The backpack is filled with all my gear and food for a week. It is Wednesday the 22nd of July, 2020, and I am sitting in the train on my way to Morges, Switzerland. The train ride is not as pleasant as they use to be here, because at the moment we all have to carry masks in public transportation. One for all, all for one. Once in Morges I take the ferry across the lake to the French little town called Thonon-les-Bains, where my adventure is going to start. Though before I head out on the road and leave civilisation behind me for some days, I decided that one last cooked meal was a good idea. Kebab was what I got, which wasn't my first choice, but apparently you are not supposed to eat in the afternoon in France.
I had just left the town behind me and gotten up in the hills behind it, when the rain came pouring down. Luckily, I managed to get shelter under some big and dense trees along the path. That kept me relatively dry and I continued my hike further into the French Alps as soon as it stopped pouring down.
After a good night's sleep in my tent, I got up with the sun and the sound of a rooster singing good morning somewhere on the neighbouring farm. It is shortly after 6 am, Thursday the 23rd of July, and as usual I just packed everything together and hit the road without any delay. Breakfast always comes a few hours later, when the sun has gotten warmer and I have managed to put some kilometres behind me.
The day offered mostly sunshine and blue sky throughout the whole day, and of course that resulted in a hefty sunburn (like so many other times), because of my lack of using sunscreen. There is of course a sunscreen in my backpack, it is just that I really dislike the greasy feeling you get when you use it, and of course I always believe that sunburns will never happen to me... Apparently I am a slow learner in some cases, and I always have to pay the price for it...one way or another. Anyhow, apart from that little mishap it was a beautiful day and I followed the path deeper into the mountains.
After another hour or two and and some hundreds meters of altitude, I arrived to a pass, which apparently was home to a big herd of ibexes. I reckon there were at least 25 animals enjoying the sun and eating the green mountain grass up there and of course I took the opportunity
and tried to get a few good shots of them. It was incredible to get this close to them and have the time to observe them for a while before I continued my journey south.
Leaving the ibexes behind me, I crossed the pass and went down in the valley on the other side. It was already late in the evening and I decided to pitch my tent on the cattle field as soon as I have refilled my water in a nearby stream. It looked like the cattle had gone a bit further down in the valley for the night, hence my decision to pitch on the field. It was a decision I soon came to regret. I was cuddled down in my sleeping bag and already half asleep, when I heard cow bells getting closer and closer. I checked my phone, it was 11 pm. Opening up the tent, I got really surprised. Not more than two meters away, this cow was watching me curiously and all his friends were getting closer in my direction too. There was nothing else for me to do, than to get out and make sure that they didn't get tangled in the lines of my tent. After a few minutes of observing and occasionally pushing away a cow, I realised that it will take a while before all of them have passed by. This late hour it had gotten a bit chilly and I started building myself a tiny stone wall around my tent, hoping that it would keep them from getting too close, and if not, at least it would keep me warm on my watch. The stone wall didn't keep them away, but it sure kept me warm. Finally, after an hour or so they were gone again and I got back in the sleeping bag, hoping that I at least could sleep the remaining hours. I wasn't so lucky. The next cow attack came at around 1 am, and once again I had to keep watch till they had passed.
The next morning I got up as soon as I saw the first light, I sure was tired, but I didn't want to stay for the next cow passage. In about half an hour my backpack was once again on my back and I set course for the next pass. I was almost up on the highest point, when the sun painted the sky orange, purple and blue. It was a beautiful morning, this Friday the 24th of July.
I enjoyed my breakfast as soon as the sun had decided to show herself to me. I was lucky though, just a few minutes after I had finished, some clouds drew closer and it didn't take long before the raindrops were falling from the sky. With the rain cover on the backpack and the rain jacket donned, I arrived in the next French little town called La Chapelle-d'Abondance within the next two hours or so. I just made a quick stop to refill my water at a well along the main street, knowing that I had another quite steep climb ahead of me. During the climb, the weather was playing along and I could take off the rain jacket to let the torso breath again. Unfortunately, it didn't last. The rain started again just a few minutes before I reach the ridge, but lucky for me, there was a hut up there. I was hungry anyways and thought it would be a good opportunity to get some shelter from the worst weather and at the same time fill up my energy reserve a bit. After having a coke and a crêpe with some sugar, I left the hut to continue the hike as soon as the rain had almost stopped. Four hours later I came to a little lake with this flower field close by and I decided that it would be my camp for the night.
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