French Alps / GR 58 – day 9
Bivacco Giorno Casalegno – Refuge des Fonts de Cervières
15.7.2024 Monday
→ 27,2 km ↑ 1449 m – total 204,1 km
Alarm is set for 6:30am again. The sun starts to rise slowly over the horizon. It’s English Monday, the day we speak English together, something we started at New Year. Breakfast is bread with Nutella and black tea. I keep my long trousers on all day today, since I got a bit sunburned yesterday. We put on sunscreen right away in the morning, even Jozef, and he does it willingly. We also wash a few pieces of clothes in the stream and set off. We have half a kilometer to Col Mayt, which is also the border with France. That building was probably a military site once, since there’s leftover barbed wire near the border too.
The other side of the pass is already beautifully green, and marmots whistle loudly there. We go down 1 km and sit on a rock, since we get a signal there. I write the blog and Jozef reads the news. Flies swarm me badly, I guess I smell great. We spend about an hour there. Then we go on downhill.
The trail isn’t much of a trail anymore, so we navigate mostly by GPS. What was nice short grass up top turns into waist-high grass lower down.
There are also very strong springs here, so water is everywhere. The way down is tough, but we finally join a nice path into the village of Le Roux. Suddenly there are a lot more hikers around. We get close to a flock of sheep, and 3 dogs run at us. At first we think they belong to the woman shouting at them, but it turns out she’s actually the shepherd — you’d never guess it from looking at her.
We continue on asphalt into the bigger village of Abriès. The sun is really strong now, so we get out our umbrellas. We need to buy that gas canister, and just a kilometer before town I realize the shop closes in 15 minutes. So Jozef runs ahead to make it in time.
I arrive 5 minutes later. Jozef goes into the shop for drinks and we sit down in the shade. Then I go get food. The moment I walk into the shop, I know I’m in France. The man behind the deli counter has a perfect French moustache. I buy three baguettes, and Jozef thinks that’s a lot, but we eat the first one plain, no toppings, and it’s incredible. We grab a quick coffee and then sit on a bench in the shade. I want to catch up on another day of the blog. We eat the second baguette with salami. Lots of hikers with big backpacks arrive in town, probably doing the same route as us. GR 58, also called the Tour du Queyras, is a 110 km route with 7800 m of elevation gain, running around the Queyras regional national park. I found out about this route just 2 days ago, and we decided it sounded like a good idea — we really love hiking in France. We put on sunscreen again. It’s almost three o’clock when we set off. We have 1200 meters of climbing ahead to Col du Petit Malrif.
It’s really hot. After a steep first stretch of a few dozen meters, we climb very gently. We keep stopping to drink water. I can really feel my arms burning. Tomorrow I’ll wear long sleeves. We meet quite a lot of hikers of all ages. That’s a big change after not meeting anyone on the Italian side.
Even though it’s pretty windy, I put up my umbrella. Jozef is far ahead of me. He waits for me in the shade, where we rest for a bit. After a few minutes I feel cold, so I check the thermometer. No wonder — it’s 17°C. We continue, and marmots all around keep me motivated to push on.
We reach a beautifully colored lake, Lac du Grand Laus. A sign says the pass is still an hour away. That seems long, since it’s only a kilometer left. We climb and go around a few snowfields.
There are some really lovely marmots here, and they’re barely scared of us. At the pass there’s a 3-meter wall of snow. It looked much smaller from below, but up close it’s still a big pile.
We get the ascent in half an hour. Clouds start building over the surrounding hills a bit. We still have more than 5 km to Refuge des Fonts de Cervières, where we want to sleep.
We go down about 500 meters over loose rock, and then a nice trail begins. We jog a bit here and there, and stop often when we spot a marmot. Suddenly they all start whistling loudly, and then we see it — a fox! We can already see the hut, so we pick up the pace a little.
The trail is more like a stream here, so we jump over the stones like goats. By the river I pick some wild thyme, and a marmot peeks out at me from its burrow. Dinner’s already being served at the hut, so the smell is lovely, and I walk in among them feeling pretty smelly myself. I pay €5 for a shower, camping and electricity. Great price, we’re happy with it. We pitch the tent fast, and I go straight for a wash while everyone else eats. A great warm shower in a wooden hut — I feel like a new person, though the flies still won’t leave me alone. Dinner is an egg as a starter, then mashed potato with tuna, olives, parmesan and dried tomatoes for the main course. No signal here, so I just sort through photos and write the blog. Jozef’s already asleep.
