Ladders and tunnels in the Verdon Gorge

Today we’ve hiked the Sentier Blanc-Martel. The book says it’s 12.5 kilometres, but my Garmin says I’ve done 28 kilometres… work that out! It was very uppy downy and wiggly windy, and pretty tough with about 800 metres of ascent… And a time limit 😱

It’s a one way trail that usually takes about 5-6 hours so I’d booked a shuttle bus from the town to the start of the trail at 8.30, with a collection from the other end at 15.30, allowing 7 hours to complete the hike. I’d read that there are tricky and steep sections, and that a torch was needed for some tunnels. Although this sounded fun, I was a bit apprehensive when I read about a series of 18 ladders with 274 steps down an 80 metre drop.

The bus dropped us off at Chalet de la Maline, and everyone set off, soon finding their place depending on speed and ability. I was surprised to be overtaking people, wearing good boots and used to walking on rocky ground. The path wound downhill to the gorge and, after about 20 minutes, we reached the Pas d’Issane, a rocky cliff when there’s a metal stairway dropping steeply to a viewpoint.

Not long after that, we reached the river at the bottom of the gorge, after about 300 metres of descent. I was surprised there was so much vegetation in the gorge. It was lovely and green and the path was very pleasant as it undulated, sometimes high above the river and sometimes close to it. At the start of the day, much of the trail was in shade and a very pleasant temperature for hiking.

About a third of the way into the hike we reached Eboulis de Guègues, a scree slope that we descended on large stone steps before crossing under a wall holding back the scree, above the river. The river was fairly high after a couple of days of heavy rainfall.

We were making very good progress and ahead of the schedule suggested on the map from the Office du Tourisme. Therefore, we took a detour to La Mescla, a viewpoint where the Artuby River joins the Verdon River from another gorge.

Having sat in the sunshine and eaten our pain au raisins, bought from the bakery before we left, we retraced our steps to rejoin the main path. It was steeper and rockier now, climbing to Brèche Imbert, a narrow gap in the rock. This is where the ladders are. In fact, they aren’t ladders, but metal stairs. They were far easier than I’d expected having tackled proper ladders down steep drops in the Dolomites.

That said, they were fun, and the views of the gorge from the top and on the way down were stunning. This was probably my favourite part of the hike.

After this, there were lots of rocky overhangs along the route. The cliffs towered above us on both sides and the sound of the river was always present. We saw climbers on the walls high above us and were pleased to see a couple of vultures circling.

The path levelled out for a bit and, just as I was starting to worry that I was slow because the the sun was now high in the sky and I was hot, we made good progress in the shade of the trees and bushes. Where the gorge narrowed, there was a handrail to help us over a particularly slippery section on rock, worn smooth by many feet.

Eventually we reached the Tunnel de Trescaire which is 100 metres long, but which didn’t require torches. However, this was shortly followed by the Tunnel du Baou, which is 670 metres long and very dark. Thank goodness for headtorches.

There are several ‘windows’ in the second tunnel including one, Baume aux Pigeons, where there are the remains of a path down to the river, closed when it became dangerous after heavy floods. The river looked beautiful from here… lovely and green at the bottom of the narrow canyon.

By now I was happy that we were making good progress and wouldn’t miss our bus back to Palud-sur-Mer. We spent some time sitting by the river, watching a raft come through, eating cold pizza, and having a paddle to cool down.

It was a lovely spot, but all too soon it was time to start the climb out of the gorge, almost 200 metres up to Point Sublime where the bus would collect us.

Although it was very hot by now, the climb wasn’t as bad as I expected. The path uphill was narrow and rocky, but there were plenty of flattish sections to get my breath back, and some shade.

Having taken more photos at the viewpoints en route, we finally saw the bar at Point Sublime, and reached it in time for beers before the bus… just perfect! It’s been a great day 😃