MARVELOUS DAY IN ALPS MARITIME

STREPEIS – BELOW RIFUGIO EMILO QUESTA

VIA ALPINA DAY 69 – SATURDAY 29 AUGUST 2026

DISTANCE HIKED: 26.00 km
ELEVATION GAIN: 2,435 m 

TOTAL DISTANCE HIKED: 1,777.23 km
TOTAL ELEVATION GAIN:  93, 713m

Hotel Corborant was a fabulous slice of generous hospitality—a hotel with old-world comforts.

I woke this morning to the sound of a rooster crowing. Breakfast wasn’t until 8am, so I forced myself to stay in bed a little longer and then promptly fell asleep again. Hammer didn’t stir.

Breakfast was a generous offering, finished off with delicious in-house baked sweets, which I enjoyed with a freshly made cappuccino. We shared a table with Ella and Cam, the Aussies we met yesterday morning who, by coincidence and bad weather, had also ended up staying here.

We stepped out of the hotel into a cool morning. Perfect blue skies and the perfect temperature for hiking. From the hotel it was straight up for 6km, climbing 1,000m to Passo di Bravaria at 2,311m. Cam and Ella passed us on the way up, and we met again on the summit.

I can’t describe how peaceful and beautiful this morning felt after the dull, grey, rainy day yesterday. I feel so fortunate that we are fit and healthy enough to be here, doing this now.

From the summit we descended towards the Santa Anna church and a couple of refugios. From a distance, it was such a beautiful sight to see them bustling with people enjoying a sunny start to the weekend. The refugios were hosting some kind of scout event, with kids milling around and getting ready for a fiesta.

Because we had a late start, I knew we might not make our planned destination today. We were also planning to go off trail to the ski resort town of Isola 2000 to resupply at a small supermarket.

We crossed back into France just after Colle di Santa Anna and stopped to have a delicious panini prepared by the kitchen staff at the hotel. It was so good our day couldn’t get any better.

We continued criss-crossing the French-Italian border before arriving at the buzzing Col de la Lombarde. There were cars, motorbikes, bicycles and people everywhere. Italy was on our left and France on our right as we faced south.  There were quite a few old military bunkers along the border, dating back to WWII, I’m guessing.

We stopped at a small food shack on the summit for a cold drink before descending towards the ski resort Isola 2000 and further into France. Passing numerous chalets, the Isola village looked deserted. We decided not to descend further to the supermarket and instead hike on into the Alpi Maritime/Mercantour National Parks.

As soon as we entered the park, we spotted three Alpine chamois around an old military bunker—two adults and a small kid. They didn’t seem at all spooked by our presence, and we watched them for a while as they licked something from the bunker wall.

As we moved towards yet another pass, the trail became rocky and extremely difficult to navigate. If it weren’t for the rock cairns left by other hikers, I’m sure we would have been going around in circles. Progress was slow, but at least we were moving.

We needed to cross Passo delle Portette Sud and back into Italy. We passed the beautiful Lac Tavels but couldn’t stop as we wanted to get over the pass before dark.

It was hard work climbing uphill on a virtually non-existent trail. We passed three blokes heading the other way, and they warned us that the trail was really bad on the French side but much better once back in Italy.

We managed to find our way up an almost vertical final section. Such a relief!
In the fading daylight, we descended on a well-marked, well-made trail towards another lake, Lago delle Portette, and Rifugio Emilio Questa. We were back in Italy.

It was dark by the time we reached the rifugio, and there were no possible campsites—the hut was surrounded by rocky terrain. So we continued descending by torchlight.
It was actually quite pleasant hiking in the dark. About a kilometre below the hut, we found a perfect, flat grassy spot. We got the tent up and  watched a full moon rise over the mountains.

A full-circle ending to a marvellous, but at times very challenging, day on the trail.