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Journal: |
I left Belvedere at 6:20am after breakfasting on part of the
baguette donated to me last night. Still tasted good and I had
some left for a morning snack. It's another beautiful morning
with a clear sky, wispy fog in the valley, below, and the sun just
starting to light up the mountains on the other side of the valley.
I had to walk up through the length of Belvedere along the narrow
winding main street and didn't see another soul. The trail
soon took me into the woods and the early going was easy. The
pack didn't feel as heavy, which is a good sign, since I worked out
last night that I'm going to have to carry a couple of days food
when I negotiate a high mountain pass with no nearby food or
accommodation in two days time. Anyway, for the moment I
walked along soaking up the spectacular scenery from the "balcony"
trail I will be following all the way up the Vesubie Valley.
After 8km, I reached Berthemont-les-Bains, the spa hotel I had
thought of staying at last night, but it looked a bit decrepit and
there was no obvious hotel entrance. There was, however, a
nice bench outside the gates and I sat there in the sun eating the
remainder of my bread and watching a steady stream of people coming
for the therapeutic sessions, most of them seemingly locals.
It was interesting to see some of them taking last drags on their
cigarettes before heading in to be made healthy.
The trail after Berthememont provided a nasty surprise with a
300m climb in less than a kilometre along a switch-backing technical
rocky trail through dry scrubby brush that really go my heart going.
All the way up I was hoping there would be a reward and I wasn't
disappointed when it topped a ridge to enter a beautiful cool pine
forest with glimpses of the view up the Vesubie Valley, including
the precariously perched village of Venanson across the valley
against a backdrop of high mountains.
The Via Alpina then followed a back road, past lots of closed
holiday houses, along a contour with continuing views across to
Venanson. Approaching St-Martin-Vesubie, which promised to be
the last reasonable-sized village for a few days, I passed a small
van advertising a hotel with wi-fi in town. Even though it was
just after midday, my feet were sore and it got me to thinking that
an early finish with a hotel and wi-fi was not a bad idea. Not
only did I want to update my journal, but I needed to do some
banking and some more detailed research for the next couple of weeks
accommodation.
St-Martin-Vesubie was a larger hillside village with the usual
winding narrow lanes and alleyways and very old architecture.
I wandered around for a bit, checking out what hotels and shops I
could see, before getting a very tasty salad baguette for lunch at a
cafe on the town square. I decided on the Bonne Auberge hotel
for the night and, after checking in, rinsed out a lot of my gear
which I hung around an open window, and spent the rest of the
afternoon on email, diary and reading some Australian news online.
I've taken a demi-pension at the hotel - dinner, bed and
breakfast - and enjoyed a very nice three-course meal for dinner in
the popular hotel restaurant. They don't serve breakfast until
8am, and I was hoping to leave earlier, so they have delivered a
thermos and continental breakfast to my room tonight. I would
happily recommend this hotel as excellent value to anybody visiting
the area.
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