Frankly, given yesterday's experience, and with the bad weather in the forecast, I wasn't sure how much interest there would be. And the team's resolve hadn't exactly been strengthened by the reaction of the baker from whom we bought our lunch. After we told him our hiking plans, he looked at us with what seemed like a tinge of disbelief and then started to laugh. Not quite what one would call a vote of confidence. But at least he wasn't polishing a scythe while laughing at our plans, something which happened to me once several years ago in Ticino in the Swiss Alps!
The Sentier Bastidonne is, like the other hikes in the Verdon gorge, beautiful, but unlike them, doesn't go near the water. There were a few passages secured with cables, but overall it was much easier than the Sentiers Imbut and Vidal. Here's one of the more difficult moments:
After lunch, which we ate in the car while a light drizzle fell outside, I asked Jean-Paul and Joseph what they wanted to do: hike up to the plateau as planned (risking a worsening of the weather), or drive off with Françoise to the hotel. After an ambiguous pause (possibly because each was waiting for the other to say, let's go back with Françoise), they both said they wanted to hike, thereby relieving me of all responsibility for what subsequently happened (a stance I'm prepared to defend in court if needed ;-).
About 5 minutes into the 450m climb up to the plateau (at 1250m) the drizzle turned into light hail... which continued for most of the next four hours:
At times it was more heavy than light, and it eventually got cold enough to settle on the ground without melting:
We got cold too, and when the plateau turned into a roller-coaster ridge walk, with some fairly steep ascents and descents over largely bare, and slippery, rock, the wind picked up, the hail intensified, and I got a little worried. I had done the hike before, so I knew the trail wasn't too tough, and it is hard to get lost on a ridge, but I didn't know how far we still had to go and the conditions were pretty bad: if anyone had injured themselves, it could have been a serious situation (although I did have a bivvy sack and other emergency gear with me).
In the midst of one of the most difficult stretches, Joseph was heard to mutter "Ça me fait chier!", which translates, more or less, as "This sucks!" He was right, by the way: it was pretty unpleasant. And on top of that, his feet were killing him (blisters, Morton's), he was exhausted (from the cold and poor hiking technique due to inexperience), and he was slipping all over the place. He said afterwards that he either thought he would die, or wanted to die... he wasn't quite clear which. But when he saw that Jean-Paul had overheard him and was cracking up, he laughed too... so it can't have been too bad.
We finally came down to Moustiers around 5:30PM, having started hiking at 9:45AM, soaked and cold, but in good spirits, as the following photos show:
A pretty awesome four-day hike, actually. And a pretty awesome pair of people to hike with. Jean-Paul, an iron-man, always in good spirits, always looking out for others, and Joseph, on his first long hikes for decades, doing trails that would have made many experienced hikers blanch, and despite serious foot problems neither complaining nor quitting. As they say in France, "Chapeau!".
