Lac de Fenesrte

Up not so early, getting slowly into camp life. Adam and I walked the 10 minutes up the village to get fresh baguette, and so a usual baguette and coffee breakfast. Yum!

And as you might have guessed, we didn’t rush up and away from the campsite, in part because there were a number of small stalls selling or tasting local food. Good luck for us! Local glace, made freshly that morning. Jambon cru, and the real deal. The full legs of beef, complete with ash and herbs, sliced off to eat. Basically raw smoked meat. But very tasty. And cheese, of course, they even had the goats there and had a fresh cheese as well as a slightly dried one. Bought some of course, for lunch.

Finally, just before 12 we dragged ourselves away, destination Madone de Fenestre, 1903m part of the Mercantour National Park. The launch point for our walk to Lac de Fenestre.

Technically the walk was only an hour or so with only three hundred or so meters climbing, but the walk was so interesting it took a little longer. Amazing landscapes and lots of wildlife, marmot and chamois mostly. And just a fantastic day, pretty warm and sunny, just perfect for walking in an alpine area, with lots of snow.

So after 2 hours we made it to the lake at 3pm, saw lots more chamois bounding through the snow, and then had lunch. Prefect place above the lake in the sun, with no wind.

Lots of play in the snow, then down to look at the lake, and a swim … Yes, surrounded by snow and ice it was one of those “must dos”. Apparently the lake is 6 degrees, but felt a little colder!

So at 4.30 we started the decent, taking many shortcuts down the snow, arriving back down at 5.15. And after such a walk, a cold beer at the bottom was called for, if for no other reason that a refuge serving it was open ;-)

So on a beautiful evening we sat on the deck looking up at the mountain, where we met a couple of Belgians … a father and son doing a 5 day trek around the refuge. On their first night they we’re celebrating the mountains, and shared their wine, we had no choice but to join them. Great to meet and talk to them

Finally around 6.30 it was time to head down. Back to the campsite, pasta dinner, and bed. Absolutely fantastic day, in a beautiful place. One has to imagine why people come to visit NZ when you have places this beautiful …