I Would Walk 1000 Miles

Today was a day for dead things - a sheep, a snake, a lizard and I thought a horse… until it got up and walked off.

I had a long walk today. I arrived in Saorge around 9:30, over an hour ahead of schedule. I’d taken a different route to the advertised GR52A along the nearby valley rather than climbing up and down. Saorge is a beautiful little town poised on a hill overlooking a monastery and a river. It’s made up of a maze of little streets with overhanging houses. Pure medieval loveliness.

I spoke to a man about an alternative route via Fontan, but I worked out it would be just about as long as the one I was intending to take anyway. It is a hell of a climb from Saorge to Baisse d’Anan - 1000m vertically. The direction markers (red and white painted stripes along the way) were very sporadic so I stopped at a cottage on the way to make sure I was going the right way. The brought out a map, assured me it was fine and offered me food and water for the trip (which I had to refuse as my bag was full and I’d had breakfast in front of the monastery an hour earlier).

The climb up almost killed me. I don’t think I’ve ever done anything more difficult, including climbing Fansipan in Vietnam. At least then I only had a small daybag. Psychologically it’s a nightmare as you can never see the end. There’s a plateau at around 90% of the way up where the signage just vanishes again and you have to more or less guess that you’re going the right way. At the summit I found what looked like an abandoned camp and wolfed my lunch down there before starting on the steep, gravelly descent. Freeze’dried cous-cous followed by jam tarts.

At Col de Géréon I encountered a very helpful lady who advised me to take the road route instead of the GR52A as it was quicker. As I walked down, she caught me up in her car and told me of another short cut just after a junction coming up. Great stuff. I arrived in La Brigue at 5pm - good time - and asked some locals directions. I ended up chatting to them for about half an hour and they offered me a lift to Tende as they were heading that way anyway. I turned the lift down (and the offer of a beer!) and they beeped their horn when they passed me about to rejoin the GR52A at the other side of town.

The reason I keep asking directions is that these hiking paths can become a little disjointed where they pass through a town. It’s often hard to get from where you arrived to where you need to go. This was a great excuse to talk to some lovely people and I’m glad they understood my limited French, though one of them spoke pretty good English. They all seemed pretty impressed with the whole "Walk" thing as well, and they remembered that we’d once had a Frenchman play for us ("Ginola! He play for Newcastle!").

I climbed around 200m and then walked down a long, winding road into Tende where I found signs for a G&icarat;te which I followed. EURO18.6 for B&B isn’t too bad when you’re feet are aching and you’ve not slept properly in two nights. I was also lucky to get the last bed - they were full the next night.

The g&icarat;te had a wonderful view, a hostess who spoke English, hot showers and comfy beds (though they squeaked something rotten). I made use of the shower, tidied myself up and went in search of food. I felt I’d earned a decent meal and found the Pizza Fue de Bois fit the cost/meal size bracket very well indeed. Highly recommended! EURO20 including a beer for three very delicious courses indeed. I can’t believe how quickly I went through all the food, including two baskets of bread.

Back at the hostel I got through another four chapters of Harry Potter before donning earplugs (snorer in the bunk above) and plunging into sleep.