Is it time to go back?

Is it really?

The walk along the Verdon Gorge is considered a classic walk in Western Europe. We couldn’t miss it.

Back in March, the path was closed due to a rock fall. We found out the same morning when we were ready to go. The taxi man was waiting for us outside the bar. The barman heard that we were going to do the walk and he mentioned the accident. What a pity, we had to tell the taxi man we didn’t need to use his services that day. Of course, we would have paid his drive to here had he requested it, but he didn’t.

Disappointed we drove the beautiful road that went along the gorge. We fell so in love with that landscape we promised we would come back, but we didn’t think we would. It was too far south to come all this way.

But we had spare days in France. After Monte Rosa, I decided not to climb Mont Blanc. I wanted to climb Monte Rosa because it was a technical, challenging and interesting mountain. I wanted to climb Mont Blanc because it was the highest in Europe, no other reason. Gary had already climbed it twice and, although he never objected to climb it with me the third time, I realised he would probably prefer to do something different.

I have attempted it twice, getting to the summit the second time. Bad weather required a retreat the first. It is fairly similar in nature to Monte Rosa, except for the technical ridge. Mont Blanc is also a long hard snow slog, less about glaciers I seem to remember, but it is a long time ago. Although it is higher, so is the last hut, so the final summit assault is not quite as tough. I would have been up for another ascent, but then, there are other mountain peaks! GDR

Moreover, climbing Monte Rosa cost us €300. Mont Blanc was going to cost more, as it was a three days trek, which meant sleeping two nights in refuges. We could have made it a bit cheaper by camping outside one of the huts, but that would have meant carrying an extra 15 kgs with us; the tent, the sleeping bags, food and cooking set.

Finally, Mont Blanc was not far away from Monte Rosa. This meant climbing the second big mountain within a couple of days of climbing the first one. A bit too much?

So for all of those reasons, I decided not to give it a go and I don’t regret the decision, the mountain is always going to be there.

We were happy, we could spend those days walking along the gorge.

So here we are at 8.45am in the morning in Point Sublime. We have made an early start, as the guide advised it would be a seven hours walk to the Chalet de la Maline. But we won’t stop there, we have to walk an extra 8 kms to La Palud Sur Verdon, where Dora is.

On the way down to the path, a series of trucks are parked along the road. A dozen people gather around a  table, munching croissants and drinking coffee. Cameras, microphones, cables are set up everywhere. Some sort of filming must be going on today.

It is a lovely morning, there are no signs of the end of the summer in France yet. The path takes us through the woods closer to the river.

To start with, it goes through a series of tunnels, most of them open to the public, except for the longest one which has rock fall and is too dangerous.

This is the landscape we remembered from our drive, this why we’ve come back. And we are now having the privilege of getting closer to it.

Gorges are incredibly beautiful piece of art created by nature; their perfect curvilinear rock walls,

their intimidating narrowness

their magnificent deepness

And all of this wonderful landscape has come about as a result of millions of years of erosion.

The path now diverts from the river to take us to another series of tunnels.

These tunnels were dug at the turn of the century, some ambitious hydroelectric project that never came to fruition, instead they now provide access along the gorge for walkers. GDR

We can now contemplate the valley from a bit higher. Are there any climbers here this morning?

The first tunnel is quite long, the light soon disappears. It is time to get our torches out. Although it is safe, the lack of light makes us feel threatened, vulnerable.

But, the human eye is amazing. It soon gets to used to darkness and start to identify shapes and forms in the dark.

The second tunnel is shorter and it has a weird hole on the ground, which has been protected with a metal gate. The river is going underneath it.

By playing with the flash and exposure, our little old cannon camera was able to capture this incredibly shot. This has to be one of our best photos of this trip.

We eventually can see the light at the end of the tunnel.

The landscape has changed whilst we’ve been inside the tunnel; the river has got narrower, the vegetation has covered most of those perfect curves in the rocks.

It is not long until the rock walls get closer again. Such a dynamic landscape.

But this landscape soon stops surprising us. The path goes now endlessly through the woods. Breakthroughs in the landscape become rare, as soon as we have a chance we take a photo.

We walk another half an hour through the woods, on a wide, well-treaded path. More of the same when we get back to the open air.

We have now left behind those super-high rock walls and walk along a wide valley.

And more woods, until we see a small path down to the river. We divert to peep what is going on, we are bored of walking in the trees.

I am still wearing my thick fleece, despite being bright and sunny. Walking in the shade feels quite chilly. We hope we eventually are able to enjoy the warmth of the sun soon.

The path is fairly level, which allows us to keep a fast pace.

We are coming up to open air again. Will we get nice views?

Yeap not bad.

Is it what you expected? I ask Gary.

Nope

Me neither. You miss quite a lot of the landscape by walking in trees. The path is easy, not very challenging, quite monotonous.

Have our memories of this place distorted so much within the last six months? Have we created high expectations? Was it right to come back?

The path changes! It now becomes a metal, solid, steep staircase that takes us to the top of the gorge.

Half way there.

At the end of the climb a group of five people are waiting for us to get off the ladder. We stop for a few minutes to take some panoramas.

A bit more of the same, but still beautiful.

The path soon takes us down again. A narrower path diverts towards ‘Meslas’ . We won’t probably come back here, we might as well go and find out what Meslas is.

It is the confluence of the two rivers. Peaceful place.

As soon as we join back with the main path, bigger groups of people start coming thick and fast from the other direction. They look fresh. I don’t think they have been walking for hours. That makes me think we shouldn’t be too far from the hut. But that can’t be true. We have only been walking for three and a half hours. The walk was meant to be six.

After one more hour, we come across a sign to the hut, two more hours.

This part of the walk is very popular. Did all these people stay in the hut last night?

A large layby is also close to the hut. It is full of cars, that explains the amount of people. But quite frankly, the views are much better from here. I wouldn’t bother with the walk down if I were them.

We get to the hut in five hours. It is time to stop for a bit of lunch. I feel disappointed when I find out we brought bean salads for lunch. I hate beans! But I cannot moan at anyone, I chose them!

Luckily, I also brought nuts. That will be my lunch, whilst Gary is having a bean feast.

We now start our 8kms walk back to La Palud Sur Verdon, on the road.

Boring walk but beautiful scenes of the gorge now from the top.

To make our walk more entertaining, we engage in a lively conversion about the latest podcasts we have been listening to; Gary has found out a new one called RadioLab. I, however, still listen to my economic ones. Things are getting hot in Asia after the fall of the Chinese mini-stock market.

Then we realise, we are back to Dora. It is 15.30, sooner than anticipated.

We drive the same way we drove six months ago. But this time, we turn off left to drive north, towards our next Via Ferrata.

We have enjoyed our walk today, we are glad we came back, but we expected a bit more. Have we been travelling too long?

Are we immune to travelling?

Is it time to go back home?

If it is, we will get that problem sorted, we have only a couple of weeks left.

But I don’t think that is the case. We still look forward to what is coming tomorrow, we continue to plan our next adventure with enthusiasm, we are looking forward to our next country. The Verdon gorge is gorgeous but the walk isn’t.

17.7 kms

5 hrs

SM.

07/09/2015