The first full day of a two week trip to the Maritime Alps (after we had arrived the day before at Nice, after the initial shock of how hot it was and after having worked out how to drive the hire car!) saw us escape Nice and make it to St. Martin Vesbuie. After a leisurely breakfast at the campsite, we packed our bags and pointed the car towards Col St. Martin, after quite a few hairpin bends

we arrived at the mini resort, during the winter a skiers paradise, now with tourists enjoying coffee and ice-creams and as a bonus, the car park was almost empty!

The walk followed a path that quickly left the resort and moved into the forest. The path is very pleasant – not too steep and mostly in the shade, with the occasional (and increasingly) fantastic views of the surrounding mountains and densely wooded lower slopes. After a few hours of steady uphill, the trees began to thin out and a choice of paths began to open up in front of us. All the junctions up to this point had been clearly marked, but now there were no way markers at all, this was not a problem, just a surprise! After crossing some boulders, we arrived at a small trickling stream surrounded by many wildflowers, and as the path after this seemed steep, we decided that this would be a good stop to have some food.

The path after this point was a little unclear, but the occasional cairn and the odd paint splash marked the way through some steeper terrain until we arrived at a high valley. With the final slope to Col du clot Barrat and the ridge which we were going to follow now visible, the last steps to the Col was quite steep and the increasing altitude was now noticeable – but soon forgotten with the incredible views.

After a short break for photos and more food, we started out along the ridge, at this point we saw the first people since we left the car park, making their way along the upper ridge towards the summit of Mont Pepoiri.

We arrived at a path junction where there was now a clear path to the summit, it was at this point that we noticed a huge bird circling up from below us; a griffon vulture, and it was big! The final push to the top took around a further 10 minutes and we shared the summit with just a few others, the views in all directions were just fantastic. The way down was easy to see: by just following the broad ridge over some other tops.

The initial descent was steep and a little loose, but there were also many beautiful flowers growing amongst the rocks to distract from the impending doom a slip would have caused! We had the ridge to ourselves, as most others had turned off at the first Col, and headed down to a very high placed car park. Descending off the last large top, Tete Du Brec, we encountered a couple who warned us of a group of Pastou’s (mountain guard dogs) looking after a flock of sheep, we duly took their advice and gave the sheep and the dogs a wide berth. Nearing the final Col we noticed a large group of Griffon vultures on the ground, and so had one of the dogs, who ran at them forcing them all to flight. This was wonderful to see: the large birds all soring into the air, it wasn’t so great however to see this very large white dog coming our way! We needn’t have worried though, as it gave us a cursory sniff and then ran off down to the hill to a small shepards building.

Now at the final Col, there was one last slope to climb to the final viewpoint on the ridge Baus De La Frema. We could at this point have turned off, and descended without further delay, and with the sun now gone behind some cloud and a few spots of rain we very nearly did just this, but having talked ourselves round, we began the relatively steep ascent passing clumps of edelweiss, which are always a pleasure to see. The top was marked with a viewing table indicating all the mountains that could be seen from this fine viewpoint, it was also the top of a via Ferrata route and we could see a few people coming up. The rain had gone and the sun was now back out, but there were some ominous clouds not far away, so we began the steep descent, which seemed to go on forever. It was now very warm and the noise of the insects very loud.

We at last made it back into the comfort of the trees and some respite from the sun and soon joined the track we had come up earlier. We arrived back at the Col St. Martin and treated ourselves to some ice-cream, it had been a great, if a little hot, day out and we returned to the campsite discussing what to do next…