Hiking to the waterfalls above Cogne

 Breakfasts at the hotel are pretty standard European with several different breads, croissant , cold meats and cheeses, fruit, yogurt. At this one, we had to cook our own boiled eggs. I didn’t realize that the first morning and ended up with a raw eggs on my saucer. Common topic of breakfast conversation was techniques for getting the perfect egg. We found we liked it best if we turned the heat up to 75 from 60. Nick liked his egg emerged for 8 minutes. I liked mine closer to 10 or 11 minutes.

For our hike today, we start with a bus ride. The station is behind our hotel and about 3 flights of steps down. Cogne isn’t a big place but there are 43 school kids that are planning to get on this bus too. They range from about 5 to 10 years old. There are family members there to see them off. This isn’t your ordinary school trip. They are going to learn mountain climbing using a rope! I can’t imagine being a chaperone on that field trip! 

We get off at the same stop as the kids but they go in a different direction so the kids chatter quickly fades. 

Near the bus stop is a bike sculpture covered in flowers. It commemorates when the Tour de Italy went through the town. The Tour de Italy seems to be a bit of a practice race for BBC the Tour de France.

Filipo walks slowly and deliberately as we follow along the river and gradually ascend. Then we start a serious ascent and we can see the waterfalls in the distance and the bridge at the top that we will be crossing. Oh that’s up there all right! 

We get to the bridge and we keep going up. Marta tells us that they don’t usually go higher with the groups but she thinks we can handle it and there are more falls a little further up. It is steep and rocky but it is worth it. From this vantage point we see the school kids doing the rock climbing. They are on a serious rock face. We go back down to the bridge and take a group photo. The hike down is rather steep and I’m pleased with how well my knees are holding up.   

We are lucky and see a couple of Chapelle. Usually they are higher up during the summer and are only seen in June and September. 

Along the path is a house that is built right up next to a big Boulder, using it as one of the walls. 

At one. Point we cross a road and could take that down to the bus but it’s much nicer going through the woods. Of course that’s the way we go.

We go back to Cogne for lunch and a short rest before heading out for our second hike of the day. This is an easier hike but still several miles long. We follow the river, cross over a bridge and come back on the other side. The glacier-fed rivers all are very fast.