Idyllic alpine trail and the most beautiful natural ravine | Day 4.1 of TMB Camping le Pontet-Refuge La Balme

That day started very late us being lazy and we found that it always happens whenever we stay in the campsites with facilities. There is nothing that disturbs us and forces to wake up early and also there are lots of things to do from washing the hair and washing and drying our clothes to using the Wi Fi that provides the camping.

So we were pretty happy about the campsite and grateful for the rest it gave us and feeling refreshed we started this new day of hiking.

We didn’t have too many plans for the day already having an experience with following the stages we knew that we will do less distance and have more time in the day to be able to appreciate the trail and shoot videos. We knew that the trail will be going uphill for a long time and then we’ll face the mountain top to climb. We didn’t plan to do that and stop lower on the trail.

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So first part of the trail was going along the river and then it started to climb a very steep uphill. It turned out to be a Roman old way and there we met a roman bridge and a very beautiful natural place with the very powerful and fast waterfalls and deep ravine in the rocks. It was simply amazing. The places like this make all the effort worth it and motivates you to discover more of the nature’s beauty. It feeds your heart and soul.

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After some more time we met a refugee de Nantes Borrant where we were attracted by a menu cart of different ice creams and decided to try it. It was one of the best homemade and natural ice creams that we tasted. The coconut flavour was with the pieces of real coconut and chocolate flavour was with drops of chocolate. And the blueberry sorbet was perfect. It felt that there were no additives, preservatives or sugar added.

After such a good treat we continued to hike uphill and to our surprise the trail was quite easy – it was a dirt car road that was climbing very gentle for a long time till we got to our planned destination Refugee de Balme.

The weather was very hot and clear and the sun was burning like crazy. Only the fresh wind and shadow of the forest was saving us.

We were pleasantly surprised to see several allowed campspots for the tent with the signs on the road. It was some flat space with the toilets nearby. We feel like there is not enough places like this overall on the trails and especially in the mountains it is very important when the relief is very hard and hilly.

So we had our snack at the Refugee Balme and even though it was tempting to stay in the camping area we felt like we had enough powers to continue the trail and so we did…

Here is the link to Google map to follow the hike: