Monday 1 August 2022
| Distance (km) | 16 kms | |||
| Distance (time) | 6 hrs | |||
| Climb / Descent | 1260m / 700m | |||
| Hard / Soft surface | 20% / 80% | |||
| Landscape |
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| Weather |
 33° 2 Bft
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Over the weekend we have moved our basecamp from La Vachette to Eygaliers about 45 kms further south. That may sounds like only a small
displacement considering we have to pack and reinstall everything, but Eygaliers is so much more practical now due the presence of a
railway station and several shuttle busses going from the station into the Qeyras region. However, today we still have to go one more day to Briançon as a starting point. It will again be a warm day today so we decide to go for the earliest possible public transport connection, which means we have to get up at 6:00 to catch the 7:10 bus from the railway station. The bus is nice on time and we arrive in Briançon at 7:45 to catch the 8:10 bus to Villard St.Pancrace. It takes some time to find the actual bus stop (it's just a small sign attached to a fence about 50m from the railway station) but at 8:19 we're ready to go! The first bit is still tarmac, but already climbing. We enter the forest still over the tarmac road that actually has more cars than we expected. Fortunately soon after the road splits and we take the old D236 that is now forbidden for motorized vehicles. In fact, it's mostly a gravel road with here and there still an old patch of tarmac. It climbs gently and just before the first parking of Les Ayes we get back to the tarmac road again. It somehow feels a bit disappointing that we have been walking for 1.5 hours now and still are walking over a parking with many cars unloading families. This goes on a bit more until we reach the small village Les Ayes. In Les Ayes there is a buvette for those who want something to drink, but it is explicitly mentioned they don't have a toilet and the closest toilet is 800m up the road....which is not in the direction of the GR5. If they don't have a toilet I'm afraid we're not going to have a drink either since the drink was merely an excuse for using the toilet. We continue on what now becomes a track through the forest climbing quite steeply. Disadvantage of being able to get here by car is that suddenly the track is full of day walkers that want to pass or we have to pass and so the walk has become a lot less relaxed. Also, we clearly not having our day as climbing is slow and uncomfortable. Whether it is really a physical problem or that we're just annoyed by the high amount of hikers is hard to say, but we're struggling here. Until we almost get out of the forest and reach another 4x4 gravel road again the climb is steep. Since there is more space here we decide to find ourselves a nice flat piece of rock and have lunch. Maybe a good break will get us in the mood and shape again to climb this pass. The gravel road is again more gentle passing a gite and a small collection of houses known as "Vers le Col". We can't enjoy the gravel road very long though, because at Vers le Col it ends in a cul de sac and from here on it is a path again. As always the last bit is steep and stoney, but we make it. At the col we see some familiar faces like the French family with two small kids that passed us in the forest after Les Ayes and an English couple that passed us a bit later but still in the forest. And there are 3 Americans that we haven't seen before. So we're quite international up here. We again have something to eat and drink and we let the others start the descent first as we know we are slow. Fortunately the descent is actually very nice going down in many hairpins but with a gentle grade and little to know loose stones. Just before reaching the gravel road in l'Eychaillon we run into the Americans again that are taking some photos. At the gravel road it is just a matter of following it until Brunissard. It is an easy walk with the only peculiarity that it passes over the local camping - that is, the camping is on either side of the road without any fences or barriers and some people have pitched their tent seriously close to the road. Arriving in Brunissard we leave the GR5 to go to the bus stop. It is just after 15:00 now and the one and only bus goes at 17:40, so we have time to kill at the restaurant 50m further down the road. We had hoped to have something nice to eat, but lunch time is over so apart from a pannini there is nothing we can order. Well, and drinks of course. The bus is nice on time to bring us to the railway station of Montdauphin were we pick up the car again. With a short stop at the supermarket we head for our basecamp. Today we left the Briançonnais and entered the Queyras. The mountains look the same though. |
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