Day 10: La Fouly to Champex-Lac

Feeling much better today, Gaby was up for the short section to Champex-Lac.

The day began with around 10km of descent down the Dranse de Ferret valley from La Fouly. The trail wound through forests, meadows and a succession of tidy chalet-style villages. It was an easy and pleasant start, helped by the fact that gravity was doing most of the work for a change.

By late morning we found ourselves sitting in a bus shelter, hiding from the sun before tackling the day's only real challenge: the 500m climb up to Champex-Lac. The ascent was hot, continous and steep and eventually brought us to the lakeside village. Champex-Lac is often described as the "Little Canada" of Switzerland, with a small lake surrounded by forest and mountains. Whether it actually resembles Canada is open to debate, but it was certainly a pleasant place to arrive.

From there we followed the path around the lake and on to the campsite. Tent up, showers taken, clothes washed and hung out, we then headed back into town for groceries.

The shopping trip turned into more of an expedition than expected. The supermarket was eye-wateringly expensive. Gaby's card was declined for insufficient funds. I then tried with cash, only to discover I hadn't have enough. My card was then declined as well. After a brief consultation with my banking app and a growing queue behind us, we finally managed to pay the €49 bill for what amounted to some snacks, a simple evening meal and sandwiches for the following day.

The rest of the afternoon was spent savouring our gold plated food, resting and generally cowering from the sun.