For my second day, I had decided to try the 3-hour hike up to the Vallon de l'Orgère, at 2000m altitude. I had underestimated, however, just how steep the climb would be as it was literally three hours straight up! This has to be the hardest hike I have ever done, or maybe I'm just feeling my age, but it was such a relief to finally make it to the top, with the added reward of my first Titania's Fritillary in a meadow along the final section.
Here, I was in a high, alpine valley, although still well below the treeline, with plenty of butterflies I'd not seen the day before. At one point, a Heath Fritillary drew my attention to some fresh scat so I just sat down and snapped away at the various blues which were coming and going. It wasn't until I was looking through my pictures in the evening, that I discovered I'd photographed my first Cranberry Blue, one of the species I'd most hoped to see.
Heath Fritillary with Cranberry Blue!
After four hours with plenty more blues, numerous grizzled skippers and several species of Erebia, I reluctantly started the long walk back. There was a shuttle service back down but it had to be reserved the day before, so I didn't want to wait until the end of the afternoon, with storms approaching, only to find there was no room and I had to walk back anyway. I took a slightly different route though, along the road to avoid the steepest section, and was really glad I had decided to walk instead of waiting for the bus as I then found one of my most wanted species; the beautiful Scarce Copper.
A hunting Short-toed Eagle seen from my hotel room that evening concluded a great short getaway as I headed back to Brussels the following morning. I'm still trying to identify all of my 300 or so butterfly pictures, so I don't yet know how many species I saw in total, but the area was fantastic so I'll definitely be going back for more.
