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26th June 2016 Hiking - Walking: Chute de la Druise & Col de la Bataille Wind Direction: Wind Stength: Surf / Sea State: Air Temperature: Sea Temperature: Weather: sunny periods and windy Max Speed: Distance Covered: Sunday 26th June – Hikes **** and adventure driving – sunny periods and windy Another blue sky day but windy so the temperature not so overpowering! Did exercises up on the black crusty rock with the amazing view :) While we were eating breakfast we had 3 cars appear and ask if we knew if this was the car park for Le Trois Becs walk. Of course we had no idea as we just arrived at this pass between two huge rocks quite by accident on our way through in a sort of northerly direction! We discovered that the huge triangular rock above us to the left of the road was part of Le Trois Becs (apparently called this because they resemble 3 birds pecking but we couldn’t see that at all!!) and that from a car park just down the road you could do the hike to visit each of the Trois becs in 6 hours. I was sorely tempted to do it as I was really intrigued and the rock nearest us did look amazing! However, by this time it was 10 o’clock and not only getting a bit late to start a 6 hour hike it was also getting hott and windier which would probably make it a bit miserable at the top. Even with all these excuses I was quite cheesed off that we didn’t do it :( As we drove away we realised that we were even closer to the car park and start than we thought which made me feel worse! Then to add to my mood there were many cyclists riding up to the Col and when we got down to the valley there were people canoeing down the River Drome!!! I wanted to do it all! Anyway we went on and headed down to Sailans and then up again heading north along a yellow road entering the wonderful Vercors National Park where we were last September. We hadn’t been to this part of the park before though and were intrigued by a white road (unfortunately a dead end) which had three points of interest on our map. It is a beautiful cliff lined area anyway but this road was special, winding down through the Gorges d’Ombleze. Turning right over a pretty bridge next to the Moulin de Pipe where several tables were already taken for lunch at 11.15!! We followed the windy side road to the car park for the Chute de la Druise and were disappointed to find that there was a 2m height restriction and barely enough room to turn round for those of us who are above that height! No warning at the beginning of the road of course!! I was determined not to miss out so parked at the side of the road just along from the car park and when we returned a huge camper had pulled in behind us so we had started a rebellious trend!! The path down to the chute was a half hour traditional French scramble through trees to a fast flowing river and then when we got to the chute it was unbelievable!! Definitely the most amazing waterfall we have seen this holiday and it was soooo powerful we got soaked from the nearest point we could get to. It is difficult to describe but basically the river plunged over the cliff which at that point turned a corner about 40 metres above us and then fell in a whole sheet into the river below but still in the corner then as it hit the water it sent up a massive cloud of spray! It was very spectacular and well worth the scramble down let alone our by-passing of the car park!! I got closer than expected by paddling in the shallow cold river. That’s another pair of trainers soaked! Mag took photos for a Dutch couple each with a baby in their back pack!! Back to the van and off through the rest of the gorges, lined with people off hiking somewhere or picnicking by the river. There were also many climbing the vast array sites available. Then right at the side of the road were the Chutes de la Pissoire, much the same force of water but not in such a unique position as the other one. In fact, all the rocks along this stretch of road were leaking water everywhere! We carried on up to the village of Ombleze les Bouaches where the road ended with great views up to the cliffs above and beautiful fields of barley with wild flowers growing inbetween. Returned to the main road and carried on through Leoncel which was bursting with pesky motorbikes which are a pain on these mountain roads on a Sunday!! They love a Col!! We turned off to visit the Col de la Bataille thinking it would be a good place to stop for lunch. It was an amazing view from both sides of the road but the best side turned out to look down on the dead end road where we were visiting the waterfalls this morning! After lunch – a bit windy but we still sat out! we decided to walk down the road and have a look over the other side which we couldn’t see from where we had parked but typically of us we carried on to a track where most of the walkers up here seemed to be walking out of. While we ate lunch we had watched two intrepid hikers walk up the sheer side of the hill to the peaks, seemingly making up their own path! We were happy to carry on on the Sunday afternoon promenade style path and found ourselves at the pass over to the Refuge d’Ambel. We walked along the ridge overlooking Ombleze for a few hundred metres until we reached the cross on one of the points but then followed a family along a small path which we were hoping would bring us back across the actual mountain at a lower level than the intrepid explorers but a bit more exciting than the Sunday path! We were really pleased to end up exactly here we thought we would and were rewarded with the most astounding amount of summer flowers in the pasture and some beautiful cliffs rising above us. Back to the van and having been distracted from our journey towards home for another whole day (we did manage 84 miles today in sort of the right direction!!!) we drove down to the other side of the Col where there was a promising lake on our map but there was no access so after a bit of fiddling around we eventually parked up above Bouvante le Haut. This will really have to be our last night in the mountains because we are running out of days but sadly we can see the flat down in the valley so our temptation will very soon disappear when we set off tomorrow!! Photo Gallery Here |
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