3 November 2016 – Alt de Ample

It was nice to see David and Sabine again, who joined us for the first time since the summer break

David led this walk as he usually does.  With Jan as back marker it would give me an opportunity to take some photos

There is a long and steep climb at the start of the walk, and unfortunately Rosemary was unable to complete it.  So David took her back to the car.

We have done this walk quite a few times, but never led it before.   I was confident that I could find the path so we carried on.

We found our usual lunch spot without difficulty and spread out to enjoy our picnic.   A couple of hardy souls were tempted to climb to the top, but abandoned the idea on closer inspection.

We had a small extension when I lost the path down.   I realised my mistake very quickly, and we soon found the correct one.

It is a long exposed track down and pretty hot today, so we had a couple of water stops

The path we used to take back to the start was always eroded and difficult, but David had found an alternative one.  It was this alternative that I was uncertain that I could find.   In fact I did so without any problem.

This was a much more difficult walk than last week, and not helped by higher temperatures.   But we kept the pace down, had plenty of water stops and everyone managed it without any difficulty.

When we got back to the car park we found David and Rosemary waiting for us.   They had returned not long before us and decided to have a drink with us rather than go home.

With a larger group we have to choose a bar where there is sufficient space for us all to sit together, and Café l’Assut was an ideal choice

This photo says it all!

Walk Stats

Thanks to Nick for this excellent description of the walk.   He did explain it to me, and I understood some of what he said.   However I do like the bump on the top - where we had lunch?   Any technical questions direct to Nick!

The walk from Jalon garage was 10 kilometres in total climbing from about 190 metres above sea level to 562 metres, a total ascent of 372 metres.    The walk including breaks and a lunch stop lasted for 4 hours and 36 minutes.  The average walking speed was 3.1 kilometres per hour.