Day 24 - VDL to St Dalmas Valdeblore - Refreshing Ice Cream

The Vacherie de Longon and Mt Mounier in the morning 

The vacherie seemed just as enchanting in the morning. The wife and daughters had descended to sell cheese at the market in the morning so the husband prepared my coffee - he was just as friendly as his wife. After breakfast I bought some cheese and set off under a big blue sky. Within a few minutes the view of the 1400 m descent down to St Saveur appeared; it reminded me of the view down the Grand Canyon. I'm obviously leaving the mountains behind and entering the wooden hills near the cost. The descent was long and in the sun and I was plenty warm by the time I arrive in St Saveur and bought some sandwiches for lunch.

First view of the descent from the mountains

What comes down also has to go up and I had an even hotter climb up to Rimplas and then onto Bolline with thunder growling and a storm threatening.  I bought myself an ice-cream and, just as I started eating it, the rain started and the temperature plummeted - just like a TV ad! 

I layered up and hiked up to St Dalmas Valdeblore. The gite (Les Marmottes) was disappointing and it didn't surprise me - the woman obviously wanted to be closed or to have several guests and she only had me as a guest. But I had a nice surprise later in the evening; a hiker I had met in Maljasset arrived. He was a young lad carrying lots of gear and - despite taking a more adventurous route than me - had caught me up. I had someone to endure the mediocre evening meal with!