Friday, August 26, 2022

Today's route, which will be much shorter than planned due to heavy rain in the afternoon:

St-Étienne-de-Tinée (1144 m) - St-Maur (1204 m) - Auron (1642 m; by hitchhiking!) - Baisse du Colombier (2070 m; by chairlift!) - Col du Blainon (2008 m) - Roya (1458 m)

It will rain heavily for an hour or two tonight, starting from midnight, with lightning and thunder. We are worried that we will have to wake up and pack in the morning in the rain. Although the sky will be clear by then, the forecasts for the rest of the day are not good. Therefore, we are pleased that a driver will take us to the ski resort of Auron in St-Maur, and we are also happy to take advantage of the existing ski facilities. We will ascend the mountain with the chairlift... It is still beautiful, and we hope to make good progress today.

As we descend to Roya, the sky gradually becomes cloudy, and it starts to rain after noon. We seek shelter in a dilapidated Alpine hut for lunch, but afterwards, we have to put on our rain gear for the rest of the descent. We arrive at the Gîte in Roya early in the afternoon, and although we would have liked to continue into the opposite mountains to camp there, the weather is only getting worse, so we decide to spend the night in the Gîte. Half a day of hiking is gone, but we not only enjoy the warm shower.

The weather forecast is bad until the middle of next week. This may tempt us to stay on the GR 5 to Nice instead of choosing the longer but more beautiful GR 52 to Menton.