Despite a gloomy weather forecast, 17 hardy hikers signed up for a double hike around the top of the Salève. In the event, Drew had an unavoidable commitment at the last moment, so 16 of us made our way somewhat erratically to the rendezvous point by the Observatoire restaurant. I failed miserably to communicate to the Divonne team that Drew would not be there, so precious time was lost in their departure. Anyway, they set off in an assortment of vehicles trying to avoid the autoroute which was apparently blocked. One of the said vehicles, or rather its driver, got somewhat confused by the ever-changing 5 year-old roadworks by the Ferney tunnel and had a pleasant magical, mystery tour of Grand Saconnex before proceeding to Bardonnex.
The weather forecasters had, luckily, misread their instruments and we set off half an hour late in warm sunshine and blue skies with scattered clouds. Two of us were so encouraged that we opted to bare our lower limbs for the first time in 6 months, leading certain comments about the whiteness of our skin!
The views of the Jura, Lac Léman and the Alps were clear and quite spectacular leading to much snapping of cameras (and smartphones).
We followed an anti-clockwise route around the famous Genevois landmark and soon made a short detour to a viewpoint above the Grande Gorge to marvel at how much concrete there was in the Pays de Gex and Southern Geneva. The beauty of our beloved Jura mountains with a few vestiges of snow on the peaks compensated somewhat for the destruction of the countryside below, though.
Happy guys
Our path took us through pleasant woodland until we reached the open alpages where numerous skylarks were singing.
Heading towards La Croisette, we reached a stony outcrop which was the highest point of our hike. In true GIN fashion, bottles were produced whilst we recovered from our exertions and even champagne glasses to celebrate Mark 2tts’ birthday from two weeks ago. “Happy birthday” was duly sung and a crowd-funding campaign was suggested to enable a parapente ride for him, but he graciously declined!
Glasses clinked and stowed away, we continued on our route and we were now having great views of Mont Blanc and the rest of the Alps. Old stamping grounds were identified and plans discussed for future sorties in that direction. We reached the restaurant at the Observatoire right on time for our updated reservation and found an excellent long table for all 16 of us ready and waiting.
Excellent local beers were consumed by most of us, whilst at the Northern end of the table, some red wine was espied. The menu choices of burgers, roast lamb and diots were reviewed and subsequently consumed, followed by coffees.
She says she’s more interested with what’s on the plate
As the circular trail we had taken before lunch was only about 6 kms, 12 of us set off this time in a clockwise direction on the same route, whilst 4 of our number decided to return home for various reasons. The weather was still warm and Mark 2tts and I felt somewhat vindicated by our earlier decisions whilst others stripped off to single-layer tops. Reaching the site of our earlier refreshment stop, we marvelled at the number of parapenters enjoying themselves nearby. 17 were counted in the air at one time, miraculously avoiding each other, but Mark was still not accepting our generous offer!
Peter was suggesting taking a precipitous path lower down on the way back, but as we had spent a considerable time in the restaurant, we decided to forego this pleasure until another occasion as time was moving on.
It wasn’t the toughest hike for the group, at about 12 kms and less than 300 metres dénivellation, but the company was, as usual, great and the views were superlative. And by the way, we had two Marks, two Mikes, two Steves and two Richards – must be a record!
Present: David C, Larry F, Marks 2rrs, Mark 2tts, Mervyn P, Mike H, Mike M, Peter T, Rob P, Ralph W, Richard S, Richard W, Rudi P, Stephen L, Stephen W (Ralph’s brother) and Thatcher S.