Tuesday 3 August 2022
| Distance (km) | 17 kms | |||
| Distance (time) | 6 hrs | |||
| Climb / Descent | 1164m / 800m | |||
| Hard / Soft surface | 30% / 70% | |||
| Landscape |
|
|||
| Weather |
 34° 0 Bft
|
|||
|
|
||||
|
One more day with only a daypack before we have to walk with more luggage again.... In the morning we drive to Ceillac, and in fact a bit beyond the village to a hamlet and skilift that goes by the name "Pied du Mélezet", and park the car at the bus stop. From here there is not only the paid bus going to Montdauphin railway station, but there is also the free inter-village shuttle to bring us to Château-Queyras where we step out around 9:00. First thing we have to do now is to arrange accomoddation for the 3 continuous days to come over the weekend, starting with the furthest: gite des Granges in Fouillouse. Why the furthest first? Well, there is only 1 place to stay in Fouillouse while there are 3 in Maljasset the day before. So probably Fouillouse is the most critical. But calling them just gives me the answering machine, so I will have to try later. From the busstop we have to go down to the river and cross it before going up unholy steep. The path is just blocks of rock cemented together and goes up 30-40%. We almost have to do it on hands and feet. After that we get a normal gravel road, but still with very steep sections and we suddenly feel back on the first and second day walking of this year again. But now we have an additional annoyancy: flies. Dozens of them, maybe hundreds. There is no wind and they are really a cloud around us. Lupita is walking in front of me and she has at least 20-30 flies crawling on her cap, several more on her backpack and a whole bunch flying around her. I'm sure it's not any better with me. And what is disturbing is the continous humming noise. We hoped that equal to the Col de Dormillouse the flies would be gone soon, but in fact we know keep them until the full duration of the climb. Higher up the path climbs more reasonable through a mixture of pasture and some woods and since it's now almost 11 o'clock a bit of wind is picking up as well. This slightly releases us from the flies, but not much. Above 2200m the forest opens up a bit, but the path keeps climbing straight up through the fields. It's hot and there are flies and I am wondering how I am going to handle walking 3 days with a backpack considering I'm struggling here. At close to 2300m altitude we pass a fountain were already some other walkers are refreshing themselves and we do the same. Out of curiosity I ask if they also have so much flies and immediately we get sighs and complaints how bad it is. Good to know it's not just us, our deodorant or shampoo or so - there are just a lot of flies here. Only a bit higher than the fountain we reach some nameless pass at 2320m altitude and according to the signpost it should be 1 more hour to Col Fromage, todays pass to conquer. But we are already at the right altitude so it will be 1 hour undulating to rolling country side with great views over the mountains to the right. In the meantime more and more walkers somehow gather and we arrive at Col Fromage in a group of 10-15 people spread out over 50m of track. The col itself is hot, and that's about it. There are some people having a picknick and we do the same before we head down into the valley again. We notice that here in the more southern Alpes the descents are generally a lot easier than further north: more gentle grades by creating lots of hairpins rather than having the track go straight down the mountain. And less gravel on the paths. The descent of Col Fromage is no exception, and within 1.5 hours we are down in Ceillac. Since we have telephone reception again now I give it another try to col the gite in Fouillouse and this time the phone is answered. They have a room for 2 available for Sunday night and so I book it. They only need my name, no prepayment or anything. Nice! So then I call one of the 3 places in Maljasset and the first one (Les Zélés) has a room for 2 for Saturday evening. Same concept, only my name and now prepayment. They do ask me to confirm by e-mail, what I do on the spot. So the only thing remaining is to stay overnight on Friday evening after bringing the car to Barcelonnete. That can be here in Ceillac, so we decide to try our luck and walk to a place called "Le Matefaim". They have 1 room left for Friday evening, but with a bunk bed. Fine with us... So now we're set and done for the weekend and we can walk to the car. The last bit through the valley to the car is not so exciting, but it shaves 30-40 minutes off the next stage by doing it now. We pick up the car and drive back to our basecamp in Eygaliers. Tomorrow a rest/laundry day and then the last 3 days of this year. |
      |
|||
|
|
||||
Download track ChaCei.gpx