DESCENT

COLD AT THE TOP

It took about an hour to descend.with the sun up,we could see lovely scenary going down,initially the red volcanic rock,then down to the treeline,short twisted alpine trees draped with lichen,with ice glinting on the trail and rocks,then the gite came into view,looking very remote,with a distant mountain backdrop.
French breakfast in the lodge,just 4slices of bread,butter and jam,but the bowl of coffee was magic.
At Volcan,our tent bungalw,we packed up,and then set off for Hell-bourg.
For 2hourswewalked through alpins scrub,to CAP A!ANGLAIRE. On the edge o big cliff is a rock with a big white irin cross,a little shrine,and a view over CIRQUE de SALAZIE.
Well,a partial view,with rapidly moving cloud.
A great spot for lunch.baguette,salami stick and cheese.
Then the descent.the sign said 2hoursto hell-bourg.then we started meeting people coming up who said 4hours.they were right!the sign is wrong
A very hard,steep descent.but micro scenary of ferns and moss was nice.at least it wasn,t raining and wet
So tired when we got to bottom.a lovely lady drove us into town ,and our gite
Lovely gite.we were in a dorm with a young french couple.nearly all the tourists and walkers we met were frenck
H.at dinner we were with 5young people from france,who spoke some english.rice lentils,chicken stew,free wine and rum,then live creole music.so worth the long slog.

ready to hike down ,breakfast,then another 6 hours to Hellbourg