The Itinerary from the Exodus Website for Day 5: Head up the Val Ferret to La Fouly.
Now on the east side of the main Mont Blanc Massif we walk south, descending through woods to the Val Ferret and on to Issert (1055m – 3460ft) and other
small, pretty, alpine farming villages. This is quite a good day for flowers, including orchids. We continue up the valley to the remote village La Fouly (1600m - 5250ft). This is at the foot of Mont Dolent, whose summit is at the meeting point of France, Switzerland and Italy.6 hours walking, 440m – 1450ft down, 540m – 1780ft up, about 8.5 miles. My stats show 8.3 miles and an elevation gain of 1969 feet.
We had another day of great weather and relatively easy hiking and no rain in the forecast.
The flowers were glorious as the sun came up over the mountains. Making the picnic lunch again with sandwich makings - ham and cheese - which never changed.
At the start there were several interesting villages built in the 30s. One house had the most garden gnomes I had ever seen.
Then we climbed up to a rest area which was a training area. On the way down we went through a nature walk area with animal carvings. We also passed by a mysterious cave.
Shaun couldn't find Mont Blanc and thought it was in the opposite direction - luckily Vena knew the correct direction.
That said, there were some beautiful views and we stopped along the way for a macchiato - luckily I still had some Swiss francs.
Along the way there was a narrow ledge with chain to hold so we didn't fall down the cliff. That said, Peter wanted to test the SOS function of my SPOT device.
There were people coming the other way, but not too many.
Lunch spot was a lovely wooded spot next to a river and I found a great seat against a tree. It was very hard not to nap and to start trekking to our day's end in La Fouly.
Towards the end of the day's trekking we stop briefly at a playground which was too good to pass up.
We walked by a camping site at the foot of the glacier and opening to, what is in winter, a wonderful ski area.
We end up at the hotel Auberge des Glaciers and set up for the infamous forgotten luggage episode from the Hotel Edelweiss, where Peter, Kerrie and Jo stayed. This happened on Day 6.
We couldn't get into the room and I had to get the (not very nice) lady from reception to get it open for us. Turns out we turned the key the wrong way. The room had a shower and sink, but we had to use the toilets in the hall. Not as bad as the common facilities a few nights prior....
Dinner was curry soup, salad, chicken breast with chanterelle mushroom sauce and some sort of bread pudding dessert. Not many pictures of dinner as I was so hungry I forgot to take pictures...
More curffuffle Because Louise didn’t want to leave so early in the morning- said English people don’t leave before 9…
No snow when we were there, but a week later there was a snow fall.
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