Day 60 - Orsieres to Col du Gd St Bernar

It's done. I got here. I'll start with the stats. Today, I walked 28.13 km (1220 km from Canterbury), and according to my guidebook, the ascent was 3434m, and the descent was 1854m (what goes up must come down). I left my hotel around 8:10 am, and arrived at the pass just after 5:20 pm. There was snow next to the Path about 2150m, about 2.7 km from the Pass, and a lot of flowing water on the Path itself. The rain started around then - enough to warrant the poncho, but intermittent and not heavy at all. About 730m from the hospice, I was forced to walk on the snow. The entire walk was hard, and I'm shattered. Get this, on the way, through clearly marked VF signage, I had to cross two paddocks surrounded by electrified fences; when I tried to scurry under the first one my backpack got caught and I got zapped twice trying to free it! So, when I crossed the other three fences (the exit from the first paddock and the entrance and exit of the second paddock), I crawled on my tummy; commando style! The first paddock was empty, but the second paddock was huge and full of bulls!!!!!!!!! Thankfully, the ones around me were calm and relaxed (because I certainly wasn't). Alison, Paulett, and Matt got swamped by them when they went through. They are also here at the Pass. Italy is just down the street, I will visit tomorrow. A lovely woman from Singapore and living in Perth took the photo of me on the track and a very nice Swiss/French couple took the one of me here at the pass.Read more