I am pleased to report we had a quiet night at the parking area, all alone once the last walkers had left. We were up and about early so decided to walk to the peak of Mont Pelerin, going up through the woods out the back of the parking area. When you reach the summit you can pay to go up the Ascenseur Plein Ciel (a 65m glass lift up the side of a Communications tower). It looked like it was 10CHF but didn’t open until 9am so we were too early to go up it. We made our route a circular walk coming back to the van via the lanes.
We then zigzagged our way back to the coast road of Lake Geneva and followed it all the way round to Montreux with a brief stop off at Corseaux-Cornalles for a quick walk around the marina.
In Montreux we found free disc parking (Blue Peter disc to the rescue again) just one road back from the lake. We then walked the Chenin Fleuri (Flower path) along the lake to the Chateau de Chillon, a 13th century fortress.
From Montreux it was a short hop and a skip to a campsite called Les Horizons Bleus at Villeneuve, where we were planning on spending the night. As it was on the lakeside we thought it would be ideal for a couple of days relaxing and a bit more kayaking. How wrong were we. Andy walked in and had a look round as from the road it looked ‘a little busy’! Let’s just say it wasn’t for us as it was rammed bumper to bumper, really noisy and full of kids. With hindsight it was on the lake, it was a weekend and the weather was gorgeous, so we probably should have expected it. We tried another campsite a bit further around the lake which was just the same so turned to Plan B.
Plan B was a campsite called Camping Les Glaciers in the small ski resort of La Fouly which we found on Pitchup.com. It had great reviews and didn’t disappoint. Although a large site it had lots of terraced individual pitches, very green and set against a back drop of stunning scenery. It is well worth taking the time to drive to it. Each night we seem to be getting higher, this site is an amazing 5249ft above sea level, higher than Ben Nevis!
The next day the camper didn’t move and we did a circular walk from the campsite to a village called Prayon and stopped off at the Restaurant Du Dolent for lunch and liquid refreshments. If anyone does this walk in the future I would recommend walking anti-clockwise, that way the more challenging half will be before you have a two course lunch and a glass of wine, with a much easier walk along the river on the way home. Needless to say, hindsight is a wonderful thing and we of course walked clockwise!!
Weather – hot & sunny
Miles Driven – 94
Miles walked – 7.2 (felt like much further!)
Overnight – 2 nights at Camping des Glaciers 45.934378 7.094471 www. Camping-glaciers.ch
This looks absolutely idyllic. Looking forward to hearing about day two there.
My route to Lake Como might just have to go via this site!