This stage begins in the middle of a hillside forest. From here, the route descends from the high mountains through forests via the beautiful Roure to Saint-Sauveur-Sur-Tinée. The mountainous landscape gives way to a more Mediterranean one. From the Tinée River just below 500 meters, the trail rises on a wide path to Rimplas and ends in Saint-Dalmas.
Last night we heard the sound of burbling deer all night. Luckily we knew they were deer, if you don't know the sound it would almost scare you. The night was also a lot warmer than the previous night, and because there was quite a strong wind blowing from time to time, the tent is nice and dry this morning and we can quickly pack everything.
We start descending through the beautiful hillside forest. Thick old larch trees with the long yellow grass underneath are also the backdrop here. We walk steeply down a path where it runs down deep on both sides. It's a long descent: from above 2,050 meters where we left off this morning, we will eventually descend to just under 500 meters, to reach the river valley. This will take almost 10 kilometers. It has been a while since we've been this low. Since the beginning of the Alps at Lake Geneva we haven't been on these low altitudes anymore. After some descending we get back on the original GR5 and follow it further down towards the village of Roure. When we leave the forest, we see a busy parking lot with police and a little further more gendarmerie and an ambulance on standby. What's going on here? In Roure, we see a poster that answers our question: it's the opening of an art collection in the presence of Prince Albert II of Monaco. Wow, an important person, right on the edge of the forest! By now we're pretty close to Monaco. You can tell by the Ferrari's, Porsche's and other 'toys' driving around here.
Roure is a truely beautiful mountain village. Small alleys with dozens of waterfalls, a magnificent lavoir and beautiful old houses, built into a steep hillside. It's one of the scarse villages here in the Alps that really feels alive at this time of year. From here, deep below us, we can also see the village we'll walk through shortly: Saint-Sauveur-sur-Tinées, some 600 meters below. We have to speed ut the pace to get there in time: at 12.30 p.m. the epicerie closes and we really like to do some shopping. After several days in the mountains it's much needed and since it is Sunday, everything is closed for the rest of the day. During the descent we begin to notice that the vegetation around us suddenly changes. We walk past countless oak, almond and olive trees and everywhere around us are flowers to be seen. It's teeming with little insects and butterflies. A little further we even see a praying mantis, a snake and also an emerald lizard! What a difference in nature... After weeks of being really high up in the mountains, it suddenly seems like a completely different world. Really a Mediterranean mountain landscape. And for the first time in weeks the temperatures today are running above 20 degrees. It's summer again! It takes a bit of getting used to, because even during the descent it's hot. And the climbing has yet to begin... We are already looking forward to the shower at the campsite tonight, lol.
We cross the river in the village, le Tinée, the same river we were next to 3 days ago at the previous campsite, and are fortunately just in time to visit the store. Mountain water is delicious, but still, after a few days, it's a treat to have something else to drink! Stocked up, we walk out of the village again. We are well over halfway through the hike and start looking for a place to take a break. We walk up to the village of Rimplas which we quickly pass through. We then descend 200 meters into a river valley and halfway down we find a small patch in an old orchard where we can set up our chairs under some cherry trees. The trees are almost about to lose their leaves. We are sitting underneath the colourful fall colors, back in full summer.
We descend a bit more and then begin today's final climb. It is still almost 500 meters uphill and, with the summer temperatures, that is quite heavy.
We walk past gardens and villages, crossing a winding road several times while going uphill: we are clearly back in inhabited territory. At the end of the climb, we arrive in Saint-Dalmas. A medieval village with nice alleys and pretty houses. It's the oldest village in the Valdeblore Valley and its church dates back to the 1000s. This is also the place where the GR5 will split from the variant: the GR5 to Nice from the variant to Menton. The latter runs via the GR52 through the Mercantour for a while longer, and with approximately 100 kilometers, it's about 40 kilometers longer than the GR5 to Nice. Also, this variant means at least 3 nights of wild camping in a row since. Except for the town of Sospel, the route doesn't pass through any villages and the refuges along the trail are all closed by now. A challenging stretch with many ascents and descents, but undoubtedly also a lot of natural beauty... The route to Nice is a lot more moderate and runs from here over one large ridge and then a bit through more inhabited areas.
Since we still can't get enough of the mountains, we are leaning very much toward the Menton variant. We still have a few days to choose and keep an eye on the weather, as we need 4 good (dry) hiking days in a row.
But today we are installing ourselves at Camping Municipal in Saint-Dalmas and look back on the 3 wonderful days in the Mercantour we have had. What a beautiful area this is!
