Wake up at 3 am...check weather outside, clear skies...!!! But half-moon, which means that the stars won't be as bright. Plus side, the mountain finally shows itself in its entirety... I will finally get to use that heavy tripod that I had been lugging around at great expense to my knees...!!! Get a chair from the dining area to get some added height, set tripod and camera up and start shooting happily. The first battery dies during my focus calibration shots... stealthy retreat to the room to collect spare and the fun continues in the great outdoors. Temperature is below freezing, so for once, I get the luxury of the warmth of a refuge whilst the camera does its job... such a peaceful place, with nothing but the sound of a small nearby waterfall. I also get to test my new north light filter. Wanted to try to see whether the stars would sparkle with them attached, but that does not happen, the stars are just not bright enough. Just more dead weight in my rucksack. Couple of extra wide angles, couple of fish eyes, and Couple of 50mm shots at f1.4, and it's already 5.30, meaning pack up before breakfast.
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| Believe it or not, it's almost pitch black there...:) Just a slight moonlight...:) |
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| Clear sky, with a hint of Milky way..:) |
Yogurt mixed with cereals, biscottis with butter and jam, and some fruit juices, and we set off for what should normally be a relatively easy day. Gradual uphill leading to a gradual downhill in the valley, before going up all the way to the Italian-Swiss border, transiting via Refugio Elena for a quick snack break.
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| Nice stream crossing... |
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| Huffing and Puffing...:) |
As we tackle the final ascent of the day, menacing clouds move in, just before we reach the summit. We had received mixed weather reports the night before about deteriorating weather for the day, and we were amongst the small group of hikers that decided for an early start to minimise the risk of getting stuck in a downpour, going down a mountain. We remembered what that was like last time, and certainly didn't want to be exposed to similar conditions again.
Camera back into dry backpack, although to be fair, landscape from this point onwards is not as nice as we have experienced on the eve. Meet up with a bunch of mountain bikers on the summit. They are part of a group doing the TMB, and were waiting on their fellow bikers, some of which can be seen climbing painfully, far down in the valley.
EXTREMELY long gradual descent to tiny mountain village named La Fouly ensues, and I finally bump into the first fellow Africans on the way down... :) I also come across the first bunch of sintoks on the trail... :P
One would think that going downhill is easier than uphill. NOT FOR US!!! Going up is certainly tough on the cardio pulmonary system, and we huff and puff like crazy, but still manage to climb at relatively fast pace, often overtaking tons of hikers on the way. We usually make up significant times with respect to times estimates on the way going up. Going down on the other hand is a completely different ball game...!!! As mentioned before, my knees were busted from the super heavy backpack on the way down to Courmoyeur, and I'm not exaggerating when I say that am probably carrying the most weight by far amongst all the trekkers we have come across. Jeff has his own issues with a dodgy ankle, but he still is faster than me going down, and has to slow down to allow me to keep up. So downhill is where we lose ground on estimated times, and get overtaken by even the most unfit hikers.
I stop briefly to put some layers on, since it had started to get chilly, and resume the walk, only to realise that I had dropped my GPS tracker...!!!! Go back on my footsteps, desperately trying to find the small gizmo...But after 10 mins of looking, no luck... Not easy to locate a small black device on the ground...!!! Just as I had given up looking for it, pouf, there it was, half buried in the ground...!!! Someone (might have been me) must have stepped on it... Switch it back on, and down I go again...Although, there seemed to be something wrong with the tracking... Hope I didn't break it... :(
The last hour of the trek is torture revisited as I hobble my way to La Fouly, which we reach at around 2 pm.
Jeff sets off to a nearby atm to get some Swiss francs, whilst I get a hot shower and do my laundry in the room sink. He comes back with a big pack of crisps and a Schweppes, both of which I down in no time.
And then the downpour...hikers still on the trail, good luck...!!!
Free Wi-Fi at the hotel, but only in the main lobby…
Before dinner, we meet and chat with fellow hikers, which is custom by now. There's this funny English bloke traveling alone with tent and other camping supplies, who is staying in the same hotel as us. He tells us that he's not been using the camping stuff, and been staying in lodges and hotels along the way.
Why bother carrying all that gear if you are going to stay in less rustic accommodation? He proceeds to tell us that he gets lost virtually every day, and that his backpack is super heavy, weighting 15 kilos. I do the math, and this just does not add up...!!! Mine is 23 kilos minus 9 of camera gear minus 1 for extra large heavy duty backpack, his basic setup should be around 13 kilos. Plus the camping stuff, his should be about same weight as my backpack. So I query him about what he is carrying, and sure enough, there's about 12 kilos of our camping gear, and just 3 kilos of the rest. I become even more intrigued...3 kilos? That's just the weight of water that I carry everyday...!!! I poke him further, and he proudly declares that he is hiking with just 1 set of clothes, the one he wears during the day, and that he left ALL underwear behind because it was just unnecessary heavy weight...!!! Aheum...!!!
I guess he likes them free dangling when he hikes…:P
So he had to do laundry every day, and dries everything overnight...!!! Wow, wish I could be a little more minimalist like him...although I hope I'll never resort to the extreme of dropping underwear to shed a few grams...!!!!
Since dinner is not included in our package for the night, we get to choose what we eat. There are just 3 restaurants in this tiny place, and the best apparently is the hotel where we are residing, so we stick around. I order steak with fries and salad. Good flavour meat and relatively tender as well, but as usual, too small, especially when am running on a protein deficit.
I collapse on the bed at 8 pm...!!!
Stats of the day:
About 21 kms
6 hours 45 hike
3435 kcal burnt (compare that with the 7000 and 5500 kcal burnt in the second and third days respectively)
https://www.
Elevation and distance data corrupted...
Rifugio Bonatti 2025m
La Fouly 1600m
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