From Grasse to Manosque.

[regedmunds]

Last May I started to hike the GR4 route from Grasse. I'd always wanted to walk through and around the Grand Canyon of Verdun so this was my chance. My intention was to wild camp all of the way. Before starting my walk I decided to have lunch in Grasse. The waitress came over and asked me if I was hiking the GR4, to which I said yes. She warned me about wild boar, large agressive sheep dogs and WOLVES en route!

During the rest of that day I walked through a couple of villages and each time stopped for coffee and cake. In both places the waiters warned me about wild boar, aggressive sheep dogs and WOLVES!

By the time it was dusk I had walked through a small hamlet and up a boulder cluttered hill to the top, where I found a lovely patch of grass. As I looked ahead I saw two adult wild boar and three piglets and they were slowly walking towards me. I lost my nerve and backtracked half way down the hill to another patch of grass and pitched my tent. Anxiety was still nagging at me, so I wandered back up to the top of the hill to check if they had gone, only to find that the wild boar were still walking towards me. I went back to my tent, lost my nerve completely, gathered up all of my stuff and walked back to the hamlet. I found a three seater bench and slept there the night.

From then on I stayed on camp sites! The Grand Canyon of Verdun was truly magnificent, I wandered around the area for two days. On the second day I walked right down to the bottom of the canyon, beside a raging river, and walked alongside it for about 8km before coming up to the top again. Along the walk I had to go through two very long miners tunnels, absolutely pitch black! I had a torch which was really good! If you do it, remember to take a torch!

A few days later, I was in a world of my own thoughts and suddenly a large white pistou sheepdog came charging, snarling and slobbering at me! I froze and stepped back, the dog barked so I stepped back again. He then lost interest in me and wandered back to his flock of sheep, I hadn't even noticed them until that moment. I waited until all of them wandered away from me and then I strolled on.

The sheepdogs have been imported from the Pyrenees where they are bred to watch sheep without the shepherd being there. The dogs are very territorial and are used to keep the wolves away from the sheep!

I personally did not see any wolves, even though I was warned about them. I finished at Manosqe and then caught a coach to Marseille Airport and flew home. A really great hike!