Aire de bivouac - Col du Bonhomme - Col des Fours - La Ville des Glaciers - Refuge des Mottets - Col de la Seigne
Day 1 - @loulou1987/tour-du-mont-blanc-day-1-qzuevn
I am waking up exactly as expected - with ringing of cow bells. My t-shirt is still wet, I need toilet but still, everything seems to be wonderful. The nature is just perfect.
We are having breakfast and setting off afterwards. Walking for about 5,5 km and 700 elevation metres up doesn´t sound as a piece of cake and we cannot go very quickly, which I actually don´t mind because I can watch the beauty of the landscape.
There are quite many people on our way, the reason may be also a very nice weather, and we are loosing Dan who wants to go his own pace.
Finally, we are reaching a mountain pass, having a rest and eating some snacks from our backpacks. Dan is just coming to join us. The trail is just great because of meeting still the same people and if your ways just get divided, you can be sure you will meet again somewhere on the track.
We are lying on the sun for about an hour and trying to get some energy. In the meantime, there are people coming and leaving. We are slowly starting to climb another mountain again. I would like to attract your attention to the mountain on the following photo and I would like to emphasize that at that point, we have done about 6 km and more than 700 elevation metres.
It still takes some time to get around the mountain.
After other ascending, we are getting to orange coloured rocks - Col de Fours. The view of the surroundings is just wonderful from this point.
We are having a short break after a demanding ascent and I am getting enthusiastic as there is a long descent before us. Together with Dan, we are running down the first part as it just feels more comfortable. We are stopping almost on the lower part of the trail as we are watching chamois pasturing the alpine grass.
We are filtering the water from the stream and descending on. The landscape is slowly changing, a rough rocky terrain is replaced by soft green grass.
We are crossing a rocky stream bed which is spreading over several tens of meters.
And we are admiring the alpine flora.
The way down takes us about several hours, we are crossing pastures and when waiting for the rest of our group, we are lying on the grass and having some rest.
In the evening, we are reaching a cottage where we are having some beer and tasting French cheese. We are talking to other tourists. All of them are relaxed and satisfied with their todays performance because for them, the cottage is the final station for today.
It is only us who is filling in the water, putting on jackets and going up to our next "accommodation". Today, it is a mountain pass in the height of 2500 metres, which means to ascend more than 600 metres. I don´t feel like doing that at all, I am pretty tired and I would love to stay somewhere in the valley but any kind of camping is forbidden here. So, we are slowly going up.
The higher we are, the more beautiful views we are getting but I am so exhausted that I just can´t admire them. Taking some magnesium, I hope it will be possible for me to get to our final stop. I am swearing for myself, later on also loudly. The guys are far ahead and nobody can hear me. I am trying to persuade them to stay somewhere here but they don´t care and continue.
It is getting dark. Yes, there is really something special about the sunset. And now, I would like to get back to the mountain I was emphasizing at the beginning of my post. The mountain can be seen on the photo below, just in the middle (the pyramide shape with a cube on the top). It is really unbelievable that we started somewhere behind this mountain this morning.
After 2 hours and 4 kilometers, we are finally coming up. I am really grateful to the guys that they ignored my whining and that they pushed me to come up to here. We have all the mountains within our reach and the sunrise will be just amazing.
As there is a strong wind, we are setting our place for sleeping in the middle of a small hill in some ruins which might be protecting us from the strongest wind gusts.
Accompanied by the moon, we are preparing and having dinner. Afterwards, we are watching the sky full of stars which is not disturbed by any light smog. The temperatures are much more lower than in the valley.
We are setting our alarm clocks not to miss the sunrise and are going to sleep. Today, we have done 21 kilometers, 1925 metres up and 934 metres down.