London and the South

It's Saturday and we've now been in the Uk for a week. Arrived on a wet evening in Primrose Hill where Nick and Ange took us under their wing. Portobello Road markets on the Saturday, Camden markets on the Sunday and generally chilling out. London weather like that of Melbourne ... four seasons in one day.

A few days in Forest Gate catching up with old friends Chris and John, doing a bit of last minute shopping for walking gear then off to Sevenoaks for a couple of days with David and cousin Heather, including a trip to Brighton, Rottingdean and the Sussex Downs.

Deer at Knole Park, Sevenoaks

The Olde Black Horse, Rottingdean, where Tom Copper was the licensee in the 19th century.

This last week has seen us ease off on the walking and ramp up the indulgence as we fell prey to the temptations of London. My rationalisation is that we are "tapering" for the big walk!

Big concern during the week that the Chilean volcanic ash cloud drifting over Australia would keep Gen & Geordie from getting to the start of the walk on time but we think they are now in the UK and as our train speeds north through a wet Lancashire we are hoping they'll be waiting for us in Whitehaven.

That will be an occasion worth a celebratory pint!

Mont Ste Odile & Champs de Feu

On our last full day in France we took the opportunity to get some hill climbing practice. While Gill put in a few hours (feeding baby bats!) at the wildlife care centre in Roswiller we took the opportunity to walk up to the ancient monastery and pagan wall at the top of Mont Ste Odile (764m, 500m climb) where we had lunch with a million dollar view across the Rhine Valley.

In a sudden shower we descended steeply into the village of St Nabor where Gill collected us and took us to a bird banding evening at nearby Champs de Feu. The extra height here (1010m) was enough to expose us to mist, wind and intermittent showers but it wasn't enough to deter Francois and his bird banding colleagues, especially after the barbecue was lit and the inevitable bottle of wine was produced! We were most impressed with the great care these hardy enthusiasts took as they identified, banded and released the birds. A new species was observed here (a Crossbill) which will cost Francois a bottle of bubbly!

NB: First post using my new iPad (which has also signed up for the Coast to Coast walk).

The High Alps

Our last stop in the Alps was near Albertville where we once again had wonderful hospitality, this time courtesy of Pierre, Lionelle and their two sons Sylvain and Jean-Baptiste, and Lionelle's mother who has a chalet just up the hill.

 

The mountain opposite Pierre and Lionelle is an impressive 2400m high but is dwarfed by some of the other peaks in the region.  In our bedroom we could throw the shutters open in the morning and take in the grandeur of Mt Blanc (4810m).

Lionelle helped us with our coast-to-coast training, guiding us on a 5 hour walk around the hills above Beaufort where we had panoramic views of the nearby peaks.

 

In the evenings we were treated to local specialities, much of it made with produce taken from Pierre and Lionelle's own garden.

Our route home to Strasbourg was via Chamonix and the Col de la Forclaz in Switzerland.  We had spectacular views of the Mt Blanc massif and kept up the exercise regime with a 2 hour return hike to see the impressive Glacier du Trient which like so many glaciers around the world (and some European economies) is sadly in recession.

  

The long haul home was broken only by a short visit to pay homage to Freddy Mercury in Montreux on the shores of Lac Leman (Lake Geneva).

Glandage and the Diois

Glandage is a tiny village on the northern edge of Provence (where does Provence start and end?)  We stayed at the delightfully photogenic chambres d'hote, le Colombier, (=Dovecote) with excellent meals and tastefully decorated, spacious rooms. 

Trying to keep up our C2C exercise regime we walked up the remote Glandage valley...

... climbed the small peak (200m) near Le Colombier...

... and walked around the spectacular Cirque D'Archiane with 800m cliffs above us. 

We also took in Phillipe and Claire's sheep farm (where they make great sheep's cheese) and the small market town of Die.

Then it was back north through the Vercours toward Albertville and the Haute Alpes ...

... taking with us the advice from the front of a little house in the Rue Nouvelle in Die:

To the Alps ...

Our trip to the Alps started with a long haul to Bourgoin Jallieu near Lyon and the excellent hospitality of Jean-Marc, Véronique and Laura.

From there to St Paul de Varces near Grenoble and the home of Erige and Marie-Paule which dates back to the 16th century.

From here we were able to explore the north end of the Vercours guided by our hosts. It was good training for the coast to coast walk ... 5 hours walking including about 500m of climbing.

If you've watched the Tour de France on TV you would have seen helicopter footage of these spectacular cliffs (Moucherotte), not too far from the famous Alpe D'Huez.

Here Irene is observing chamois grazing 600m below and being urged "just another 10cm forward" for a better view (against all her instincts!) by the imperturbable Erige, and being photographed by François whose viscera tell him he is already too close!

Below, the one kneeling over the edge is the fearless Erige!

Grenoble meanwhile is over 1000m below us.

There were too many wonderful flowers and examples of wildlife to include in a gallery here - maybe later - but here are the beautiful alpine Trolles as a sampler (in English it's prosaically called a globeflower).

 Botanical Note: They may look like the size of Triffids but it's a photographic illusion ... they are only about 25cm high.

Offendorf

Gill & François have a delightful entertaining space in their courtyard and "firehouse" in the village of Offendorf north of Strasbourg.

 A feature of any visit is the traditional Alsacienne Tarte Flambée evening.

Before setting off for the Alps we had just such a gathering: Irene, Jean-Dominique, François, Benoit, Fred, Jean-Georges, Gill, Jean-Pierre, Annie & Cliff.

 Win sent her apologies :-(

Gill and François have a pond surrounded by raspberries, redcurrants, cherries and gooseberries, all of which have found their way onto the dining table. The pond also has a thriving and somewhat noisy population of frogs.  François and I attempted to catch some to take them to another safe haven (definitely not for the frogs legs!)  The trick is to tickle them so they jump/swim toward a submerged net, whereupon they must be whipped out and caught before they escape. 

It's a trick François and I are still trying to master:  Frogs 3,  C&F 0.

Alsace

It was a gruelling 36 hours from Canberra to Offendorf but here is Irene surprisingly fresh in the 29 degree warmth of Alsace, where life is just a bowl of cherries...

 Yesterday we went punting at the Ile de Rhinau (near the Rhine)...

With starvation rations ...

...until we made it to the Bords du Rhin in Rhinau for lunch with our hosts François (above) and Gill, Raymonde and Christian (below).  If you ever get the chance to dine at the Bords du Rhin you must order the house speciality, the pike-perch which is cooked using a delicious (but secret) family recipe handed down from generation to generation.

Later we had a short stop in a nature reserve near Herbsheim to walk off the excesses of lunch (unsuccessfully) but you may be interested to see the rare wild Siberian Iris we found (and note the ancient Celtic tumuli in the background) ...

and the even rarer wild Gladiolus...

We have been walking to nearby villages to maintain the memory of fitness but most of the neighbourhood is the flat Rhine floodplain with only the Vosges mountains and the hills of the Black Forest on the horizon to tempt us into some serious exercise. However on Tuesday we are off to the Alps!