Thursday 28 July 2022
| Distance (km) | 17 kms | |||
| Distance (time) | 6 hrs | |||
| Climb / Descent | 1125m / 755m | |||
| Hard / Soft surface | 10% / 90% | |||
| Landscape |
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| Weather |
 33° 1 Bft
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We had a day of rest and did some necessary laundry, but now it's time to walk again! But this time with only daypacks as we will
return to the camping site tonight. As agreed upon, the taxi picks us up at 7:00 sharp at the entrance of the camping and brings us to
Plampinet. And as the taxi driver so nicely put it "now the suffering starts". Well, suffering is a big word. The climb starts with
a 4x4 gravel road winding up the mountain side. Steadily climbing, but nothing too steep. When the road turns into a narrow gorge in the mountain
gradients even drop and we're walking almost flat now. We pass an old bunker and a small chapel (Oratoire St.Roch) before the gorge opens up onto
a grassy plane with several chalets: Les Acles. There are some tents pitched here so apparently it is possible to stay overnight here. But we continue by crossing the stream and heading into the forest again. the climb becomes pretty steep now, and what is more annoying: flies! For the next half an hour we're in a cloud of flies and only until we leave the trees behind us we get rid off them. The last part of the climb is through a classical glacier valley with a steep part at the end to make it to the pass at the top of the valley: Col de Dormillouse. The views are really great here, but we are not completely there yet. Instead of descending on the other side we follow the mountain side over a not-so-spooky balcony path until we make a final ascent to a second, slightly higher, pass: Col de la Lauze. A friendly fellow walker offers to make a picture of us while in the background two Dutch guys are trying to prepare lunch. The descent starts of a bit scary as it feels we're really stepping over the edge in a ravine, but after a first steep 100m with a double hairpin the gradient eases. And actually it stays very gently all the way down to Montgenèvre. It's a long descent and getting hotter the more we descend, but apart from being fried by the sun it is easy going down. We arrive in Montgenèvre about 10 minutes late to grab the 14:10 bus to La Vachette, so now we have to wait for the 17:30 bus. And what do you do as a walker after a long day? Exactly, hit the terrace and order a large Panaché and a pancake with forest fruit. Life is good. |
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