Wednesday 22nd June: Blue skies and warm, 16°C to 20°
Moulinet to Col de Turini: 13.8k walk: 8.50am to 2.50pm, 6hrs
Accommodation: Gite L’Estive at Camp d’Argent, Col de Turin:
That's the Col de Turini up there
Better make sure where we are
Hard Rock Cafe - sunlight affected
Views back to the coast
Knee deep in mountain flowers
Magnificent view snow capped Alps
Too good to miss another photo
Col de Turini at 1607m
Lunch under a pine tree at Col
View from L'Estive balcony
Early enough for a cold beer
View from L'Estive window
Line in sun with ALL our clothes
No WiFi, nothing to do but enjoy the view
Honey from Turini
Another magical day in the Mercantour National Park and the highlight of the day was climbing the 900 metres up to Col de Turini at 1607m with relative ease on a well graded path in the cool of a pine forest.
Breakfast is in Jenny and Graham’s room at Villa de Beau Site as they have the kitchenette at 7.30am. We enter just as Graham is getting out of bed naked and getting decent. The fruit and yoghurt bought the previous night with a microwaved cup of coffee is an easy breakfast, and after divvying up the food bag between the four of us, we pack, and say goodbye and thank you to Simone, and we're out the door at 8.50am - our earliest ever this trip. We're anticipating a long hard day climbing up to the Col de Turini.
The walk begins at the back of the Villa de Beau Site, and Simone opens the back gate for us. It's cool and soon it's even cooler as we walk uphill through the shade of the pine forest. After an hour's climbing, with spectacular views back towards Sospel and the coast beyond, we're sweating but it’s still cool and at 10.30am I find a spot for coffee with a bit of sun and shade – the sun to dry Graham’s shirt that he’s now stripped off dripping with sweat and the shade to sit in.
Ian's GPS tracker tells us we've come 3.5k and have climbed 600 metres to 1500m. With such a gradual grade, and walking in the cool of the forest, we're amazed we have made such good time, especially after yesterday’s slow walk on steep tracks in the hot sun.
Another hour and we reach the high point of 1740m with a meadow of mountain flowers and panoramic 360° views around the Alps. Then it's down through a forest track to the lower Col de Turini at 1607m. There's a cluster of 3 Hotels at the Col de Turini, famous for a famous stage of the Monte Carlo Car Rally held every year in January. This road is a dream for driving enthusiasts, with its challenging twists and turns and breathtaking alpine backdrop. All day, we've heard cars and motor bikes buzzing up and down the 37 zig zags on the main road, the D2566, rising from the valley to the Col de Turini. This road is deemed to be one of the most treacherous, but most spectacular roads in the world, hence the attraction of motor bikes and sports cars – and hikers like us to enjoy the pandemonium.
It's only 12.30pm, and because our track through the forest is an easier gradient than the road, we're well ahead of our planned schedule, so time for an early lunch under a shady pine tree around the corner from the hotels at the Col. We've still another 2k to go and my IGN map doesn’t show a walking path, apart from the road, between the Col de Turini and Camp d'Argent where we're heading. But there's a new sign pointing to Camp d'Argent along a walking track just 10 metres to the west of the busy road. It's through the forest in the cool and at 2.50pm we arrive at Gite L'Estive at Camp d'Argent.
Michele, our host, whom I'd been corresponding with is having lunch on the timber balcony enjoying the magnificent views down the valley towards the Mediterranean. We don't need to go to our rooms just yet, we tell her, but a beer would be nice. So we to sit on the balcony with an icy cold beer, admiring the view on this now warm sunny day.
It's almost 4pm when we are shown to our rooms. We're really pleasantly surprised. The rooms are quite basic, but large, with an ensuite and 3 bedsin each room, and the view out the window is amazing. Better still, there's a clothes line just outside the window. In no time we've showered, washed our clothes and have them hung on the line in the breeze. We mightn't see another clothes line for quite a while.
There's no WiFi, so time for a rest with some trip blogging and photo sorting before dinner of a large lasagne at 7.30pm.
Magnificent haze over Mediterranean
Lasagne for dinner
Magnificent dusk