Saturday 6th September: Magnificent sunny day: 5°C to 25°C:
Cabane du Mont Fort to Le Chable: 18.2k: 8.00am to 12.30 and 2.30pm to 3pm: Total of 5hrs
Accommodation: Chambre d’Hote Les Acacias, Le Chable
Sunrise over Mont Blanc
Mont Blanc in full sunlight
Where ever we look it's stunning
Walking your dogs in Switzerland
Old water trench built in 1450
Coffee by water spout with view
1800 metres downhill - Le Chable
25°C and lunch in the shade
Montagnier - village in Valley
Our BnB - our washing in front
Verbier high up on mountain side
Our Chambre d'Hote - Les Acacias
Cup of tea and biscuits on the patio
Another stunning day. The rain has cleared and we awake to a beautiful sunny day with a magnificent view of Mont Blanc. We descend 1800 metres from Cabane Mont Fort to Le Chable in the Bagnes Valley, a pretty walk through pine forests with intermittent views of the valley and alps.
We're up early and packed before breakfast of toasted muesli, bread and jam. The tea is super hot and served by the young warden with a smile. The Americans are packed ready to go. The Swiss couple are still in bed. The view from the dining room of Mont Blanc is picture post card stuff. The rain has cleared and it's blue skies. Demi pension, dinner, bed, and breakfast is 178 Swiss Francs. That's about $200AUD and we only need to buy lunch. Our cost per day has been about $125AUD per person. That's good as tour companies for these trips charge $400AUD pp pd. It's a tad more than a few years ago now we're walking in Switzerland which is more expensive but nothing really in the scheme of things.
It's 5°C as we leave in the shade - it's sunny but the sun has yet to clear the mountain tops. Down past the ski lift, we follow the signs to Clambin - one of many villages scattered throughout the mountainsides. At first we follow a contour around the mountain side where the walking track is next to a water trench built in 1450 to carry glacial water to the villages. A wheeled sled with 10 harnessed dogs goes whizzing by.
Walking along tracks, roads, footpaths, cow paths and bike trails, we turn downhill into the pine forests . It's cold, shady but beautiful with the sun on the opposite side of the valley. An hour later and the sun is on us and the instant warmth shoots the temperature from 5°C to 12°C. After 2hrs we reach the village of Clambin - about 10 chalets on a grassy ledge. Time for coffee by the water trough. And then it's down and down. We're aiming for a Prarreyer, a village near Le Chable where Ian has booked an BnB.
At 12.30pm we're at the bottom of the valley at Montagnier, a small village at 800 metres between Le Chable and our BnB in Prarreyer, and the lowest we’ve been. There's no shops where we're going, so we detour to Le Chable, only to find the local Migros partner is closed until 2pm. It's 25°C and warm, almost hot in the sun, so we find a shady tree with a view of the supermarket and have lunch of leftovers. One and a half hours later, we've eaten all the food we carried - stale bread, dried meat and cheese - and we've planned the next 3 days. We're back in familiar territory now, and decide to take a slight detour around Le Grandes Glacier. This means in two days time we'll need to stay in Argentiere - a 23k walk - or 15k to the Col de la Balme – home of the witch of the Balme. We decide on the longer walk to Argentiere.
By 2pm, the Migros opens and we stock up with enough food for a picnic tonight and lunch for the next two days. It seems to weigh 4kg (including a bottle of red) as we distribute the goodies between our backpacks - I take the large volume things, lettuce and bread, Ian takes the small heavy stuff, meat and cheese. It's almost hot as we head off up the valley for a 2k half hour walk to our BnB.
Prarreyer is a small village in the Bagnes Valley, 1.5k from Le Chable, with a sawmill, and our BnB called Les Acacias is 400 metres up from the main road. It's easy enough to find, but there's no one home at 3pm, so we walk around the back to find a hand written note on the unlocked glass door for us to go on in. It's a twin bed room with a patio and lovely view over the valley. Showering and washing are a priority as the sun is only an hour away from setting over the mountains. All done when the owners arrive and insist on making us a cup of tea with home made biscuits. Then it's time to book the next 3 days. Champex, Argentiere and Chamonix and that will be the finale of our Zermatt to Chamonix walk which has just gotten better and better. Then it's time to relax and catch up with emails - it's the first WiFi we've had in 3 days. At 7pm, we roll out our picnic, together with our bottle of red and a beer bought from the owner. The US open is on TV - our first TV in a week. Today is as good as a day off