GR 54 – day 3
15.7.2023 Saturday
Le Monêtier-les-Bains – Cabane du Jas Lacroix
→ 32,98 km ↑ 1633 m ↓ 1410 m
I wrote the blog until half past 11pm last night, so I don’t get up until seven today. Jozef’s already made coffee and waits for me with breakfast, baguette with cheese. Just as the sun starts peeking out from behind the hill. We set off at 8. As a morning warm-up we climb to Col de l’Eychauda pass, 800 meters over 4.5 km. We go slow but steady, and reach the top within two hours. The higher we go, the more beautiful the views in every direction.
Several cable cars run up here too, but it’s all done nicely, so it doesn’t spoil the view much, and there’s just one hut, a wooden restaurant, not like the concrete rotunda on Chopok.
We watch marmots again, they’re everywhere here and we’re always happy to spot one. At the pass (2425 m) there are the last patches of snow.
When the sun’s out it’s nice, but the moment it hides behind a cloud and the wind picks up, I’d happily put a jacket on. We cross over the pass and completely new views open up on the other side. Spring’s still here at the top. The meadows are covered with thousands of blooming flowers.
We take a break sheltered by a rock and finish the second baguette, cheese and mustard. Almost 14 km of descending lies ahead. First 5 km of switchbacks with a nice view, then we join the road leading all the way to Vallouise.
The original route runs almost entirely on asphalt through the valley, but there’s also a green route that copies it, just set higher, through forest. We pick that one. It’s already noon and the sun’s really burning now, storm clouds starting to form over the mountains. Our feet hurt a lot after yesterday, so we push ourselves fairly hard into town. We need to charge the power bank, so we go to the tourist center. We leave my phone charging there too, along with all our gear, and go shopping without backpacks. Feels really nice walking without a backpack. The grocery store’s on its lunch break and opens at 2:30pm. There’s a bar here, so Jozef tries an Alphand beer, a Blonde style, and I get coffee. Then we go to the shop for baguettes, cheese, salami, olives, tuna and chocolate mousse. At the fruit stand we buy peaches, tomatoes and garlic. Then we go pick up our things. The power bank’s at 74%. That’s enough for us, so we go find a spot outside town for lunch. We stop right by the L’Onde river, which we’ll follow for the next stretch. We lay out food, and I wash my hair in the icy river and do laundry.
We continue at 4pm. First alongside the river through forest, where we walk fairly well. But then we turn onto asphalt and it’s a proper nightmare. We suffer. We try to get through it as fast as possible. Once we’re through, we rest a bit. There’s no nice spot to rest, so we walk another kilometer into the valley where we’ll sleep. We sit for a bit, eat peaches, and set off on the last 3.5 km. It’s pretty windy here, the weather looks uncertain too, and sheep passed just ahead of us, so we worry they might be right by the shelter where we wanted to sleep. We look around for a good spot, but there’s nothing but rocks and steep slope everywhere. After two kilometers we find one spot, a bit sheltered, but we hesitate. We go a bit further, but then we spot sheep on the slope ahead, so we turn back. We’re in a national park, so only bivouacking is allowed (meaning the tent can only be up from 7pm to 9am). It’s before seven, so we clear the spot of sheep poop, rocks and branches. Just in case, Jozef builds a makeshift fence in case the sheep come back. We pitch the tent, and Jozef offers to inflate the sleeping pads (something he hasn’t done before), so I can write and not go to bed too late.
There’s a stream nearby, so we wash up too tonight. Jozef’s unsure about cooking dinner, but I’d be starving by morning, so he cooks pasta with olives, dried tomatoes, garlic and tuna.
We eat inside our sleeping bags. No signal here, so I just prepare the blog and post it tomorrow. We go to sleep while it’s still light out, since I want to set off as early as possible tomorrow. One brutal pass and three less brutal ones await us tomorrow.
