We've been planning a rest day for a couple of days and had the weather forecast tomorrow not been for rain we probably would have stayed in Les Houches another night. However, with a slightly shorter day to Les Contamines (just 1000m of uphill and downhill!) Up next we decided to continue today and rest tomorrow....and we're glad we did.
We woke a little later than normal on our camping as we wanted to return to the organic supermarket for supplies and that didn't open until 10. Thankfully we also had a free bus pass with our campsite stay so could save our legs the mile walk down the road with our packs on the 9.57.
After breakfast and perhaps over supplying a little judging by our pack weight it was time to get started. We used our free bus pass once more to get right to the foot of the climb saving half an hour of walking, then it was up, up, up....steeply. We may only have been climbing to 1650m at the Col de Voza, but the track was severe.
Near the top we had the pleasure of meeting an Israeli woman hiking 4 days of the Tour de Mont Blanc, which shares part of the GR5 from the Col de Brevent we crossed yesterday. It was lovely to walk with a new companion for the couple of hours until her route to a refuge nearby left the GR5 option we were following. It was helpful to hear her reasons for walking the route, similar to our own, in seeking to reconnect with nature. In fact, even our brief stay in civilisation at Les Houches had introduced some friction between Esther and I as decisions needed making, planning etc. This is definitely something we need to work on as we can't hide in the hills forever!
Yet the treat of the day was the wonderful B&B, gite Alabert, right on the GR5 we decided to check the price at around 5pm. With tired legs and a reasonable price for a wonderful, balcony room overlooking the mountains, we decided to stop there and then and have our rest day in extra comfort. We may still be an hour away from Les Contamines but after a hot shower and lying in a spacious double bed after 8 days of continuous trekking, my bones confirm it is 100% the right choice.
For more pictures of our adventure click here for our Google album
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