Cycling Italy & Hiking the GR5

Tuesday 28th June:  Blue skies and cool to warm, 16°C to 22°C

Roure to Longon: 12k walk: 9.30am to 1.30pm, 4hrs

Accommodation: Refuge de Longon

Today was a most fantastic day walking just 12k from Roure up 800 metres to the Refuge Longon, a vacherie (dairy farm) set in the middle of the high Longon Plateau, smack bang in the middle of the Mercantour park at 2000 metres .  The vacherie has 2 large rooms set aside as a refuge that holds about 40 people and we are the only ones here.  This was one of my favourite walks and favourite refuges.  

We start at 6am with a shower and a trip downstairs to use the WiFi which was only accessible near the office.  The problem was they'd shut the door to the lounge to keep their wines and spirits safe, so I had to sit on the cold steps and balance a computer on my lap.  But the WiFi was fast and reliable.  Our own breakfast is in our room at 8am - some of us arrive much later!!.  I have rice crackers and peanut paste and Ian, Graham and Jenny have left over muesli and powdered milk.  No hurry as it's only 12k today. 

I slip downstairs to pay the bill - 4 meals at a One Star Michelin restaurant with 5 beers and a bottle of wine plus the cost of the overnight at the auberge - almost 400 Euro or $700 AUD - our most expensive night yet but it was fabulous.  Tonight is a basic refuge, so the cost averages out.  We also buy large loaf of home made mountain bread for lunch today from the kitchen at Le Robur.

At 9.30am, we walk through the pretty village of Roure.  I stop to look at the 1914-1918 war memorial at the church.  Everywhere we go, these small villages of several hundred people list the names of 20 to 30 "enfants morts pour la patrie" - young ones who died for their country.  It’s sad when you see so many members of the same family on these memorials.  This one listed 21 people, 6 Bertrands and 4 Mallets.

It’s steep as we walk down the road to a track in the Foret de la Fracha, which follows a flat contour to Rougios, a few mountain huts in a meadow with two streams running through.  At 11.15am we stop for coffee.  It's a choice of sitting under a pine tree that's clearly the ladies loo - many bits of white tissue partly covered with a rock - or under another pine tree with several cows plops.  The former smells better.

Across the meadow and the track climbs steeply, and I'm wondering how the cows, goats, sheep etc climbed this to their summer pasture but clearly they did judging by the droppings on the path.  The views are spectacular and we can see the main valley road between St Sauveur and Isola winding around the River Tinee.  Ian stops to wait for Jenny and I go ahead.  I'm excited to see this Longon Plateau after reading about it and seeing pictures of it all year.  At 1.30pm there's a clearing above me and soon the path runs into a beautiful green hidden valley with sheep grazing, protected by 2 barking mountain dogs.  A good spot for lunch as the refuge must be close.  The mountain bread is nutty and goes well with our left over cheese and 2 tomatoes from St Dalmas.  It's cool in the shade with a mountain breeze.  

Just 2 minutes around the hill is the Refuge/Vacherie, set in this spectacular hidden valley.  Yesterday, Paulin at Roure, told us the family at Longon have sheep, cattle and horses and in winter all the animals come down from Longon at 2000m to the village of Roure at 1100m.  In Roure, there’s no snow and they roam the streets and paddocks until summer when the are herded back to the high plateau of Longon. 

It's peak hour with about 30 day trippers lunching on the trestles outside.  Sandrine, our host, comes out to show us our beds - at this stage there's just 4 of us in a dorm, with a sit down toilet and a hot shower!  After arranging our mattresses on the floor with a sleeping sheet liner brought from Merveilles, and blankets from the shelves, we have a hot shower - hot, not luke warm.  This place is amazing and I love it.  It's cool sitting out on the picnic tables sorting photos from the day and blogging.  Graham snores away the afternoon after one beer.  At 5pm, we have a wine with some nice cheese we've bought from Sandrine then at 7pm dinner of lasagne.