French Alps / GR 58 – day 13
Ceillac – Rocher des Marrous
19.7.2024 Friday
→ 22,2 km ↑ 1697 m – total 322 km
We sleep in, until about 8:30am. It served me well. We’re in no rush, having tea with Pierre and chatting about gear with two fifty-something guys doing the GR 5 (a 650 km route from Geneva to Nice). One’s packing heavy, the other very light, and they met somewhere along the way and are walking together for a bit. Once we’ve packed everything, they check how much our backpacks weigh. We brush our teeth, take a farewell photo with Pierre, and head into town to the shop.
We only buy food for lunch now and stop for coffee too. We finally set off at 11am. Jozef’s back hurts a bit, probably from all that sliding on snow yesterday, and he applies his usual remedy — ignoring it. We start with a climb, 1000 meters over 7 km, actually a pretty pleasant gradient. After about 2 km we take a break for bakery pastries, and I call home to my mom, since it’s her birthday today, and I’m not sure if we’ll have signal further on.
We continue slowly, both of us a bit sluggish from yesterday’s beers. It’s partly cloudy, so it’s pleasant walking. Just below Col des Estronques we top up water. We’re still not fully recovered from yesterday’s lack of water.
The wind’s really strong at the pass, so we don’t linger and head toward the highest village in France (3rd highest in the EU), Saint-Véran. We wanted to eat before it at a rest spot, but a group of shouting kids is there, so we push on into the village instead.
The shop’s just opened, so we go stock up for the last two days. They have a really good selection, specific stuff for multi-day hikers, though with a hefty markup. At least we don’t buy anything silly, just some cheese-filled pastries, apparently a local specialty. There’s a table with benches outside the shop, already taken by 4 hikers, so we settle in too. Finally we’re not just sitting on the ground, but at a table like proper people. We eat fruit, a piece of baguette with salami and a couple of those pastries — probably better warm. We don’t have a set place to sleep tonight.
We’re walking through a long valley, so we should find something there. We continue before 5pm. A huge group of hikers passes us going the other way, and we get a bit worried it’s some kind of tour group, but it’s just a shuttle bus that drove them down from the mountains. We’re walking nicely on foot along a stream.
We meet a few people and pass a scout camp in a small forest, quite a nice camping spot. We’re pretty sleepy, so even though the slope’s gentle, we’re moving slowly and want to wrap things up soon. On top of that, clouds are getting dark around us. At the edge of the village we spot an old mining cart on display, so we wonder if something was mined here — and sure enough, we pass an old mine. We google it later and find out copper was mined here as far back as 4000 years ago. There’s an observatory built on one of the hills.
We find our first spot by the road, with water and marmots too, but it’s quite windy there. We fill our bottles and continue, seeing on the map that there should be more good spots further on. A few hundred meters later we find another.
Jozef goes a bit further to check and waves that he’s found something better. There’s already one guy camping there. It’s a very nice spot with a lovely view, a small stream, and decent shelter in case a storm rolls in.
I go wash up in the stream and find a great spot where the water reaches my knees. I wash up fast, since the sun’s behind clouds and I’m a bit cold. Dinner is pasta with tuna and passata. We sort through photos from the last three days together. I want to write more too, but I don’t feel great, so I go to sleep instead, hopefully I’ll feel better tomorrow.
