Tim in the alps 2009

Hols

timwalksthealps2009 — Sun, 09 Aug 2009 19:32:19 +0000

Few holiday photos are up

Ps46 struan & phil comments

timwalksthealps2009 — Sat, 01 Aug 2009 20:49:19 +0000

Hi Struan, glad to hear you’ve been reading the odd post. I’m afraid I’m going to stop the blog while I chill out with the family for a couple of weeks.
Thanks Phil I hope you had a good holiday youself. I’ll take you up on that whisky just as soon as I can, and get you one or two back.

Posted by Wordmobi

Day 44 Photos

timwalksthealps2009 — Thu, 30 Jul 2009 19:25:15 +0000

All photos from the last 10 days or so are uploaded.

Posted by Wordmobi

Day 44 Humbled

timwalksthealps2009 — Thu, 30 Jul 2009 19:00:05 +0000

I am very pleased that I have managed to do what I have set out to do, but I am also very humbled by the fact that alot of people do the exact same thing in alot less time, or mostly in tents or with children etc, etc. This was not an exceptional feat! There are alot of very good people in the alps looking after refuges or gites d’etape, generally doing an amazing job if looking after the walkers.

Posted by Wordmobi

Day 44 thanks

timwalksthealps2009 — Thu, 30 Jul 2009 18:50:45 +0000

Thanks to everybody who posted comments. It really helped to keep the motivation going. Thank you especially to Sarah, Rachel, and Mia for giving up your husband or dad for 6 weeks. Love you all. See you tomorrow.

Posted by Wordmobi

Day 44 hurrah! Finished

timwalksthealps2009 — Thu, 30 Jul 2009 18:47:18 +0000

So after a very tough day of baking med heat arrived on the beach exhausted and happy. Left campsite at Sospel at 7:30. Traditional 1000+m climb followed by 1300m descent mostly on steep gravely paths in the baking heat. Hit the beach at 15:30. Bit of an anticlimax as altough nice place on my own and place is full of tourists who know nothing of walking. Cheap hotel very hot shower. My clothes smell. Several cold beers. Happy finished but sad because end of adventure. Very excited to be seeing Sarah, Rachel and Mia in Nice tomorrow.

Posted by Wordmobi

Day 44 Ice cold in Menton

timwalksthealps2009 — Thu, 30 Jul 2009 17:23:21 +0000

Ok anybody you gets the disguised reference to the old black and white film in the title of this post gets a memorial pair of my socks as a prize.

Posted by Wordmobi

Day 43 the road to hell (sospel)

timwalksthealps2009 — Wed, 29 Jul 2009 21:33:41 +0000

Wasn’t so bad really. Just one of those days. Left the magnificent gite d’etape at pont d’agent at 9:45am late, but I ws expecting an easy 5 hour walk downhill to sospel. But the gr52 has been rerouted and goes up before comung down again, and there had been a major landslide making the gr52 impassable so the FFRP had done some emergengy rerouting with some contradictory waymarking that ended up going up hill even more, so ultimately did a bit of extra climbing before coming down 1500m, in the baking afternoon heat at 35 degreesC yo arrive at 17:00. But it was worth it in the end to see the crumbling medeival not too touristy small town of Sospel. Fanrastic. Gite d’etape was full. Hotels too expensive, so in campsite tonight. Nice dinner with swiss german couple. Fresh anchovies and tomato mozzarella salad, tarte tatin cold (my choice). Nice. Tough day tomorrow: last day 7 hours according to book. Probably means 9 or 10. May neen to stay in hotel tomorrow to scrub myself clean. Was in supermarket this evening and noticed a funny smell then realized it was me.

Posted by Wordmobi

Day 42 catching up

timwalksthealps2009 — Tue, 28 Jul 2009 21:12:15 +0000

After yeterdays short but tough day, I wanted to try to catch up. It turned out that I was right yesterday to stop early. I started from the ‘refuge de Nice’ at 7:30am and arrived at the ‘refuge des merveilles’ at 2:30pm (one our lunch break.) So it took me 6 hours of the toughest walking that I have done yet. Alot of it over large patches of icy and melting snow. I am not very experienced on snow and always nerverous of putting a foot through the snow down onto rock twisting an ankle or knee in the process. It happened once but no lasting harm. There was also alot of very steep and very rocky boulder fields to cross. Apparently it has only been about 3 weeks since that section of the path has been passable. Before that there was too much snow. Through thar section of path there are also some famous rock carvings carvec about 5000 years ago by bronze age man. Have to say, not interested to see them in the flesh as the scenery is so spectacular. So at the ‘refuge de merveilles’ i had a can of shandy anda bar of chocolate and carried on my merry way at 3pm hoping to make it to a gite d’etapeI gad already booked supposedly about 4 hours away. Inevitably it took me 45m longer. Do rolled in at 19:45 just in time for a quick shower and a light dinner. Absolutely banjaxed. (look it up)

Posted by Wordmobi

Day 41 A change of plan

timwalksthealps2009 — Tue, 28 Jul 2009 20:17:50 +0000

I was going to walk from the refuge de ‘madone de fenestre’ to the refuge des merveilles in 7:40 which would have been one of the longest days I’ve done. So I climbed up the 600m or so to the ‘pas de mont colomb’ in the 2:15 suggested un the book, but it crossed alot of scree, and boulders and quite alot of snow, which I am always nervous of falling through. Absolutely phenomenal views at the col though, then came the 400m descent to a lake which was supposed to take 1 hour, but it took me two. It was not dangerous, just very steep, across snow in places and across a large boulder field. Intense concentration required, to arrive at the stunning lake ‘La barme’ and the idylic ‘refuge de nice’. The refuge guardian said it was even further to the next refuge, with a litle more snow. and about as diffucult technically so I decided to call it a day even though it was only 1 o’clock. The place is fabulous so I spent the afternoon sunbathing next to the lake feeling slightly guilty, but I think it was a good call: tired legs make mistakes. On the was down I saw an amazing humming bird like insect about four inches long, with a great long snout taking nectar from little pink flowers. It has splashes of pink on its wings, which are usually flapping so fast that they are a blur. Like a hummingbird. It turns out in french its called a ‘sphinx’ and its actually a moth. Very impressive. There will be a photo eventually. Also saw several chamois at quite close range today.Feeling good. Refuge de Nice very basic no showers cold water only but nice people and good but sparse dinner.

Posted by Wordmobi