I left at 8.00, but after grocery shopping and sending my map of France back to the Netherlands, and walking back to the campsite which was on the way to my actual route, it was 9.00 by the time I left. And almost immediately started zigzagging up the mountain, almost constantly climbing, so steep I was happy when I found 10m of almost flat terrain, that felt like a break. I think I saw a chamois, and again felt pissed for not having my camera. But I could enjoy more and more of a view of the valley I came out of. I so love the mountains. Though the constant climbing was very tiring, but hey, I'm training, so I have to. Took short breaks at a stream (cooling my feet was very welcome) and near the cable car station where they sold ice cream (I had watched that cable car from the campsite, was fun to see the top station too). After some 900m of climbing the path finally became less steep and actually almost relaxed. I did start to feel slightly lightheaded, but I don't know if that was because of the height, of my paranoia about the height, or just the physical fatigue of all that steep climbing, or it being almost impossible to eat enough to fuel that. Anyway. I took a break at the pass at 1858m, which was to be the highest point of today; but then I could walk 40min more to 2004m. So I got stubborn. More climbing, more getting used to the height, and being on an actual top instead of the pass. Was awesome, brilliant view all around. But the path down on the other side was incredibly steep, it took over an hour and 350m down to find an actual path again. I was very glad I had my poles, without them I would have fallen several times.
So down it was, and I was tired, and got very soon very tired of all this steep descending. But I had to, there was no place to sleep - or anything else, no restaurant or even tiny villages for a long time. In the end I decided I was too tired to make it to the campsite and planned to catch a train there. But then I encountered a sign saying "Pilgerherberg 20min". Apparently I had reached a camino again. So I figured, I'm exhausted, my legs have been shaking for hours, I'm just going to see if they'll let me in, as I'm not a religious pilgrim and I'm also going to Rome, not Santiago. The answer was yes. So now I'm in a very cute wooden house, and glad I did not have to put up my tent when I was so tired. They also had dinner for me, which was also very welcome. Nice people to talk to, though speaking a lot of German is tiring. And I'm sleeping in a bed tonight, under a roof, which is nice given is started raining again.

Stats:
15.7km
Min altitude 700m
Max altitude 2004m
Up 1375m
Down 1398m

Again, I'll fix the exact locations and route later.

Geschreven door Jewaontheroad