David and Jo's Adventures: 3 days in amazing Rupit

Sat 15^th Sun 16th & Mon 17th March 2014

I think Jo died in her bed as soon as her head hit the pillow after all the stress of the day, I had to put ear plugs in as we were parked up close to a busy freeway but slept ok. Woke to a beautiful sunny day and a very important job of emptying out the toilet cassette! So now we are all set to explore. One of those decisions, do we head up the mountain to Rupit that we have been told is worth the visit but have heard it’s a road not for the faint hearted! After yesterday’s hassle maybe we shouldn’t and just stick to the easy roads. Well let’s go for it, and so we did and so glad we did, not too difficult to find the right road which turned out to be a fairly easy road and not too far a drive from Vic to Rupit. Well what a place, huge car park as you got into the town as only local traffic is allowed into the main areas (we wouldn’t of got Priscilla in there anyway) which was almost empty as we were fairly early, parked near another motorhome and asked if it was possible to stay overnight, yes we can stay, more if we like for E5 per night! This town is spectacular, if you looked at some parts of it you would think you were in a village in Nepal, the photos probably don’t do it justice but the buildings are wonderful dating back to the 16^th century (although the origins are much older). The town is built on a steep valley split by a river which is crossable by a swing bridge (believe me it does swing!!) It is obviously a popular place to visit on the weekends as by mid-morning the car park was full but it didn’t spoil the place and at least we knew we would still be here when everyone else had gone home. Had a good walk around the town and up to the lookout, before going into the tourist office and got a lot of info from the girl in there who spoke great English; she gave us a map and pointed out some good walks we could do over the next couple of days. Returned to Priscilla and had a late lunch whilst sitting on our new outdoor chairs for the first time, made the most of a relax in the sun before using the inverter to charge up the laptop, phone and iPod (all the cost and hassle to get one is paying off ) off the leisure batteries. Had another walk into the town in the evening before watching the movie Filth on the laptop (not that good-weird!) and getting into bed knowing we had another couple of nights in this wonderful place. What a difference from yesterday!!!!. In the morning we got up early as we had decided to go on a 16kms walk to Travetet and back, the next village across the mountain. We packed a picnic lunch and set off for the day, and what a day it turned out to be. After some hassles finding the right path we began our walk which turned out to be well signposted (makes a change). After walking up through the forest the area opened up and we both agreed we could have been on Dartmoor, then further on whole spectacular vista opened up in front of us. We were walking the whole way along the lip of the mountain with amazing views down into the valleys and sheer vertical rock faces, reminded us of the Blue Mountains in NSW but I’m afraid puts them to shame. Not too hard to walk but longest we have probably done in one day. Walked down into the pretty village of Trevetet and sat and had our picnic lunch, before a quick look around and then headed back to Rupit. Stopped at a restaurant, come conference centre, come self-catering accommodation centre perched on the side of the mountain (L’Avenc) which is owned and run by a British couple and had a beer. The original building was a fortress dating back to the 13^th century, but has been added to and renovated, it is a wonderful and peaceful place that we will definitely recommend to people. Enjoyed the rest of the walk back and the car park at Rupit was still full, glad to get out of our boots and socks after walking for 6 hours (although we’d been gone for 7) both got a beer out of the fridge and went and sat on the bench outside Priscilla. Next thing a lady and her young daughter walked past and commented on the motorhome; turns out she and her husband had travelled around Australia when they were younger and she spoke very good English. The daughter kept looking at our bare feet and tugging at her mother’s sleeve, the mother says” oh yes we saw that a lot in Australia, people in bare feet and even going into the supermarkets like it, we even took photos as we couldn’t believe it!!!!” We quickly had to explain that we hate to see that too but we had just finished a 16kms walk. Had an early dinner and a very early night as we were both knackered. Monday we rose early and discovered apart from one other motorhome we were the only ones left in the car park. Set off on our second walk that was not as far as yesterdays but as it turned out was steeper and harder taking us 4hrs to cover 8kms. Was still worthwhile as this one was out the back of the village, through a tunnel under one of the houses and onto Salt de Sallent a local waterfall. Had to walk through the woods and came to a waterfall and we both thought oh that’s nice but not very big. Further on we arrived at “The “waterfall 100m drop - wow that’s more like it. It was amazing - shear drop with cliffs and views to die for - so much more than we expected on this walk. Walked up to the lookout and could see metal hold clips in the rock for abseiling! OMG! How can people do that sort of thing! We then took the route back to Rupit via the forest. This route took us up and up and up! God we are getting so fit! It was a glorious day and we had taken the bottom off our trousers and are now showing our white legs in our shorts as the weather has been very hot 24˚C (still cold at night). Arrived back at Priscilla with no one in sight as it was Monday and everyone else was back at work!!! Got the deckchairs out again and had a late lunch/early dinner of Spanish sausages and Bull Negra (black pudding) before packing up and saying goodbye to fantastic Rupit. We then headed back down the mountains to the Aires in Grub just outside Vic where we had stayed Friday night ready for our journey onwards in the morning. The Aires is outside a Motorhome dealership so popped in to see if they could help us with one of our LED light problems (they couldn’t) inside we saw the motorbike that was used in the Dakar Rally 2012 which had been driven by Marc Coma.