Hike above Bassins 24 Oct 24

Twelve signed up for this hike, with 4 apologists. Attending in no specific order:-

Mark2rs, Mark2ts, PeterS, RichardS, Nathan, Rudi, Stephen, Ralph, Philip, MikeH, Nicholas, me (PeterT), with dogs, Onyx, Rocco and Kobie. A fine turn out for what I had promised as a moderate hike (not much over 400m ascent) in the hills above Bassins.

In the event it was 12.25km and 444m denivellation (my watch said 416m).

We met at what3words ///revolting.though.aquatics at 971m and I wondered if this would put a curse upon us; would it rain (again) on our parade?

We all met up on time at the revolting car park above Bassins. It was good to see Stephen back with us, as well as Rudi and RichardS (albeit he had just led the Lac de Joux hike).

We headed off on time and set course across an open and level field, the wire fencing having been removed after cows had been descended. Clearly Onyx was going to run and run, while the other two hounds were slightly more sedate.

We ascended the grassy track and then the leaf strewn trail up to La Dunanche overlook, by the Toblerone line. The view from here is normally magical. Today we were in the cloud.

We continued on up and towards the outlook at Le Planet. Amazingly the skies cleared and we came out above the cloud, albeit not exactly into the sun. The wooded path takes a steady rise at the edge of the scarp up to the outlook.

Several questions were raised about whether this was the lunch stop. But it was still before noon so we had to continue onwards and upwards.

We soon reached the open fields above Le Planet and passed some cows and a stile following which we headed towards a forest road.

Mike was supportive – “yes it’s a good idea to keep going a little so that we can lunch when the sun comes out fully”.

It was not long before we were enveloped in cloud again and after a short section on a road we headed gayly off left into the forest. This was an error of map reading by the leader (who actually had a paper map – but it was fairly large scale). This trail gradually petered out as PeterS and I went ahead into the uncertain undergrowth. Happily PeterS had a phone map with satellite GPS locationing and we managed to navigate out of the thick forest onto a logging trail. Unhappily this trail was covered in a thick layer of broken and unrolled rock. A kilometre of this awful surface followed.

Happily we exited onto a smooth straight trail heading towards where I knew there would be a bench/table/bench by a hut for us to have lunch. It was at this point that it began to spot with rain. It was 1.15pm or so.

We were at the Cabane de Peney at 1275m. 6 aside on the big table. Some Valpolicella and Swiss wines were offered. Two of our team were on the wagon! Others were abstaining as per their religion (etc). But it became clear that this was to be no dry lunch, as the rain became steadier.

We were so enjoying the lunch and associated banter that we forgot to cover the subject of Scottish independence, but we did have a poll on who was going to win the US election: Harris came out on top beating Trump 6 to 4 with 2 abstensions.

Gradually the rain grew heavier and our drinks were becoming diluted. Certainly I can recall no previous lunch where we had sat out in such conditions. Happily it was not so cold. But not too warm either.

It was time to move on and escape back down to the cars.

The escape route was easy enough – via the campsite (Mervyn knows), and down the road back to the cars. Fortunately the rain begain to ease and the journey back down was not unpleasant.

A memorable hike, perhaps for a wrong reason, but good fun despite revolting aquatics – it’s just so good to be out in the fresh air enjoying nature with chums and hounds.