Pete's Blog - Week 6(b)
The path down followed a dry torrent and we then left the GR5 in order to reach our gîte at Maljasset
( 1910m ). The descent was very hard and would make sure that Josiane had aching legs for the next few days! We had great food at the gîte supplied by a superb young Frenchman and his Australian wife ( who had only been in France for 6 months and had a toddler to cope with! ).
Our next stage was to Fouillouse ( 1907m ) and was mainly along a road which crossed a gorge ( 100m drop to the Ubaye river ) and then passed through a tunnel. Sue ( who doesn't like snakes ) noticed an adder resting by the path. Fortunately Ivan tried to photograph it and frightened it away!
There was rain during the night and it was quite cold as we left Fouillouse and headed for Larche
( 1670m ) via the Col de Vallonnet ( 2524m ) and Col de Mallemort ( 2558m ). The climbing was easy as passed we a huge flock of penned in sheep ( to protect them from wolves! ) and old Maginot line fortifications. We were to see a large number of forts and military buildings during the coming days as we were walking very close to Italy. Cont - 6c