Lost in the Colanques

Colanques (pronounced ka-lonks) are basically inlets of water where little villages have sprouted up in the area. We planned on taking a trail to one with a swimming hole and then swimming for a bit before hiking back. But somehow we got really lost. The trails had blazes on them to help hikers, but we didn't have a map that corresponded to those blazes, so they were pretty useless. We hiked up and down this one trail that was all loose rocks and really quite dangerous. At times we weren't really hiking but sliding downhill. It was kind of fun. Unfortunately, the trail was a dead end to a 200 foot drop. Woops.

Just one of the magnificent views we saw from the colanques area.

So we had to hike back up the hill of loose rocks. I don't know which one was harder up or down. Thankfully, Tim had noticed this group of about 30 hikers (how could he have missed them) coming up from the village that we wanted to get down to. So we got on that trail and were finally able to get down. If God had not sent that group for us to see, I don't know how we would have gotten out of that area.

One of the many paths we took that day.

We bought some water, which we desperately needed at that point and ate some lunch. Then we decided to go for a dip in the Mediterranean Sea, for the second time on our journey. It was cool, but you got used to it. And we were hot after our long, arduous hike.



The colanqes at last.

Then we decided it was time to find a way out of this place. We did not want to go back the same way we had come, so we decided to take the road. We hiked uphill and uphill and uphill some more. After a while this group of about 10 French people caught up with us. So we followed them, thinking they would know where they were going. We were wrong; they were just as lost as we were. But as the saying goes, "Misery loves company".

We finally got to a place that was familiar and parted ways with our new French friends. Evenutally we even made it back to the bus stop that would take us back to Marsaille. I had never been so happy to see a bus before. All in all we probably hiked about 10 miles on less than desirable trails, but the view was magnificent.