Once more we started ‘very traditionally’
with 2km of tarmac before making the “real start”. It’s not very pleasant to
walk so long on hard ground and is a shame. To go to the Belvédère des Sangles,
and then eventually arrive to the Charmant Som via Malamille, you need to park
at Vallombré bridge just adjacent to the road. Don’t bring all your friends as
there isn’t that much parking space. The road is cool, large, and not very
steep, though what a waste of time from the real mountain walk.
In any case, we enjoyed ourselves, as wherever we go, it’s a beautiful
place. The objective was not to reach the Charmant Som and as I look back I see
that it was a good decision – it seems to be rather long from this side. Just a
case of scouting out the paths, then.
At Malamille, there are some nice clearings with a few buildings, one of
which has the chamois. Yes, it’s actually the shadow we saw (see previous
blog). When I was 18, I toured the Chartreuse and I remember a great evening
spent in this grange with its large hearth cooking some meat and a nice platter
of polenta.
The Belvédère des Sangles is announced as a
1h35 hike, however a good hour is all that’s needed to get there, and that, at
an easy level. Very nice view over the gorge and the road that joins St Laurent
to St Pierre. Then, it’s back to the Malamille granges to take the other path climbing
to Cochette. A steep climb, but all in zigzags with some nice stone retaining
walls. What great work undertaken by those who maintain the mountain paths. We
didn’t go any further because at the crest, the climb down was very steep and
we would have had to climb it again on the way back. Climbing on the way to our
target, yes, but I don’t like having to do so on the way back – that should be for butterfly-spotting,
and beautiful walk savouring, without too much sweat.
Once more, some
beautiful flowers whose name is still unknown to me. What structure !
Luckily, the “feuilles
de pâtes” at home were not as big as these ones !
I
like to “loop” but a two-way walk also has its advantages seeing as we don’t
always have to look back to see the scenery. Therefore, on the way back and on
the tarmac section, we had a great view over the Grand Som, crowned with its
cross, and further down, the Monastery and the Correrie.
From the Grand
Som, we had a good overview of our future walk.
19/08/2012 Malamille et Belvedère des Sangle
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