Day 3 Croix du Bonhomme to Elisabetta

The storm had blown itself out in the night, but when the sun rose the hut was shrouded in cloud and visibility was about 50m. We had breakfast with the American ladies and two Germans all walking the TMB and hung around chatting and waiting for the cloud to burn off. But you can only wait so long when you're eager to be off and decided at 8.30 to chance it and hope that the weather got better not worse as the day wore on.

We hiked up to the Col du Fours (2665m) and it looked desolate in the mist, steep with grey shale as far as the eye could see. We could have been on another planet.




Suddenly the sun broke through the low cloud giving us glimpses of the mountains and the valley far below, amazed, Laurence let out a whoop that echoed off the surrounding cliffs.




The descent took about 2 hours, muddy in places, and we bought a hunk of local cheese at the little farm in the bottoms. The farmer took us into the store where he had over a hundred huge rounds of cheese maturing in the cellar. His dog took a special interest in Nigel and rounded him up with some serious barking!



By lunchtime it was really sunny, but the wind was bitingly cold. We stopped at the refuge at the foot of Col de la Seign for an amazing piece of blueberry tart to refuel us up for the climb. It's surprising how a slope that looks so benign can keep you pretty well out of breath for the whole two hours it takes you to get up it.




But get up we did and stepped over the border from France into Italy. Ciao!



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Location:Refugio Elisabetta