<reminder: photos now available at:
http://www.flickr.com/search/groups/?q=h2h&m=names
>
Saturday, Sept 22nd, 2007
A big day in a couple of ways. To begin with, this is the three month anniversary of the start of the H2H. Three months... that means we have been hiking for a quarter of a year! And the longest break I have taken has been two and a half days in Montreux: no wonder I sometimes feel tired!
Second there was a fair amount of "hidden" altitude in today's hike: i.e., ups and downs that weren't visible on the map. As a result despite the fact that we by now walk much faster than the estimates assume, the hiking time was almost 7 hours, and by the end of it everyone was flagging. Russ's knee was acting up again. Sally's shin-splints ditto, and her feet were aching My partially ingrown toenail was a significant irritation, and having run out of water about an hour and a half before the end of the hike didn't help things either.
It was a hot day and when this parched trio arrived at Belvedere we headed straight for a cafe and ordered a total of seven drinks plus a large bottle of mineral water, much to the amusement of the owner.
A nice little village, Belvedere, but with way too many cars parked on its few navigable streets and an astoundingly loud church bell tolling the hours. The French habit of ringing the bell for a second time two minutes after the hour (perhaps in case you lost count the first time?) was not appreciated.
After rehydrating we set off to try to find our Gite. The fellow I spoke with when making the reservation had said that he would be away and that he'd leave the door open, so when we arrived at a place named "Gite Communal" and with the reception closed we thought we had arrived. It was only after entering the building and wandering through an appartment whose door happened to be open that it sunk in that this couldn't be the place. Luckily the owners weren't around.
One phone call, and a follow up question and answer session with a couple of women on the street, later and we arrived at the correct Gite... to find our mother there waiting for us. She, apparently, had had less trouble finding the place than us. So much for my supposed French language competence :-).
The Gite leaves me, thus far, with contradictory impressions. On the one hand I have to duck to go through most of the doors as well as in the bunkroom, and it smells a little of mildew, breakfast is not offered, and the toilets are outside and have no seats.
On the other hand there is outdoor seating, a couple of additional rooms for us to use, cooking facilities, and very pleasant and welcoming owners. On balance I guess that it is a good way of showing our mother how we have been living for much of the past three months.
This is, by the way (I worked it out during my middle of the night wakeful period) the 28th Gite / Refuge that we have stayed so far on the H2H. I believe that I am not misrepresenting Sally's sentiments when I say that for her this is around 27 too many.
Dinner was in a charming little pizza restaurant perched on the edge of a cliff in the fortunately thoroughly sanitized, premises of a former abattoir Unfortunately it will be closed Sunday night, and there is nowhere else to eat in Belvedere, so we are lucky that with Mum's car we are mobile and can go down to the valley town of Roquebilliere to have dinner.
Four days more hiking to Monaco!!
