Sleeping on a Col: Col de la Croix de Fer

Zagan the motorhome is on top of the world, well it feels like it, as he is perched on the Col de la Croix de Fer (Col of the Iron Cross) in the French Alps (N45.22708, E6.20384). In French, a ‘col’ is a mountain pass, and they’re often wonderful places to stay.

When we awoke at Lac du Grand Maison the blue skies had gone and black storm clouds had rolled in. Nevertheless, Jay donned his waterproof jacket and set off to run up to the nearby mountain pass.

Dark clouds gather at the lake, but it is still beautiful.

When he got back, Jay said that he thought the views from the top of the pass were even better than where we were, and there was a Zagan-sized car park. After a hot shower to thaw out, Jay drove us back up the road he had just ran up and down and soon we were parked up with a view of clouds out of the windscreen. The weather had closed in.

We spent a couple of hours keeping dry in Zagan. On the col we had internet access, again (there was none at the lake) so Jay published the blog post he wrote the day before, while I read and watched the clouds roll across the sky, revealing tantalising glimpses of the mountains they were covering up. In the early afternoon there was a break in the rain, so we wrapped up and headed out for a walk on one of the many trails leading to the col.

The landscape around us had a very limited palette of colours, which weren’t enhanced by the grey skies. We joked that you would only need grey, green and brown to paint it, with a dash of black of the parts of the mountains not covered in snow. But, if you looked closely you could find little flashes of colours in the plants and flowers.

Walking along a soggy path something moved near my feet, making me jump. I had nearly trodden on a shiny black creature. It stood stock still, so I grabbed a couple of photos in case it was a rare find. Google later told me it was an Alpine Salamander – and further along on our walk by some lakes there were loads of them.

In the evening the clouds finally unveiled the mountain range they had been hiding. Views like this are what the widescreen Hymer motorhome windscreens are made for.

At night the wind picked up. We were mostly sheltered by a snow-covered lump of rock next to us, but the howling noise of the wind rushing over the skylight kept us awake for a while. The following morning, despite the weather forecast predicting thunderstorms and rain, the cloud had continued to lift and there was even a bit of blue sky. Jay had spotted a village down below the pass, so he donned his running gear and set off down the hill. I followed a little while later armed with the camera to catch some pics of him as he ran back up.

The Criox de Fer, the Iron Cross

As I waited in position with a great view below me to capture Jay running in, further up the road several marmots were on the move. I’ve never been this close to them before and they are quite big. They bounced their way across road to settle in on the rocks for some morning sunshine.

Sunbathing marmot

Can you spot Jay on the road?

I ran down to meet Jay for some better shots of him as he was a bit small in the one above. With the scenery being so epic, the photos will make a great memento of all the hard work he has put in training for the Zermatt Ultra Marathon in a few weeks time.

By the time we made it back to Zagan, the clouds had rolled back in, the heavens opened and we were sitting in a whiteout. It didn’t matter though, we had seen what was behind the white and it was beautiful.

Ju x

I have idea what sort of bird this is, but his call didn’t sound like a normal tweet.