday but the wind and rain increased as we gained height. Our waterproofs, old as they are, are about as useful as wearing a toga of kitchen towel. Possibly less useful.

Over the summit and just down the other side I bumped into my pal Jodi heading in the opposite direction with a group. Of all the possible detours, wee breaks, wild poops and coffee stops, I managed to see him on a gopping wet craggy peak where talking time was limited to 4 minutes due to rapid temperature drop, sopping wet useless waterproofs and wet shoes. Nice to see you Jodi!

We ran down the other side, our packs feeling like part of our bodies now, past the morning hoards still ascending. A few kilometres on we bumped into Refuge des Mottets, absolutely the nicest refuge we been in. A proper old, beautifully decorated communal room smelling strongly and wonderfully of soup (one of the worlds best smells on a rainy day, no matter the flavour). We ate coffee and a slab of cake before continuing on.

A few more fairly uninteresting (because of the lacking views) kilometres down the hill, still running, we arrived at our days end. We intended to drag our heels a bit today as it was our easiest day, but the weather, bad as it was made us motor along.

Chapieux, a tiny little Hamlet tucked deep in the valley. It felt like we couldn’t have been more isolated. The Auberge de la Nova was warmly lit and warmly heated. We were politely instructed to remove all our wet clothes in their drying room, hang them and don a pair of extremely comfortable but in reality probably extremely manky communal crocs before entering. It was 12.45.

There’s very few (maybe 3) ATM’s along the trail and very few places take cards. Snakes and I sat like sopping wet rats and counted out our remaining change like small children at the sweet shop and determined we could indeed order the veggie burger. Though competition was definitely not high, this was hands down the best meal of the trail so far. To the point I almost couldn’t finish it. I said almost. We chatted with our new pals, the first Pole we’d met and a Brit of similar age to us, both just starting out and travelling the opposite way.

After as much loitering as we could muster and given we were finished so early, we deliberated over carrying on up the next big climb to get some of it done before tomorrow and camping on the hill, or setting our tent up on the nearby meadow (which is allowed for free) and coming back to the bar. We deliberated for a surprising amount of time. If we continued walking on we’d finish the trail a day early (tomorrow) and be ahead of our return home schedule (which would involve making additional plans and some loitering). If we didn’t, we’d have another short day tomorrow before finishing as planned in 9 days (which would involve some loitering, but loitering as planned). It was raining and we had some new pals, access to shelter and wine. We decided to stay. Not really a difficult one.

Possibly the most social night on trail, we aperitif’d with some Brits and a pretty hardcore ancient Australian lady. Played cards with our polish friend, ate dinner (watery soup, should have had an second burger) with an Estonian couple then finished up with two young French brothers , who’d hitched from North East France down the Les Zoooosh to start the trail together. One of the brothers was trying to explain to me how the letter ‘H’ is used in French and for a good while I thought we were talking about the use of Hedges in France.

Youll be relieved to hear I slept extremely soundly, thank you.

Caban du Combal to Chapieux. 7.45am – 13.00. 16.9km 594m up and 1006 down