Friday 2 January 2015

No cycling, more walking: Croix de Justin

I discovered quite how cold it was this morning, when I was putting out some washing, and briefly rested my wet hands on the railing, and they stuck to it. The washing froze solid too, within 15 minutes, and with icicles.

Although the forecast is for slightly warmer weather towards the end of the week, I suspect that I might stay off the bike and just enjoy walking with Chris and Anna. I'll have covered about 3000 miles on the bike here this year, so I'm not feeling starved of French riding. (The Devon miles are a different matter!)

Today's walk was a snowy recap of one I did last February to Col de Justin. The iciness of paths means that anything at all risky is out - even with Microspikes some of the paths round here would be 'interesting' (or lethal). We were going to take the GR95 up to Col de Beauvoisin, but it appears that a land dispute has led to the removal of the '40 lacets' path from public access, and the alternative (more direct) route to the Croix was taken, and we returned by the long forest track to Die. A great little walk at any time: the views at the top are just stunning.

Incidentally, this week I am enjoying using a new book given to me by my brother: Randonées en Diois, by François Ribard. This walk is in the book, and unfortunately was published before the 40 lacets path was closed. But it's an excellent book, well worth getting if you're walking in the area.

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