The horse is amazing, despite the catastrophe of last night she is up and ready to go with the larks. After the incident with the rope we had decided to let her just graze freely and over a very light breakfast (just water for us) she happily mooched around the tent.
In St Crepin we stocked up on bandages and more good coffee before starting our morning climb. This time on deserted narrow roads. Today's gorge is fore-shortened at Pallon where the silver miners had the good sense to put in a real bridge.
High above Pallon we have another of those forks to think about..the broad track snaking slowly up the hill or the narrow direct route. This time we opt for the narrow route. Quickly the route begins to flank the steep hillside with the hill sloping steeply away below. The track becomes to narrow to turn Nellie and so our sole option is to go on. This is fine until rock outcrops emerge that reduce the track to inches before falling to the river below. We have no choice but to ask Nellie to go ahead. She is of course reluctant but tries and for one awful moment begins to slither down the hillside before finding grip and recovering the track. We are all scared and do not want to repeat that, but minutes later we are in the same position again. What to do? Try again or try and turn and face the risk of her falling. We decide to choose the devil we know. This time she skips around the outcrop without a thought and we are happy to have to retrace the 3 or 4 lost kilometres to the safer route.
We spend the night in Moulin de Papillon – a gite that caters for Alpinists, hikers and tonight 30 teenager kyakers. The house is full but we can put our tent and Nellie in the Garden and use their kitchen and showers and electicity – a real example to compare with the horror that some people express when faced by a couple of dirty pilgrims.
Le Moulin Papillon
Bénédicte Voruz
rue du Fournel
05120 l'Argentière la Bessée
Tél : 04 92 21 85 14
Port : 06 83 25 27 95
Mail : moulin-papillon@orange.fr
Today was my son Richard's birthday.
Fame at last!
ReplyDeleteThanks for the gift.
I'm enjoying the blog.
Love,
Rich