This beautiful stage through the Alps starts at 1900 meters which immediately makes the landscape very open. After a bit of climbing, the route goes between rocky mountains including Mont Thabor, from 2439 meters to 1761 meters at the small village of Les Granges. From there, the route rises for a final climb to Col des Thures at 2203 meters. This is a flat col with large grassy plains where sheep and donkeys graze. The final descent is on a path with lots of loose gravel and grit. The stage ends at the small town of Névache.
In the morning, a little later than we're used to, we are dropped off at the parking lot at Le Lavoir. We had a few lovely days with Mark's parents at the camping site in Modane. So completely refueled again we set off. We say goodbye and immediately begin a tough climb.
We've already did quite a bit of ascending in the previous stage, but clearly there's still plenty left. We start at 1,945 meters altitude so we quickly get above the tree line. After 2.5 kilometers we are already above 2,300 meters and we walk into a beautiful large valley where alpine marmots frequently run past us. Every time a bird of prey comes flying over, the marmots make a whistling sound to warn each other. They are real fatties at this time of year, but by spring, after hibernation, there'll be little left of that.
Higher up, the landscape around us becomes a lot rockier and barer. It's quite a difference from the lovely Park Vanoise, which we walked through a few days ago. This is also very beautiful though, it looks a lot more raw. We pass Mont Thabor, a big mountain peak of 3,178 meters high, walk along some beautiful lakes and then arrive at the highest point of today's hike: Passo di Valle Stretta at 2434 meters. This is also the border of the departments of Savoie and Hautes-Alps. Here we start the descent, of about 700 meters. We walk along beautiful streams and several lakes until we reach the woods again. Here we take a good break: we dry the tent, make a cup of coffee and enjoy the beautiful view.
This valley was Italian for a long time. Only in 1947, by the Treaty of Paris, was it annexed to France. Virtually everyone we meet greets us with "ciao" and "bongiorno". The only inhabited hamlet in this valley we walk through, Les Granges, is officially French, but everything is first stated in Italian. It turns out that all the private land is owned by Italians and all the municipal land has been returned to the neighboring Italian municipality. So it's a littlevpiece of Italy in France... After this village we follow the route up steeply again, from the 1,800 meters in the village we'll hike to 2,240 meters again. These are narrow zigzag paths that still go through forests until fairly high up. We notice that ascendings are actually getting easier. Apparently our muscles are quite used to the high mountains by now. At the top we walk over Col des Thures. Unlike most of the other cols we have been to, this is a wide plain full of yellow grass between two high mountain peaks. Here we see sheep, goats and donkeys grazing, which can munch on some fresh grass at the end of the season, before heading back down into the valleys. Of course, they are in the middle of the trail again, so with a large bow we walk around them. We see that another hiker after us goes right through them and gets to the other side without any problems, but given last week's experience we still prefer to choose the safe route.
The descent that follows quickly brings us back among the trees and we walk along magnificent canyons with impressive monoliths, steeply down stone slopes. In the forest edge, we briefly spot a large deer. He stands still for a moment and then decides to run away quickly. At the bottom of the slope in the valley lies the village of Névache, where our campsite is located. A nice municipal campground with beautiful views of the mountains around us and beautifully situated along the little river la Clarée. It's already 6pm. when we pitch the tent, so tonight we don't have much more to do than shower, cook and sleep...
