Day 40: Martigny To Orsières (1)

Sign pointing to my day's destination: Orsières via Bovernier and Sembrancher. The length of time suggested on these guideposts was always optimistic — though Orsières may be as little as five hours away for the super-fit alpine walker who is not in the habit of taking photographs, lunch stops and meditative breaks . . .   

Before hitting the trail, I diverted into Martigny Bourg (a suburb of Martigny) in search of a coffee and Danish for breakfast and some bread and cheese for lunch. In the café I was struck once more by how unfailingly polite and friendly, how utterly clean and smart and efficient were the Swiss (dare I say they are less awkward than the French?).  

It was incredibly early in the morning, but several cafés and a boulangerie were already open.

Old postcards and photographs in a shop window show how Martigny Bourg used to be. 

Setting off in earnest, the first thing that happened was that Alison Raju had made one of her common guidebook errors: it's turn RIGHT not LEFT before the train track, Alison! I climbed steeply through shady woods, paralleling river, road and railway. At a fork I had a choice of routes, and thank goodness I took the easier alternative down to the bridge  — later I read in a text from Peter that he had chosen the strenuous option, which zigzagged high up the mountain and involved handrails and scary drops. 

The turbulent river Dranse . . .

. . . and the bridge over it, which shook and swung as I went across . . .

After the village of Bovernier I walked through a long stretch of conifer woodland which sloped precipitously to the river. The path was clear but uneven, and strewn with tree roots, rocks and mossy boulders. It was also undulating — no sooner had you gained height than you were forced to descend.

A yellow lozenge confirms the way.

After a challenging couple of hours I arrived in Sembrancher. Here, for the first time, I saw raccards: wooden granaries constructed on stilts to keep out the mice and rats. Many of these old barns have been turned into houses. I was also massively impressed with the knife-edge ridge you can see in the photo.

Sembrancher (pictured above) clusters at the junction of two valleys. I turned up the right-hand one and was soon climbing. After a few short deviations (a signpost on the ground conflicted with my guidebook), I reached the delightful, typically-Swiss hamlet of La Garde, situated high above the river Dranse.  

 In La Garde I found one of those raccards I mentioned earlier . . .

Winter firewood becomes art-and-design: just look at these shapes, colours and textures. 

Sweet balcony in La Garde.