Pete's Blog - Week 7(a)
We were now in the land of wild lavender and chirping crickets. Our climb out of St. Etienne de Tinée to the ski town of Auron ( 1620m ) was mainly on roads and steep dusty tracks. We met our Tiverton friends here, Terry, Jenny and Chris, who would walk with us to Menton. So now there were seven of us.
It was a fairly gentle first walk for them via the Col de Blainon ( 2011m ) to our gîte, a converted old primary school in Roya ( 1500m ) where a couple of local shepherds were having their monthly ( pastis ) drinking session late in to the night! I'm also afraid that there was to be a dramatic increase in the amount of beer and wine drunk by us from now on!
It was to be a long walk the next day to the remote Gîte de Longon (1883m) via the Col de la Crousette
( 2480m ) and Col de Mulinés ( 1982m ). We followed the Sellevielle torrent up through a deep gorge and emerged onto a plain full of sheep and goats ( 2500 of them ) with their bergers ( shepherds ) and patous ( sheepdogs ). Cont - 7b