But the road was open, and so around 10:15 in the morning Françoise dropped us off once more at the north edge of the gorge at the Chalet. Our plan was to do the continuation of the Sentier Martel, called the Sentier de l'Imbut, which goes along the river to a place at which the waters disappear under a jumble of huge boulders from some antediluvian landslide. L'Imbut is wilder and technically more difficult then the Sentier Martel, and, if anything, even more beautiful.
Once at the landslide, we would have two options: we could either return the way we had come, or we could climb out of the gorge on the south side via the Sentier Vidal, walk back to opposite the Chalet de la Maline, go down once more into the gorge, and then climb back up on the north side to the Chalet. I had never hiked the Sentier Vidal before, and knew only that it was supposed to be difficult, so I wanted to see how everyone did with the Sentier Imbut before deciding which way to go. In addition, the forecast was for showers and possibly thunderstorms in the afternoon, and in that case we would probably opt for the shorter hike.
To begin with, we walked down to a footbridge across the river (the only crossing for many miles in either direction), where I took the following photos:
The unusual emerald green colour of the Verdon River comes across particularly well here.
Then we walked along the Imbut trail, at times close to the river, scrambling over and around huge boulders, at times climbing up to walk on natural ledges underneath overhangs, or unnatural ledges cut out of the cliffs, as in the following couple of photos:
We stopped for lunch and considered our options. Jean-Paul and Joseph had had no difficulty with the hike so far, despite Joseph having a slight fear of heights, and the weather was holding up, so we decided to give the Sentier Vidal a try.
Well, we managed it, but it was MUCH more difficult than the Sentier de l'Imbut. The first part was a steep zig-zag climb secured with cables cut into a cliff. There followed a steep and exhausting trail through woods, and then came the most difficult part: a section without cables or other aids that required some climbing skills and the traverse of a narrow ledge across a vertical rock face that even I felt quite uneasy about. Major kudos to Joseph for having crossed it without hesitation or complaint! Then there was another steep climb through woods that left our legs quivering, and one final 10 meter rock face with cables that we just had to pull ourselves up. Definitely one of the more difficult "hiking" trails I've done.
I took a couple of photos on the first cliff, but thereafter was too occupied with getting oxygen and watching / advising the other two, but even the first two photos make clear the difficulty of the trail:
You can tell by Joseph's face and stance that it wasn't really his favorite place to be :-).
The rest of the hike was less challenging, although because our legs had been stressed by the steep climb up, the ensuing descent was exhausting. By the time we got back down to the river again, I think we were all a little wobbly. However, we gathered our remaining strength and raced back up to Chalet de la Maline... doing a signposted 1 hour in 45 minutes... arriving around 6PM. For a day that had been billed (by someone or other :-) as "an easier hike", it had turned out to be quite a challenge!
