This stage leaves the GR52 and enters the valley via a fast and safe route from the high mountains. The route descends from Baisse de Saint-Véran to Fontan. First over steep meadows, later through forests, then on wider paths followed by small asphalt roads. The route passes through beautiful gorges and largely follows the Vallon de Caïros River.
We kept a close eye on the weather forecasts last night, but they didn't get any better for today. Large amounts of rain and thunderstorms were predicted from 9 a.m. on, making hiking in the mountains unsafe. Fortunately, we found a route that would take us in a good 3 kilometers to a small road towards the village of Fontan, which would allow us to get out of the mountains as safely and quickly as possible.
The rain was predicted from 9 a.m., so at 5 a.m. the alarm went off so that we would have time enough to get to the little road before it erupted. But at 5 o'clock it was still so dark and cold that we couldn't resist pressing the snooze button once, and after thankfully staying dry all night, just now during the snooze, it starts ticking on the tent... Aiii, that's 4 hours early! We pack our things in the tent, take off the inner tent and also clear away the groundsheet. We stay dry under the outer tent until it gets a little light. It is still raining quite heavily and it is gray with fog around our little tent when we finally fold up our outer tent and with rain jackets on and rain covers over our backpacks we set off. We have to walk back a bit to Baisse de Saint-Véran, where we begin the descent. We slept last night at almost 2000 meters and about 500 meters down we walk out of the fog a bit. It is still raining a bit as we carefully descend over the steep grasslands toward the trailhead. The mountains around us are still shrouded in fog and clouds and everywhere you can hear the roar of burling deer coming from. Sometimes deafening and as many as dozens at a time, without being able to see them. A bizarre, surreal phenomenon. It seems as if the mountains have come to life! When we have sunk a little lower and get a better view of the hill opposite us, we suddenly see one deer after another running. We see the red deer males with giant antlers and a female deer frolicking around them. We hear loudly the antlers banging against each other as two males fight over the "spoils. Incredibly, it's like being in the middle of a National Geographic documentary. We descend, head into the woods, and over slippery paths we fortunately arrive at the road in one piece after 3 kilometers. Occasionally it rains, but that doesn't matter much now, this road runs well. It's another 14 kilometers through the valley of the river Ruisseau de Fromagine. Now there is almost no water in it, but again the river beds show how dangerous a lot of precipitation in the mountains can be. Whole sections of road have been swept away and big old trees lie uprooted in the riverbed. The nice thing about the rain, though, is that whole other animals come out again. We see several fire salamanders crossing the road and the biggest toad we have ever seen tries to climb up an old stone wall along the road. As we continue toward the valley, the vegetation begins to look more Mediterranean again. Olive, fig and banana trees are delightfully green in the slopes due to the showers. Giant bushes of rosemary and creeping thyme bloom in the verges.
We walk on at once until we reach the main road in the valley of River Roya. There is no camping in the village here; for that we have to take the train to Sospel for a bit. The route to the station on the other side of the river would have been a lot shorter if we could have crossed the bridge here at the bottom of the valley, but it too was destroyed in the 2020 storm and has not yet been restored. As a result, we have to walk a good mile along a major road to the village of Fontan. But through this we do pass an epicerie that is still open for half an hour just on this Sunday. After four days in the mountains, this is much needed. We walk to the train station which is about 50 meters higher. Unfortunately, the train does not leave for another 2.5 hours, but fortunately we can sit dry here, put on dry clothes and finally have lunch.
Tomorrow we will take a day of rest at the campsite in Sospel to recover from the past intense days in the mountains. The day after tomorrow we will return here to walk the next stage. But first, make sure everything is clean and dry because with all the rain of the past few days, everything has become well damp.
