Monday 27 July 2015
| Distance (km) | 25 kms | |||
| Distance (time) | 5 hrs | |||
| Climb / Descent | 710m / 695m | |||
| Hard / Soft surface | 10% / 90% | |||
| Landscape |
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| Weather |
 →  22° 6 Bft
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On the first day of the second hiking period of the year we start with grey skies and rain, which was completely not what the weather forecast told us. However, already during breakfast it clears up somewhat and we drive from the camping site in Liverdun (where we arrived yesterday straight from The Netherlands) to Pagny-sur-Moselle. Driving in that direction we go back into the rain and when arriving at the railway station of Pagny we run from the car to the station building just to stay dry. It's just a short distance from Pagny to Ars by train and so we arrive in Ars just 10 minutes later. Here at least it's dry, though still overcast.
From the station it doesn't take long before we have to climb again leaving Ars. We walk a very narrow path squeezed in between a fence and the bushes and on the steeper parts it's mostly slipping and sliding to make any progress. We pass the remains of a roman aquaduct that is being restored, though we haven't agreed yet whether it is really an improvement: it just looks too new. Hardly arrived in Rongueville we have to turn right up some stairs continuing as a climbing forest track that just keeps on climbing until high above the Moselle valley. We do walk through the forest now and in the mean time the sun is trying to peek through the clouds. There is quite some wind but being in the forest it doesn't really bother us. At the view point Belvedère des Varieux we enjoy the view and return to the GR5 track. The only problem is....the track splits in 2 tracks here that apparently are parallel but none of the two has a GR5 sign. The left track seems to be a bit wider than the right track, which by itself doesn't have to mean much. So we decide to both take a track and walk to see if we can find a GR5 sign. And here we make a mistake (we realise later) because we do not explicitly agree on what to do if we do find a GR5 sign. Lupita takes the left track and I take the right track. The first 100m we can still see each other but then bushes are in between the tracks. After 300m or so I do see a GR5 sign and so I walk back to where the tracks split and we parted. I wait about 10 minutes but Lupita is not coming back. That's strange so I try to call her on her cellphone, but then I remember she told me in the train that she had mistakingly left her cellphone in the car. Ok, so then I walk into her path expecting to meet her at some point, but after 500m I still don't see her. There is a track from here to the right going up and I decide to take that track, which brings me to the other track that I discovered to be the GR5. But I still haven't found Lupita. Walk on a bit more? And if so, which track? But if I walk on and she walks back over the other track then she will be waiting for me at the split. I try to call her name very loud a few times but with the wind and the bushes that is probably not very useful. Ok, so better return to the split where I wait another 15 minutes before walking the triangle of left track, shortcut and back the right track one more time. Eventually it is now 45 minutes after we split up and Lupita is not back yet. Maybe she hurt her ankle or she got lost? The best way would be to be with someone else and just both walk one of the track. I don't know where her track ends since she has the maps and I only have the GPS. So after some consideration I decide to call 112 and after I listened in 4 different languages that this is the European emergency number the line hangs up and I can call again to listen to the whole story again in 4 languages. But now I'm reconnected and a lady answers. On my question whether she speaks English the answer is short (in French): not at all. Oh well. I will explain in my best French what happened and I'm reconnected again but now with the local police. I again explain the situation and the man tells me to stay where I am and he will be on his way. I wait an endless half an hour at the split of the tracks when finally 2 police men come out of the forest. They tell me they parked the car at Croix-St.Clement (a large stone cross) and walked back over the GR5 to where I am now. With the 3 of us we now walk over the track that Lupita took because this track apparently also ends up at Croix-St.Clement. We look around everywhere, but no sign of Lupita. Arriving at the cross indeed there police car is there and the question is what to do now. I know my wife good enough that she wouldn't just go off the trail and since we didn't find her with an injury or so I can only suspect that she continued to the next village, Gorze, to get help. I explain this to the police men and they decide that the 3 of us should drive to Gorze. I further suggest that she might have asked at a restaurant or store if she can use their telephone and so at the first bar we pass they ask if somebody passed asking for a telephone. And indeed, according to the owner of the bar somebody did pass 5 minutes ago looking for a telephone and he referred her to the public telephone 100m further down the road. Arriving there Lupita is indeed in the phone booth trying to make a call. She sees the police car but doesn't recognize that I'm in it until I jump out of the car. Found you! The police men are also relieved and ask us what we want to do: walk or that they should drop us somewhere, for instance at the car in Pagny. Lupita just wants to keep walking and so we thank the police men for their help and we decide to first sit down to eat and drink something. Lupita tells me that indeed she came to the conclusion her track was not the GR5 and she found the shortcut to get to the GR5 where she waited 5-10 minutes. When I didn't show up she assumed I had continued while in reality I was waiting for her at the split. She decided to continue to Croix-St.Clement where she waited half an hour for me after which she wrote her name in the sand with an arrow indicating the direction she was going to. I never saw that in the sand, because the police car was parked on top of it! And as I expected, she had made up her mind to go to Gorze to inform the police and see if she could call me. Well, there is no police station in Gorze and she was about to call me when I showed up. Anyway, it all ended well. And then we just continue our walk. It's a very large loop into the forest on our way to Bayonville-sur-Mad where we arrive at 16:00. We're starving by now and we go to the only pub/restaurant in the village. The lady behind the bar feels very sorry for us, but this late in the afternoon she doesn't have lunch anymore. Ok, then we will just have a drink and while we're sipping our panaché she approaches our table: if we want to she can bake some chips and ham? Well, yes, please! And so we have a very late lunch. From Bayonville to Onville is just a short piece and then the path goes back into the forest with a long but not so steep climb. When we finally see Pagny we still have to descend quite a lot to the village and walk another kilometer through the village to get to the car. By now it is after 18:00 and it has been an emotional day.... |
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Download track ArsPag.gpx