Coming down the other side

Bill on the GR 51- after we found it!

We made it to the top!

On the Road to Mount Vinaigre

Bill - looking fit and ready to go on the first day's hike to Mount Vinaigre 

Day 1

At the Maision Forestierre de la Duchess

The Poles have been put away

....Until we go on a real hiking trip through the Alps. Bill still feels a little safer now that Lin's weapons of choice have been taped up in their box. Note to Bill: she still has her Swiss Army knife.
We were able to get to Nice with no trouble. The one day strike was just that and was a non event from our perspective. Bill had confirmed with the taxi driver who took our luggage from one town to the next that he would be working even in a strike and he did. For 120 E's he also would have taken us to Nice had the strike extended to a second day.
We dropped off luggage at our hotel inNice as our room was not ready. We took a quick trip by a little train through the mountains to an 18th century city that was largely designed by Louis XIV's architect. Ok but not great.

The Poles have been put away

....Until we go on a real hiking trip through the Alps. Bill still feels a little safer now that Lin's weapons of choice have been taped up in their box. Note to Bill: she still has her Swiss Army knife.
We were able to get to Nice with no trouble. The one day strike was just that and was a non event from our perspective. Bill had confirmed with the taxi driver who took our luggage from one town to the next that he would be working even in a strike and he did. For 120 E's he also would have taken us to Nice had the strike extended to a second day.
We dropped off luggage at our hotel inNice as our room was not ready. We took a quick trip by a little train through the mountains to an 18th century city that was largely designed by Louis XIV's architect. Ok but not great.

5.5 hours is better than 8.5

Our last hike was along the coast rather than up in the mountains and was only 15 k. It turned to be an incredible path through rock formations that presented a series of great sea views. It was more up and down than we expected as the path respected the natural rock formations --- bringing us up down and around through passages that did not look from a distance as even remotely possible. By comparison with yesterday it was still much more doable and both of us arrived in good spirits -- doubling the previous day's total.

Just for the record...

Lin did not talk about beating Bill with the (admittedly very nifty) hiking poles-- she threatened.

4 Hills are better than 1

Monday's hike turned out to involve a series of climbs to the summits of hills -- one of which we even added to the scheduled 21 k hike. The views were terrific and we felt a strong sense of accompishment as we maneuvered up with our trusty poles. The third one in particular was very steep and as we came down from it down a different path we ended up feeling quite tired and somewhat lost. Lin's much maligned compass seemed to indicate we here heading generally in the right direction although we saw none of the expected markings for well over an hour. Bill decided to head down ti a road and take our chances there. We also checked with 4 hikers who offered their sense of where we were -- very different and nowhere near where we wanted to go. When we got down lo and behold we were in the exact0right spot. It is better to be lucky than good. By the time we got to the hotel we had been walking for 8.5 hours and Lin was talking about beating Bill with the walking pokes if only she had the strength. Friendly hotel staff and a great dinner helped.

day 3; Les Adrets to Miramar

We took essentially the easier route albeit with one leg taken from the harder one. We knocked off the 20 or so k leg injust 5.5 hours. We saw our first animals -- a pair of friendly horses -- and for once Lin did not feed them our lunch. We saw them on the path with the strangest name -- track of billy goat eggs. We were able to find a couple of hidden paths having gone to school on the mistakes ot he first day on what passes for a path in the Esterel. Even with the almost faultless run we were tired out by the end and enjoyed the mid to late afternoon sun on our patio (wonder why our hotel is called Le Patio. Dinner was a little disappointing as it was served in a bar that had 20 or so drinkers/smokers and only us trying to eat. Food ok though.

Tired and Bruised!

Our feet are killing us and Lin got a bruise on her shoulder from the backpack strap. (That was something she hadn't expected). Beautiful vistas. Definitely think the hiking poles were a great investment. We ran into others on the trail but it looks as thoguh almost all of them had driven to a parking spot and then walked the trails a bit.
We took the more difficult trail from the Maison Forestietie`re de la Duchesse to Mount Vinaigre (the highest point of the Massif at 618meters. You could see the soot on the trees as the area has had a problem with fires.

Moint Vinaigre is Ours

We planted the Brooklyn flag at the summit of the Massif de l'Esterel. A climb made easier by the poles we schlepped 4000 miles. We had excellent weather and enjoyed the hike although a little worn out by the end. We did add a few kliks to the distance by making a few mistakes. The instructions were even worse than usual. In essence they were take the unmarked path an indeterminate distance past indistinguishable land formations before taking one of the (unmarked) paths on your left. Using the map and intuition on directions we were able to figure out when we were wrong and correct ourselves. Tomorrow's directions look worse as 4 times they say the map is wrong on one of the hike possibilities. We will try the other one. As Eric suggested it looks like we will have an extra hour of daylight to finish tomorrow. A bientot.

A taxi ride to remember

It wasn't an auspicious start to the day: we had a 25 minute cab ride to get the start of the hike. The hairpin road, right after breakfast, meant that both Lin and Bill were nauseous. We cracked open the windows and struggled to gulp in fresh air without making it obvious how ill we were. ;-)

Anyway, it meant far less noshing for the first 2 hours of the hike.
Beautiful day: sunny and mid-60s.

waiting to go

Ok- breakfast was pretty good and we're waiting for the cab to pick us up. We'll be dropped off near one of the hiking trails and will make our way (hopefully) to Mount Vinaigre (sp?). This should be one of the steeper hikes so we will bring the recommended 3 liters. Pretty hefty packs...

St. Raphael, the first day

We made our connection to the TGV with about 30 seconds to spare (jogging for the train is fun LOL). Fortunately, we were able to check into the very modest hotel early and got in a 2 hour nap.
We found a Monoprix and picked up fruit and cheese for tomorrow's hike. Also got a roll of packing tape to reinforce the cardboard box holding the hiking poles - it seemed very sad after the walk in the rain.

The town of St. Raphael is nice but we wandered into Frejus in the evening and thought the beaches there were great. It's clear that this place must be hopping in summer and is very attractive. Lots of resorty things to do without being tacky. Very nice.

We'd snacked on quiche and later a ham and cheese crepe as we tried to adjust to the time difference. The rest of the evening was reviewing the hike instructions for tomorrow and marking the map. It should be very interesting. There will be very little opportunity to ask for directions so if we screw up, it could turn out to be a rea"ly long day. They recommend that we carry 3 liters of water each. Hmmm. The weather forecast is for 16 degrees Celcius.
Wish us luck!