Wednesday, 15 August 2018

15th August - France - Via ferrata des Vigneaux

Today we decided to finally get on with the physical activities. We got up relatively early, 8-ish, and got our gear ready.
Our neighbor at the hotel has a small child that woke Ben up earlier than I did woke (slept really heavily with my earplugs) and he wasn't very happy about it.
Anyhow, we got ourselves sorted out and packed breakfast gear (camping stove, coffee and such) and headed out to the local supermarket. I found some gluten free bread there after some gebrokken French.
Walking around in the store we realized we had forgotten our boots (!!) and had to head back to the hotel (all of the 100 meters) and fetch them.

And then off we drove to the nearest via ferrata worth checking out. And it was! - after a slight detour though. We got the wrong coordinates from a web page first and ended up trudging through the wilderness in a more than 45 degree angle for an hour with sweat running down our backs. Luckily we had had breakfast before starting on that unnecessary climb and had enjoyed some of my Danish coffee so we weren't very upset about it ;) .


 




 Well, after a thorough warm up in peak summer heat on the wrong mountain .... (where we found a fascinating sports climbing crag with a lot of climbers) we finally found the right way.
At that point there was a triathlon going on and we ended up in the middle of it in the little town of Vigneaux and I caught a few bikers in a picture.










We kept going up the road in near sub-saharan temperatures and at last we found a sign pointing to the via ferrata. The trail ascending to the via ferrata was a few meters from the sign. Ahead was another 20 minutes of even warmer hiking up to the starting point (and we're talking - baking in the sun!) . We continued up the trail and finally ended up at the foot of the ferrata.

After some refreshments (apple, water) we put on our gear and began the ascent. The wall was hot as it was facing south and got warmed up by the sun. The climb was sweaty, but manageable and there was a breeze every now and then. The rock face was kind of steep and exposed - as any decent ferrata should be (do not try this at home if suffering from vertigo :D ).

This particular ferrata began as one route but split into two possibilities somewhere in the middle, where one was of easy and the other one very hard. Naturally we went with the very hard one, where the fun stuff resides. Very enjoyable and quite vertical with a terrific view. There were bolted hand holds to ease the ascent, but for anyone with a head for heights and some finger strength there was the option to go without any metal aid and just use the rock face.



When we reached a shadowy spot between ascents we tried to have a piece of chocolate, just to boost the energy levels a bit, and it was so melted we ended up with sticky fingers and the chocolate was stuck on the foil.  Ben actually spooned it up with his spork ;)









At one point the ferrata went down again before reaching the last ascent. At that point we were going straight up, no easy passages. by that time we had only half a liter of water left and we were dripping sweat.

Suddenly the ferrata ended and we were thinking woho! did it. The we walked for 20 meters and realized we hadn't reached the end. Luckily it was not such a long climb anymore at that point before we reached the standard log crossing the path and marking the end of the road.

The view was absolutely magnificent at the top and the sun was still high overhead.

We considered making some coffee... for all of 5 seconds, before deciding to just drink the luke warm water instead. 2,5 dL a piece and then we began the descent back to little Vigneaux.







 Well down in the village we found a well of potable water. I was really thirsty and had my fill of fresh cold water.


We reached our rental and drove back to L'Argentière de la Bessee, but instead of heading to the hotel we drove to a cliff just above it, where there is a clock tower visible from the whole of town. We made dinner on our storm stove at the foot of the tower. Rice with onion, tomato and pork, topped with tasty olive oil.



This evening we actually ended up at a local restaurant and had a glass of wine and beer before crashing for the night.





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