More achey than breaky, thankfully.

Today was rather full-on. I still have no idea of the distance we walked as all the guidebooks Delphine has (indeed all the signs) are marked in hours and minutes, not kilometres. Suffice to say it was somewher between “a lot” and “a hell of a lot”, or so it seemed.

Worth every step though. Early on we stopped at a gîte for a Coke and a coffee where the owner took pity on us silly fools and gave us a box of matches as well. We chowed down on jam sandwiches and set off (uphill – it always seems to be uphill) and into the woods.

There’s not a lot to really write about today. We had lunch by a fast-flowing river in the bright sunshine while a French family splashed each other with freezing water. Clambered up mountain tracks. Sat with our feet in a lake until they went numb.

We even walked into Italy quite briefly. A small mountain pass with abandoned guardhouses on it from during the war. I assume to keep the French in rather than the Italians out judging by the side of the border they’re on. While up there we saw chamois, marmots and some birds I didn’t recognise. The marmots would let us get within maybe 20m of them, while we could get twice as close to the chamois before they scampered off up the seemingly vertical rock faces.

We reached another refuge / gîte around 7pm and had a beer before using their kitchen to cook up some spag bol. As we settled down later on, we could hear a group of kids downhill singing the same song over and over and over. I was tempted to go and kick them or steal their food or something but sleep deprived me of the opportunity.