Day 6 - Rifugio Bonatti - Grand Col Ferret - La Fouly

Today was hump day. We passed the halfway mark. My knee was a little sore, but beyond that, I was feeling strong. This may have been partially due to breakfast. In addition to the usual toast, hot cocoa and such, we also had fruit. Granted it was canned, but fruit of any kind is a luxury on a trek.

We were following a large group of Americans who were traveling extremely light. Jealous of their lack of load, we wondered if they were day hikers. Upon reaching the top, we were surprised at the true enormity of the group. There were over forty people milling about who were on a guided tour of the Alps that took seven days, lots of bus transfers and guides to help carry their belongings. Everything was arranged so they just had to walk. They were very curious and amazed that we were a group of two and unsupervised.

One had to keep a lookout for both the pleasures and perils of the trail. There were quite a few times we had to navigate around electrified fences. Fortunately there were many more times where we could take in the splendor of the wild flowers.

As we finally approached the town of La Foley, there was a crane dredging the river. Instead of watching where I was going, I started watching the crane. This didn’t last long, because quite quickly I was flat on my ass having slipped in the mud.

The story continues...