We departed before any campers were up, except the hardecore ancient Australian lady who had vanished before we rose.
The day began with a 931m climb in 5 kilometres, on which there would be a pathetic 10m only, of respite decsent. The sign said 3.5 hours, we were up at the top and breakfasting on children’s cerial in 2 hours. 7 days in and we’ve certainly got our trail legs. The climb was steep but once again, so unlike anything we’d seen before now, and finally the sun had returned.
Over the summit and after that hearty breakfast, we began our long and relentless decsent for the remainder of the day. The trail was reminiscent of the Lake District now, the mountains were craggy and green, and the trail itself fully of rocks and boulders to negotiate.
Today, is either day 2 or 3 for most hikers moving in the traditional anticlockwise direction and we saw more people today than on any other so far. The etiquette is, that the descender gives way to the ascender, (not that anyone seems to adhere to this logical rule when we happen to be ascending). This meant Snakes and I were stopping every few minutes or less to let people pass. This is what I’d been dreading the whole trail would be like. Luckily, it was our penultimate day and we weren’t in any hurry; (is what I kept telling myself).
We had coffee at the next refuge and light rain began to frustrste, so we moved on to Nortre Dame de la Gorge for a picnic lunch.
Further down, the trail is urbanising a little and we landed at a Baroque Chapel from the 13th century with an ice cream seller outside. A few kilometres on, by 13.00pm we arrived at our days end, Le Pontet campsite.
The campsite was a bit of a shocker, we walked through bouncy castles, pedalos on lakes, zip wires and hire wires full of holidaymakers. Its like someone had suddenly turned the volume up. We deliberated hiking on and finishing the trail today (again) and again, decided not to, more for the lacking desire to sort any more logistics for a spare night.
We made our way to check-in, to find check-in had just closed for lunch. We went for a wander, found showers, had them, found the TMB specific camp site and set up our tent, shortly after which, lunch break was over and the reception opened, and more importantly the bar too. I overheard a man at the bar asking for ”un beer por favor” he overheard me laughing at him, and asked if I was mocking his French, I told him I was mocking his Spanish and oh how we laughed. James, is a fire fighter fom Providence Rhode Island with the very best accent, that Snakes struggled not to speak in, to him, all night. I’m sure he loved it.
We had a rare, excellent dinner of melon, curry and brownie, three separate dishes, not one. We sat with a very plesant German couple who found all my jokes very funny so they were alright by me. We hung out with them a bit after dinner, then ensured we were in bed at a reasonable hour.
Chapeiux to Pontet. 16.3 km. 7.00am to 13.30pm 952m up 1324m down.
SONDER 