Day 19: Ceillac 6th July

Wednesday 6th July: Blue skies and more blue skies, 8°C to 22°C

Maljasset to Ceillac: 16k walk: 8.20am to 3.20pm: 7 hrs

Accommodation: Hotel La Cascade, Ceillac

French chef Hubert and Australian wife Klyte

Back to La Barge

Half way up, La Barge in valley

Goats at the top

Graham helps Jenny on shaly track

Col de Girardin is up there

View from Girardin of Queyras alps

Coffee at the top

Queyras alps, st Anne Lake

More views from the top

And again.

Jenny and Graham arrive at top after hard slog

Another stunning blue sky day in the alps. It can't get any better! Highlight of the day was getting to the top of the Girardin at 2700 metres, a very steep climb up 800 metres from Maljasset. And the views were absolutely stunning.

There's 4 of us crammed in a small dorm, so when one wakes at 6am, we're all awake. Time to have a shower, pack and go down to an early breakfast. A big day ahead - not long, just steep and very high. Breakfast is bread and jam, and unfortunately luke warm coffee. We say good bye to Hubert and Klyte, pay the bill and collect 2 picnic lunches. We've had picnic lunches before - mostly they consist of a small container of cous cous sprinkled with a few green peas, a few bits of bread, an apple and a chocolate and muesli bar. And today's was the same, so we supplemented it with a hunk of cheese from yesterday and shared it around.

Klyte suggested that the best track up to the Col du Girardin was to retrace our steps back down the road to La Barge, instead of climbing the steep track behind Maljasset. So at 8.20am we're walking down the road to find the GR5 turn off. It starts steep and gets steeper. After 1 hour, Ian and I are ahead, and we cross a very steep shaly rock fall where the track is broken away, slippery with rolling stones, and a 200 metre drop off. I scamper through, Ian tip toes through and decides to wait for Jenny, as he thinks it will be a challenge for her. We wait 45 minutes, and when they get to this steep shaly crossing, Jenny freaks out and Graham scores a heap of brownie points by helping her across and even carrying her back pack over the skinny track.

We're now up about 500 metres and the track crosses a level meadow before rising sharply to the bare top we can see in the distance. Up the zig zag track to the Col di Girardin at 2700 metres, and the views are breathtaking - snow capped alps across to the Queyras. The usual Col sign is missing, but undeterred, I find a biro and write a makeshift sign signalling Girardin, 2700 m. The skies are blue, it's not cold, not windy, not raining, and we perch on a rock to have a coffee while waiting for Graham and Jenny who arrive later, somewhat mentally exhausted from the hairy scary track lower down.

It's so beautiful, it's hard to leave, but after dozens of photos we step down the other side which is steep but not as steep as the track up from La Barge. There's many hikers on the track today, some on the GR5 going north, some going south but also many day hikers who have parked on the Ceillac side and walked up to the col, a much easier route but still a 1100 m climb. Likewise, we now have 1100 m descent. Thirty minutes later we pass Lake St Anne where there's dozens of hikers having lunch. It's 12.30pm, a bit too early for lunch, so we continue through the forest on a track lined with flowers to Lake Mirror, a brown lake at the bottom of snow capped mountains that sometimes reflect in the lake, but not today with the slight breeze creating ripples. It's a good spot for lunch - shared cous cous, bread and cheese.

The track down is steep and stony and after 2 hrs of slipping and sliding we see the little village of Pied du Mezelet below in the valley. There's only 4 places there so our Hotel La Cascade has to be one of them. We walk to the bridge up stream and then hear the thunderous water fall they call The Cascades, with water tumbling 200 metres over the edge, hitting rocks below then cascading down. There's a picnic table near the Cascades and we stand long enough to shoo away the only person sitting there so we can have a cup of Jetboiled tea. It’s just 100 metres across to the Hotel La Cascade, where we each have a double room. There's a TV in the bedroom where we watch the last hour of the Tour de France.

An hour of washing and blogging and we're down having a drink in the bar waiting for dinner at 7.30pm. After a few drinks and a few peanuts, we're not hungry and settle for shared lamb chops and green salad. Then it's bed.