GR10 Day35

We helped ourselves to our allotted items from the cupboard for breakfast and set off just before 9am.  There was a broad track leaving the Nordic Village, meandering across the plateau and climbing slowly.  We then dropped down and had to work our way through a boulder field, before stopping at a hut where we refilled our bottles with very cold water.  We then started to climb up a broad, grassy slope.  We had made good progress to this point, but progress now became very slow as we worked our way along the ridge.  We were just below the crest of the ridge on a narrow track, with a very steep drop-off.  There were numerous areas where we had to scramble up or down a few metres.  We finally reached the end of this section and started the descent.  I was standing on the ridge, with a couple of higher points either side of me.  I was looking down the slope, when suddenly there was a great whooshing noise, and an eagle dived a couple of metres above my head.  It continued its dive down the slope, as I looked at it, thinking “what on earth was that?”.  As I watched, it pulled out of its dive and shot up into the sky far above us.  Christine was standing looking in amazement as this happened.  We then had a short climb and a very quick descent to the refuge.  There are crowds of people, including lots of children, and a few babies!  How they got here we don’t know, though definitely not our route.  We’ve got a room to ourselves and had a good evening meal.  No showers though, due to a water shortage.