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Thursday, Sept 13th, 2007
Dinner at the Refuge in Maljasset was OK, not great, but acceptable. The guardian, however, saved our impression of the place by being extremely helpful the following morning when Christine realized that she had probably left her wallet (and passport, and credit cards, and...) in Ceillac (shades of Sally on the first day).
The guardian called the Matefaim, explained where the wallet might be, then when it had been found, called a taxi service and arranged for him to pick it up and bring it (the hour and a quarter drive) to Maljasset. It meant that we didn't start hiking until after 11AM, but since it was a short day it didn't really matter. And of course Christine was mightily relieved :-).
The hike was a simple up and over the Col de Mary / Colle Maurin and down the Valle Maira to the village of Chiappera. It was special, however, since this was our first and only time in Italy on the H2H. Sally was particularly pleased since she was able to try out her Italian, both with the guardian of the refuge and with one of our dinner companions. As far as I could tell, she had no problems making herself understood, as well as understanding what they said to her. And for my part it was a pleasure to, for a change, not be the only person who could speak to our hosts.
The Valle Maira is quite spectacular -- towering cliffs, rock spires, huge boulders... quite different, it seemed to me, from the French side. In addition, the refuge served an excellent meal, and a couple of Germans seated next to us told me that they were a little disappointed because they had had a six course meal at another Italian refuge the night before. Hmmm. Maybe I should have planned to spend more time in the Italian Alps? There is apparently a multi-stage hike that has been laid out recently in the Valle Maira... perhaps this is yet another place to come back to....
