This last stage to the Mediterranean, again on the GR52, involves two cols. From Sospel, the trail goes fairly quickly into the forests until Colla Bassa at 1108 meters. From here the forests become more open and the trail descends a bit on a wider path to later rise to the last col before the sea: Col de Berceau at 1050 meters. With beautiful views, from here the route descends to Menton. Through Menton, small paths are followed to the coast.
There it is, the last stage to the Mediterranean! It feels a bit strange, especially because it starts like any other stage. We get up early, at half past six it is still pitch dark when we get out of our tent. While Mark takes care of breakfast, Malou cleans up some stuff in the tent and after breakfast Mark goes into the tent to clean up the airbed, sleeping bag, pillows and finally the tent itself. Malou packs her bag and stuff outside. This is how we have done it since the beginning, every morning and it works fine for us.
Around 8 o'clock we walk off the campsite towards the village of Sospel, a stretch of about 3 kilometers that we have walked many times over the last few days. We have views of the high mountains with barren peaks all around us, but the vegetation and gardens we walk past already have a real Southern European feel. Banana trees, fig trees, an occasional palm and bamboo adorn the flower beds. It is still chilly outside and the sun has just risen, but this already feels wonderfully warm.
Once we arrive in Sospel, we cross the old bridge and make a quick stop at the boulangerie. Of course we take two chausson aux pommes for the last break. From the village we walk past the station. At first we still go on a small asphalt road, but then the road quickly becomes unpaved. At the bottom we see several Jeeps parked and a little further on our suspicions are confirmed. It is Saturday today and here and there hunters in orange vests with big guns are sitting along the path waiting for an animal to pass by. We greet them and ask if it's no problem to walk on and fortunately it doesn't hurt, so we assume the hunting is limited to the forest below us.
Soon we are walking up small trails that turn away from this area and through steep woods that are on old terraces, the trail heads uphill. Along the way we pass a number of farms that maintain and operate these old terraces well, still reaping the benefits of the work done by their ancestors. As soon as we re-enter the woods we hear bells ringing. Hmmm, a flock of sheep in the woods? Surely it sounds slightly different and the sound gets closer and closer. A lady with a couple of dogs comes walking around the corner. She has tied bells on the dogs because of hunting also here in the woods. She indicates that hunters are still active here and also above usand tips us to make noise or talk loudly so they know we are walking there. So talking loudly we arrive at the top of the first col. Since this one is well below the tree line at just 1100 meters, we are in the middle of the woods here. By now we have walked almost 10 kilometers and have set our sights on making a break at the last col of the hike. There we hope to have some more views. After this first col, we do notice that the climate here is warmer than in the mountains. The forests become more vast and we see more and more large oak and olive trees around us. We get more and more views of the slopes where here and there are beautiful houses and farms among the vegetation.
As we walk towards the last col it starts to get cloudy. The last part up is quite a climb. The paths are a bit slippery from the fog, through which we walk more and more. Fragments of cloud that pass by make sure that when we arrive at the top it is completely sealed and we have no view at all towards the sea. This is the last col, so we expected to have a nice view of the Côte d'Azur during the break. A little disappointed, we put up the chairs, take the burner out of the backpack to make a cup of coffee and put on our down jackets, because at this altitude in the fog it is pretty chilly. As soon as we pour the water, we see through the white fog whiter stripes appearing a lot lower in front of us. Hey... those look like boats! We get up, walk towards the edge, look down and see the sea a few kilometers away and 1100 meters below us. The clouds begin to break open and more and more we see the mountains on the coast of Menton. Wow, how magnificent! We realize that down there is the end point of our trip, quite a strange sensation.
