Total descent, 298m.
Wednesday, 22nd July.
Up up along up up down
I was shattered last night. I lasted a mere 2 amarettos, despite a good chat, then had to make my excuses and go to bed. It was also hard work getting up this morning, but as I staggered out of bed and looked down from the balcony there were two girls playing football in the street. At 7am!
Leaving Hotel Chez Isabel was hard. As I haven't actually paid any deposits for the places I'm staying in I did contemplate abandoning the walk so I could spend 9 more days drinking amaretto and watching the world go by. But as I watched the family dog circling my rucksack and growling at it for the umpteenth time I knew it was a matter of time before it urinated on it, so it was time to leave.
Today's walk was a relatively easy day, though the ascent was still greater than walking up Ben Nevis. There was though very little descending to do, a relief after yesterday. I was still not quite in the national park but the difference was evident. After a long initial and very pretty climb the path reached a high level plateau, but unlike others I've reached this one was accessible by road, and there were houses up there. Some children shouted "Ciao" at me from a balcony (ciao seems to be used for both hello and goodbye a lot of the time). I shouted "Ciao" back and one of them said, "Bye bye eengleesh". So my accent isn't at the convincing stage yet.
The difference now as I mentioned yesterday is the presence of the alpine huts. Firstly they aren't huts really, they're hostels. And they've all got a bar. And they're all at high level, beautiful locations. I wasn't daft enough to start on the booze at the two I passed today, but had a delicious caffe latte at each. The second was especially welcome as the weather forecast had actually been right for the first time (my 2 chosen apps, Accuweather and Weather Underground, had predicted storms on all 3 days so far). The average temperature on the first two days had been 28 and 29 degrees respectively, but today was only 17, and it plummeted to a frosty 12 at the second hut.
This in turn led to an 'exciting moment'. I still had to cross today's col, Fenêtre de Champorcher, which was at 2826m (9272ft) by some distance the highest of the three cols so far. It was grey and getting cooler but not raining so I thought the sooner the better. It took an hour to get there and towards the top I noticed the altitude for the first time (I needed more breathers and kept yawning! Jen sent me a message last night reminding me to breathe - not my strongest point).
It was not an attractive col due to the power line that passed over it, and right on top was a pylon. The thunder was rumbling nearby to my left now and I really didn't want to be near the pylon for longer than I had to be. However I was knackered and had to stop for a minute at the top to get my breath back, which was fine until the power lines started crackling really loudly. I have no idea whether this is normal but it scared me to death and was closely followed by a massive crack of thunder. But there was no visible lightning and no rain. I was off the col like a shot and descended the 300 metres to the hut below as if yesterday never happened.
And that's where I am now, staying in Refugio Peradza Sogno di Berdzé, which at 2531m is surely the highest place I've ever stayed. It's in a stunning location but when I arrived I wasn't bothered. I haven't slept well so far due to the heat so was looking forward to somewhere cooler (surely?!). I started by going straight to my dorm for a nap (I was here by 3:30pm). When I woke up I had a shower and wandered outside, and my surroundings now looked like this...
So after a lovely meal and some red wine I'm ready to adapt my entire lifestyle. I'm a good evening person and a terrible morning person, but lights out here is at 10 and breakfast is at 7, so I'll need to be up at the ungodly hour of 6:15. This will definitely be an advantage tomorrow if I can cope with the change. Better squeeze in another swift one then.
-- Posted from Kev's iPhone
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