• Petra Piana – De L’onda
• July 2023

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We happily left this refuge behind and were on our way once more.

Before I tell you about this hike, let me tell you about the food on the GR20. So you can pay for breakfast (10 euros), dinner (21 euros) and order a packed lunch (12 euros) if you desire. The first 3 days we had brought enough food and our intention was to buy ‘stock’ from the small kiosks in the Refuges.

On day 2 we did however buy a packed lunch as we thought it might be more substantial. We payed 12 euros each. We received out ‘packed lunch’ which consisted of a stale dry baguette with a blob of pate in the middle of it – we never ordered another packed lunch again. Mike had been getting all his meals from camp and said they were undesirable, with only the odd one being acceptable.

Petraeus Piana didn’t even have stale bread for us to eat so we went away with water, a kit kat and a lion bar each for breakfast lunch snd possibly dinner! So aswell as the restless nights due to camping areas, cold water out a pipe for showering there is very little food also to survive the day. And these days are long and hard, food is required. This has now happened to us on a regular occasion, oher than picking up a couple of cans of tuna, rice and sweetcorn, which basically looks and feels like your eating cat food!

So back to the hike. From here you can take a low route, which is actually the main route of the GR20, or a high route. Today was windy so most people opted for the low route. We were here for the mountain scenery so we opted for the high route. We said goodbye to Mike for the day as he opted to go low.

Straight away I was glad we went high. Although windy, views were much more extensive, with Monte Ritondu and Monte d’Oru seen in all their glory. For those who enjoy the mountains and strive for the high places this is the route to follow.

Our day once again included lots of scrambling as our route cut across a steep and rocky slope. We then had a few rocky stairways and sharp arêtes to negotiate.

We finally reach the summit of Punta Murace but this is only our first summit. We continue on to reach our second summit, a rounded summit on Serra Bianca.

From here we can look ahead along the crest to see another couple of summits we still have to climb. That’s the funny thing with the GR20…its never just about one mountain, there’s at least four!

After climbing steadily up a stony ridge towards the other two summits the route continues along a ridge of broken rock. Views are amazing all around and this had been a fine ridge walk.

From here we take a rather battered and broken path which leads us down a rocky slope to reach the Bocca a Meta. The path is the usual steep, scree, loose rock kind of path where downward scrambling is also required and its pretty slow going.

We eventually get down and reach a decent enough path which caresses then mountain for some time. Eventually we get a good view of Monte d’Oru, and the tiny shape of the Refuge de l’Onda is visible. Disappointingly its mile’s away.

And once again we have more of that nasty steep, rocky, scree, loose rock decent which goes on for miles, playing with your mind and body once more.

Finally we reach the refuge and find our camping spot. We are filthy so we head for our usual cold mountain water shower before relaxing on the terrace with a well deserved drink.

Later on we get company in the tented area.

Hope you enjoyed the video above ☝ 😀