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No, definately not got vertigo
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Sorry about the lack of pictures but we having baffling power problems which is leading to laptop recharge troubles, hopefully I get to the bottom of it soon tho. Until then I'll keep it brief.
Ok, so we completely underestimated how long it would take us to get thru the mountains and into Italy. Writing this from Chamonix, just on the French side of the 11km tunnel thru mont blanc. It's a lovely place, maybe a bit too posy with all the skiers and climbers, but the energy is really good. A nice balance of busy town with peaceful countryside. Most handy is the tourist office has free wifi and there's lots of excellent walks right outside our door for Scruff.
We disappeared off into the mountains in the vercors national park. Took a very steep trek down to a 72m waterfall, relaxed in a meadow enjoying a rare moment of sunshine. Stayed in a mysterious misty mountain forest that had wild boars in, which put us all (including Scruff) a little on edge. Was freezing cold and kinda spooky spending the night in the clouds, felt like winter again.
Drove on so many higgledy piggledy hair raising breath holding roads. Came across too many route barree, deviation signs (probably roadworks due to snow or melt damage, trees or boulders in the road) I've lost count of how many. It's meant that we've done quite a bit more mountain mileage than intended and come across some especially hairy and spectacular things that we'd have otherwise missed. Like the tunnels that really didn't seem high enough for us to get thru hacked out of the rock. Serious grand prix style chicanes with not enough room for two vehicles really and sheer drops off the edge down into a distant valley.
We made it here safely tho, if a little greyer or balder ;)
As if we hadn't had enough adrenaline pumping thru us from all the driving. Today we took a cable car ride up mont blanc, we were nearly 4000m high, it took less than 20 minutes to get there! Was like that cable car in James bond when he's fighting with Jaws on the roof, who is trying to bite thru the cable with his metal teeth. (anyone else remember that?) It was so amazing to be above the clouds and still on solid ground. Our knees were all wobbly. The snow was so thick, but it was really warm in the sun, although when the clouds crept up all around us it was freezing and strangely creepy. Lena thought she was gonna suffer from vertigo but apart from a little fright on the way up when the car went all wobbly she thoroughly enjoyed it.
We hoping to take a little hike up tomorrow and maybe take the train to see the 'sea of ice' glacier.
Then we off thru the tunnel...hope there's not an earthquake while we under there!
So until next time friends (and family) Hope you all well and Happy! Take care! xx
Where I stayed:
by the side of the road near the sports centre
Latest Comments (1)
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Well done (reply)
May 23, 2008 05:56 EST by irondragon
You are not far from Lago Maggiore. If you get a chance you must visit Isola Bella and Isola Madre. They are absolutely marvellous
Dad xxx
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