Day 3

Les Hauderes (1452m) to Grimentz (1572m) via Col de Torrent (2918m)

Ascend 1475m  Descend 1357m

Today's walk began with a bit of a shock.  We were intending to take the bus to Villaz, as suggested in our notes, which would reduce the height we needed to climb by about 1000'.  Our hostess had confirmed that the Villaz bus left at 7.55am from the square so we had an early breakfast.  We were told that our baggage needed to be in reception at 7.15am for collection, as the road through town was going to be closed for a festival parade.  We left the hotel and got to the square too early but a bus pulled in and stopped so I asked the driver if it was going to Villa.  No, he said, there would be no bus to Villa today because of the festival.

Early morning start

Walking through Les Hauderes at 7.30am

Leaving Les Hauderes

Well, our legs felt strong and we had a map so we set off to walk from behind our hotel and climbing rapidly soon found ourselves above Les Hauderes.  The cool of the morning was pleasant to walk in and we saw a deer, which hurriedly moved off our path.

The ascent was steady and we passed through the village of Sage and into Villa. Sadly no cafes were open to satisfy my caffeine addiction on this Sunday morning so we pushed on and after about an hour reached the point the bus where the bus would have dropped us.

The sun was well up now and each step we made sent crickets leaping from the path and butterflies of all sizes and colours flew around us.

The general direction was up, with some very steep sections, heading for the Col de Torrent, sometimes traversing and sometimes climbing.  In the heat it was quite tough and in the distance we could see small groups of walkers climbing ahead of us on the trail.

A long climb

We passed through an area where there were some hopeful paragliders but there was almost no movement of air and we didn't see any take off.  At this point there was a square shaped, leaning tower of rock, about 20' high, a noticeable feature we had been able to see for some time.

I start to wilt

The trail zig-zagged more steeply as we neared the col and the cross marking the col could be seen peeping over the cliffs above us.

We steeled ourselves for the last push and our efforts were rewarded when we gained the col with magnificent views.  In front and below us was the pale blue water of  Lac des Autannes and behind that the vivid blue expanse of glacial water backed up by the Barrage de Moiry.  All around us were the peaks whose names give clues to their shapes - teeth, needles, horns.

Heading for the Col

The last push...

Made it!

The view from the  Col

Carole at the Col

We decided to stay at the col to enjoy our picnic and were fascinated by two ladies who ate their way through a huge lunch, at one point producing a very large glass jar whose contents (gherkins?) were eaten with forks. We were astonished that they had carried a heavy glass jar all this way, don't they have Tupperware in Switzerland?

We left the Col for the Barrage de Moiry, glad that our feet were pointing downwards again.  We made a good and rapid descent and eventually saw cars parked at the far side of the dam and near them, a cafe.

Lac des Autannes

Carole says we are NOT going to Sex de Marinda

Glacial lake at Barrage de Moiry

We checked our bus schedule and saw that a bus would leave the dam for Grimentz at 2.45pm, a tempting thought would be to get this bus and miss the the last part of the walk, a stretch of no particular interest.  Would there be a bus on a festival Sunday?

As we zig zagged down towards the dam we saw a bus stopped on the far side which then moved off. It was 2.30pm and we realised it would return back along the valley in 15 minutes.  We found ourselves speeding to the dam and then across the top of the impressive wall.  We could see three deer down below on the dry side of the wall, a massive structure contrasting with the brilliant blue of the water.  Half way over and the bus returned and stopped, we jogged the last couple of hundred yards but we needn't have bothered.  There were lots of people converging on the bus and we were almost the last to get on.

Grimentz

We arrived in Grimentz in less than half an hour and were immediately charmed by the pretty village, which is crammed with old chateaux bedecked with flowers.  We walked past a number of tableaux with wooden figures animated by water passing through water wheels.  There were nodding cows, a man wielding a saw and a baker popping loaves in his oven.

Our hotel was at the end of the village and would be our home for two days.  We had the best meal of our trip so far, and had dinner outdoors.  The hotel specialises in adding wild flowers to its meals making the presentation very attractive.  We were served a mini-lasagne followed by duck breast with apricots, rice noodles and broccoli and Carole thought the fruit pudding served for desert was bliss!

To Day 4