We felt somewhat rested after a good night’s sleep and sat down to breakfast at 7am. The light breakfast, Petit Déjeuner, which was part of our package, was ‘interesting’. It consisted of bread, butter and jam; no plates. Coffee was served in cereal bowls rather than mugs. We were not sure if the intention was to warm our hands by cupping the bowl, or whether it was perhaps to allow dunking of the bread, which wasn’t all that fresh?
We were on the trail again at 8am. The challenges were much the same as the previous day, except there was no contour path. Just zig-zagging up, then down, then up again, often over wet slippery rocks where water just pours out of the mountain, then along a dry cliff face again. The dramatic scenery never ended, just changed as we went along.
We had a snack break after a long hard slog when some folk stopped to chat and they told us about a little snack bar just 30 minutes further along the path, apparently famous for their Citronnade. We stopped there and I had a wonderful coffee, while Roger had the recommended Citronnade, a citrus drink with rum in it. Very energising and refreshing.
Soon after we left the snack bar we descended down to the river again, and this time we had to wade through, calf-deep. It seemed like popular lunch spot, judging by the many folk taking a break.
The scenery was just constantly wow. But what struck as again, as it did the previous day, was the fact that there seemed to be no or very little wildlife. We spotted and heard a few bird species, some spiders, one frog and very little else. It was very silent while walking, except of course for the helicopters running their schedules.
After a long day we eventually reached Marla and made contact with our hostess Yolande Hoareau.
Then for a while total confusion reigned.
Our hostess who knew less English than we knew French, took our voucher and managed to indicate to us where the accommodation was. Then she fetched a calculator and indicated 6.30 together with lots of hand signals showing eating/food. We of course guessed that she wanted us to pay €6.30 (it is a calculator after all!) and we said no, we have already paid, also with lots of hand signals. This went on for a while without being resolved so we eventually went off in a huff and a puff to go and find our room and then find someone to interpret for us.
After some scrambling we eventually found the room, a private one at that, and settled in.
We were rather amused to find that most of the other guests also had communication problems and were very relieved when someone arrived that could speak both French and English. We were told to be at dinner at 6:30pm. Aha! That was what she was trying to tell us; dinner is at 6:30, not pay 6:30. Problem solved. Through the interpreter Yolande and Roger both apologised to each other and everyone was smiling again.
My Fitbit showed 219 flights of steps and 18,49km for the day.