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08-Jun * A short visit to Chorges, then to Lac de Selle-Porcon. crossing a peninsula. Finding our way was a bit troublesome, but it turned out just getting down a gulli.Next, following a path that had become very, very muddy, and get along an flooded trench - it had rained a lot in the past weeks and the water of the lake was much higher than normal. * (15 Slides) 09-Jun * We anticipated to walk to the Charbieres peaks,cross a pass in the ridge and walk back along the plain. We climbed the pass, found our way at the bottom of the peaks, but once back on track, found our way blocked by large patches of snow that could not be passed without danger of sliing doen several hunders meters, so we went back and took the easy route back. * (40 Slides) 10-Jun * One of the best days - dry and sunny from the start - after weeks of clouded weather. Our host lead us on a walk to Pic de Morgon, but not straight to the summit, but along another path in the old gletcher bottom, one filled with ice, now snowfree and dry, except for a small lake that may be dry in late summer. The area hoses a lot of marmots. From the cirque, we climbed the South ridge and followed it to the summit, that offers a wide view around. From there, we took another path down, crossed the cirque once more to get beack to the car. During that walk, on the floor of the cirque, it started to rain, but we already had done the best part. * (37 Slides) 11-Jun * Today we visited Gap, starting with the castle and the gardens above the city; After that, we did a small tour through the city; when at the cathedral, a thunderstorm broke loose and we took shelter there. Since it was on out way back, we decided to go the the dam of the lake: Not a concrete one but an earthen dam. The lake it formed is used to produce electricity, and the water used is transported to the Provence for irrigation.. * (57 Slides) 12-Jun * Joined with another couple that stayed in the same buidling, we climbed the moiuntain the village is aned after: Piolit. We drive there by car, parked below the moiuntain on a small patch and zigzagged up the montain, starting in woodland but later on grassy pastures, to a path just down the ridge, until the last part that went up rather steep. But it was worth the climb for the fine views - alas it was a bit cloudy. The walk back followed the ridge to a forest road. We missed a path and came down more eastern than anticipated - so we had to walk another kilometer. There is no map fro this walk - it's not on any map I bought.... * (56 Slides)
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13-Jun * Today we went to Embrun - on the far end of Lac de Selles-Porcon, on the river Durance. On the way back, we took a detour to the Abbey of Boscodon, folllowing the Toorent de Boscodon - another wild river strewaming down the mountains, in a wide, stony watercourse. * (84 Slides) 14-Jun * Today we moved from Les Bernards to the camping site from where we could do the GR56: Camping RioClar, 1.5 kilometers from La Fresquiere, between Meoland and Barcelonette. We took the road following the Lac de Serre-Poncon and then kept in the Ubaye valley - spectacular at times. At the camping site, the receptionist (Annelies, be Belgian girl that found a new life here) contacted the huts - and soon we learned it was not feasable to do our intended walk, due to snowfields and landslides, that required special gear to cross. Gear we dind't have. So we had to change out plans. Annelies supplied us with 19 (!) walks in the neighbourhood that we could do instead, without risking getting stuck halfway. So we started out with a first walk to Barcelonette, first back to Meolans to cross the river, and then on the Southern side to Barcelonette, and along the road back. We were told it was about 8 kilometers, but it was closer to 10... * (49 Slides) 15-Jun * This route covers part of the GR56 we intended to walk, Fouillouse would have been place to stay overnight. The weather was cloudy and not very warm, but it started out dry, But the higher we got the Col de Vallonnet, the more rainy it got, and on the walk back it was slightly raining at times. A lot of rains means a lot of water flowing down the mountains, making is hard to cross streams at times, and stones rolling with the stream ruin the borders, washing away bridges, as we encountered. This is chamois country and we encountered two - one fled fast over a ridge, the other went the same way we walked for a time but then crossed an area with loose chips and went off site. Fouillouse is a no-car area, it's a very narrow, winding road to get there, and you have to park outside the village. A lot of people seem to walk, when we set off, the parking lot was quite full, but by the time we got back, it was almost empty. * (73 Slides) 16-Jun * Today we walked to the Col de Roburent, just across Italian border. We could go along three nice lakes and return by road. Again, when starting off the weather wasn't that bad but by the day, it got wetter, and, more important, windier and colder. By the time we got to the summit, it was just over freezing point (centigrade), we met some wanderers wearing hats and gloves. They told us the route on the Italian side was rather fine until the lower lakes bet beyond that, it might get very difficult to pass. It was better to return the same way. Well, almost. A track we couldn't find going up, was easy to follow going down. * (45 Slides) 17-Jun * We left La Fresqière because the weather turned for the worst: Cold and rainy, not the nicest type of weather you would expect in Southern France this time of year, and not really the type to make walks in the mountains. We headed up to Houffalize in Belgium, in the lower parts of the Ardennes. On our route we passed Briancon - a nice town with a medieval centre and citadel. * (60 Slides)
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18-Jun * A day's walk taken from the booklet on the Ardennes we took with us. It lead us over hills and along * (1 Slides) 19-Jun * There are two rivers named Ourthe - The Eastern (Ourthe Oriental) and Western (Outhe Occidental); close from where these two meetm a dam is build to control the flow downstream (to prevent flooding and damage) and produce electricity. Today's wal lead us from Grande Mormont. over the rolling hills to Filkly and from there to the confluence of the two rivers, with a sidestep to the Barrage de Nisramont, over a ridge bove the forest. The way to this ridge was mainly over the rolling hills, but the way back followed the Ourthe Oriental back to our starting point. * (45 Slides) 20-Jun * Today's walk was aslo taken from the booklet on the Ardennes we took with us, and could find it on the map; only, we ealked it the other way round because we missed the first bend. Starting at the War monumnet inWibrin: a badly hit Sherman tank, we would go over the hills, through farmland and woodland, to another place. From there, we would have to find our way, missed a sign and got stuck in shribs that got denser and denser, until we hed to head back and find out way. We finally did, and it rurned to be a steep descent to the river. We followed it a long way, crossed it where the bridge once was, over a imrpivised bridge. In Achouffe we had coffee in a restaurant near a fishery,we followed it's beds and headed though the Vallee des Fees (Valley of the Fairies) that was ruined by forest work, until we came back at out starting point: The curch in Wibrin. * (44 Slides) Here you will find all tracking files in Garmin's own gdb format, in the generic .gpx format and the basic .csv format
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(c) 2008 Willem Grooters, Rita ter Steege