Sunday, August 28, 2022

Today's route:

Vacherie de Roure (1862 m) - Rougios (1463 m) - Roure (1094 m) - St-Sauveur-sur-Tinée (492 m) - St-Dalmas-Valdeblore (1245 m; with privately organized transportation!)

During the night, it rains heavily in phases, so much so that nothing can be heard except the sound of the raindrops hitting the outer tent. We suspect that during this time, an animal, possibly a marten, bites a hole in our inner tent and then carries away half of our food, which we always kept in a corner at the foot of our inner tent; at least 1.5 kg of apples, muesli, yoghurt, sausage, bread, dried cherries, etc. were carried away in the fabric sack in which they were stored. In the morning, we first discover the hole in the inner tent and then a few remains in the immediate vicinity, including the fabric sack. Fortunately, the outer tent was not damaged; that would have been more serious.

We set off at 8 a.m., and it's all downhill, around 1400 meters of altitude. Since our breakfast (muesli) was stolen, we have a late breakfast at 10:30 in a hotel in Roure, a beautiful little mountain village. We descend to almost the lowest point of our hike (just under 500 m), and it is simply hot (30 degrees Celsius and more). During a mediocre lunch in Saint-Saveur-sur-Tinée, the innkeeper arranges a transport for us up to St-Dalmas; his son takes us. Ignaz does not feel like climbing a total of 1000 m in the heat again; Lis would have been willing to hike half of it. The weaker one prevailed.

So we are in the picturesque mountain village of St-Dalmas in the middle of the afternoon, have time to visit the village, do laundry, take a shower, and then go out for pizza with a Romand from Fribourg who is traveling by motorbike.

The GR 52 route to Menton on the Mediterranean Sea begins in St-Dalmas, where we will arrive next Sunday or Monday. We chose this longer and more challenging route mainly because of the Vallée des Merveilles, which is worth seeing. (We will continue to hike at an average altitude of 2000 m there.) On the GR 5 to Nice, it would have taken about three or four more days and would have been flatter and at a lower altitude.