The day we went to the Asphalt mines, Cat and I had a minor detour that wasn’t mentioned in the blog. I saw one of the “scenic signs” that said: “Cruex du Van”. We decided to follow the sign and see where it took us because we had an hour to waste before our tour was to begin. The road quickly turned into a single lane and the incline got steeper and steeper as we continued. I was taking it slow when another car appeared out of nowhere and dangerously passed me. I remind the audience of my lack of confidence in my own ability of hill starts and started to get very nervous that another car was going to come down the road or try to pass me and require me to do one. Cat and I drove about 4 miles straight uphill in our powerless car and then decided to turn around as I didn’t want to risk slipping down the mountainside because of my lack of ability to do a hill start.
Only after I got back and researched the “scenic sign” did I realize that it was an amazing natural rocky cliff that is almost a mile wide on the north side of Le Soliat. From that day, I knew I wanted to get back to walk around it.
Another side note: I made a bet with Cat that I lost and her prize was that we wouldn’t go on anymore hikes that had a lot of hills.
My solution to the 2 points above was to have H drop us off at the summit of Cruex du Van. Caitlyn and I could then walk down the 5 miles back to the car. I thought it was the perfect solution. H had to work in his Couvet office again and the plan was to meet him for lunch and then get dropped off. On our way to the lookout, we came across tons of cows. Their bells were on and ringing! We drove for 40 minutes and found ourselves on the wrong side of the mountain facing the lake. (Note: Google maps is awful here! We have ended up in pedestrian walkways, on bus lanes and driving the wrong way down one-way streets so it isn’t surprising that Google took us to the wrong place.) Because of meetings he had to attend for work, we had to abandon our charge to the top of the mountain and settle for a walk back to our car from his work (3 miles away along the river).
Because of meetings he had to attend for work, we had to abandon our charge to the top of the mountain and settle for a walk back to our car from his work (3 miles away along the river).
I kept thinking about this rocky cliff the entire walk back to the car. With Caitlyn’s help, I mustered enough courage to tackle this hill again. We figured out the right path and got to the parking lot for the trail head to the cliffs. The road to the Creux du Van wasn’t marked very well. In fact, a person actually had to use permanent marker to make notes to one of the signs to point out the way to get there. Once we got there, we had about a 1/4 mile walk to get to the cliffs. As soon as we crossed a small wall we were met with the straight drop down.
I stuck my phone over the edge and took a picture to show how drastic the drop was.
There are tons of hikes you can do from up here. Truth be told, I think Caitlyn was happy that she didn’t have to hike down.
Cat thought it was fun to throw the rocks off the cliff and listen to them hit below.
I was so scared that she was going to fall off.
On our way back to the car we made friends with the cutest goat that loved having his head scratched.
As we left, Cat decided to become a cow whisperer to help move them out of the road. It worked!
They looked into each other’s eyes and the she sent telepathic messages to tell him to get off the road!
Although the day didn’t end as we expected it to, we had a a great experience and wouldn’t have changed a thing. (And I was proud of myself for conquering my fears of driving up the steep road!!)
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