News received by text today
Days 33 to 35 - Friday 17th to Sunday 19th June
Oh dear - after 3 + days incommunicado, heard today that they are still safe, and on-track, but have had a few days of "not a lot of good bits!". Nothing untoward - just (what sound like) seemingly endless drearyness in the Ariage part of France.
The walking has been "challenging but not entirely enjoyable"
.
This is an area where the scenery is full of "grotty villages, mostly shut - interspersed with plenty of hydro-electric power plants". Most buildings appear to be second homes - many for sale. People come here mainly between July to September, for the rest of the year, it's deserted - all rather strange and depressing.
Also, the GR 10 route seems to do silly things like double back on itself, heading in the wrong direction, and confusing our valiant crew!
Never-the-less - they make progress, helped on their way by helpful shepherds, glimpsing views from lofty ridge walks, and the happy smugness of watching millions of pesky mozzies trying unsuccessfully to invade the tent in the evening sunshine, being kept at bay by modern tent-screen technology. Simple pleasures for tired travellers.
The shepherd who gave them an inaccurate forecast for sunny weather which turned out to be a day of drizzle, can maybe be forgiven by also providing them with an evening cabaret of 1005 sheep filing past on their way up the hill to summer grazing - quite a spectacle apparently. (presumably, they didn't have trouble getting to sleep that night!)
They've walked up through ski fields today, and are due to walk up pistes, towards a high ridge tomorrow - hopefully with better weather and good views.
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