Day 7 - Via Ferreta

The cheapest way to scare yourself:

After a late night we spent the morning chilling out at the campsite. Yet again for breakfast we cleared the local deli out of Brioche and raisin swells, the locals queuing behind us won’t to impressed. Mid-morning most of us took an ice cold plunge into the lake alongside the salmon course. A reward for this was a cold beer Jack had sunk to the bottom. Another cheese filled baggett for lunch followed an afternoon on the Via Ferreta course in the Durance gorge. We hired the harnesses from a local sports shop. On arrival to the Via Ferreta we were greeted by a map of the various routes, green, red and black. Now the instruction being in French we found it difficult to translate and picked a black route. Off we went, started climbing higher and higher, crossed suspended bridge after suspended to reach the highest point another suspended bridge some 650 feet up swaying in the wind. Very early on the group of 8 became 7. Harnessed on we began to cross the gorge, some fantastic views if you didn’t crap yourself from the sheer elevation. Once the other side a short climb up to reach the highest point before turning around and crossing back over the bridge. A couple of extremists decided to leap over the barrier of the water pipe crossing the gorge, slightly higher than the suspended bridge and take a free run back across. Jack was disappointed when his pulley wheel from his kayaking kit wouldn’t fit the zip line hanging above the bridge. If you were lucky some kind person stood and jumped on the bridge to shake wobbly passengers into a state of erratic panic. The evening was spent BBQing and raving with dance music pumping from van upsetting most of the neighbours except next door who wanted it louder. Some sore heads in the morning.