DAY 54 - EMBRUN TO LES BERNARDS

Yet another scenic day of Alpine wandering started with the usual copious breakfast.

There was a choice of 6 cakes at breakfast this morning.  Our usually-reliable taster only attempted 2 of them.

We had decided to start our walk with a level stroll on a path by the lake.

We started the day's walk with a stroll along Lake Serre-Ponçon 

Kath's new shoes, modelled with Lake Serre-Ponçon, Embrun, and Alpine mountains as backdrop 

We then headed inland and upward to join up with the GR653D, which we are largely following for this part of our trip.

Flowers and mountains - our constant companions in the Alps 

Shadow photography is something of a Camino tradition. As we are now on an official Camino route, we thought we'd have a go.

The path meandered among the contours of the mountainside, in and out, up and down. At various times we had vistas looking back to where we had been, and forward to where we were headed.

View from the GR653D - looking back to where we'd been (Lake Serre-Ponçon, the town of Embrun, and the Durance valley beyond)

View from the GR653D - looking forward to where we're going (Savines-le-Lac, the bridge over Lake Serre-Ponçon,  and a rather steep hill climb on the other side) 

We followed the path down into Savines-le-Lac, where we found a pleasant place to have our bread and cheese for lunch.

Another scenic lunch spot - this one near the lake at Savines-le-Lac

After lunch we crossed over the lake on the kilometre-long bridge. 

Crossing the bridge at Savines-le-Lac 

Once across, we climbed for 5 kilometres up to the village of Saint-Apollinaire. It was a steep but pleasant climb, partly on roads and partly on tracks.

Climbing up to Saint-Apollinaire 

From the top of the climb the GR followed the D9 road westward and downward for several kilometres.

Lake Serre-Ponçon was soon (well, not too soon) far below us

We turned off the path to navigate our way to our night's accommodation at Les Bernards.

The lake was a constant feature as we descended steadily from the day's high point 

Day:  54
Distance: 28.82 km
Walking time:  6hrs 08mins
Elevation gain:  936 metres
Cumulative distance:  1322.59 km