Km 3715 to km 3885, Refuge des Drayères, GR57 (France) to Plateaux du Vercors (France).
Day 110
11/08/2022 – 47km
Lovely scenery, but fairly uneventful. Just trucking along.
I dipped just into the edge of Écrins national park.
I’m glad I bought too much food yesterday, because the small grocery store in La Grave was pretty expensive and had a limited selection.
Day 111
12/08/2022 – 45km
I kept waking up last night. I think it was the full moon shining brightly through my thin tent.
In each country the supermarkets have slightly different things, and I need to be flexible and experiment. I have a new favourite for France; premade crêpés. Even the small stores seem to have them. One pack is 1300 calories, and I can happily eat a pack a day.
I feel like the Alps are drawing to a close. There are no longer snow capped peaks in every direction.
Day 112
13/08/2022 – 20km
Despite it being a short day of walking, it wasn’t easy. I had a strong reminder that I’m coming out of the Alps and need to start worrying about water again.
I didn’t find any water for the first 4 hours of my day. This may not sound like a lot, but it included a very steep 1000m+ climb. My mouth was bone dry by the top.
In the afternoon I met up with Gilles, a hiker from Grenoble that I met back at the start of Austria on the Via Alpina. He graciously let me stay at his place, where we got out the maps and he gave me lots of information about the upcoming days.
We had dinner at a restaurant overlooking the city.
Day 113
14/08/2022 – 42km
Very rainy today, for the first time in a long time. Due to the rain I decided (on Gilles’ advice) to take a less exposed trail (GR91) after climbing to the Vercors plateau because of the reduced risk of rockfall. And indeed, on the hike up I had some rocks tumble past, very close to me, so I think it was the right choice.
I made good progress today, and I should be on track to reach Valence on Tuesday afternoon, and from there I’ll take a train to Marseille.
