Inveterate dabbler in business, travel, gadgets & life
The journal
I settled on the pression grande and fromage baguette (notice how my French is galloping on) and decided to press on through the Lauzanier valley rather than the bottle of red wine.My excuse is there where no pretty girls about. Hold on who is that coming towards me? You could have been right Michael they […]
Arrived in Larche recreated in 1944 after the village was dynamited by the retreating forces. Now who is against the EU? Personally I don’t understand the anti EU brigade at all! If it means that we can live peacefully without frontiers (and it is VERY noticeable all the abandoned frontier posts, castles etc along the […]
The perfect day, the day you only dream about, walking across landscapes that Doc Searls gets to photo out of aeroplane windows. Incredible weather blue skys low 20’s doesnt get any better than this. Great 3500ft climb first through forests then around the vivid turquoise Lac Sainte-Anne in blissful silence (even the Marmots were quite […]
I (or more precisely the hotel owner) arranged for a taxi to pick me up at 8.30 and to drop me up off at Cháteau Queyras to resume my perambulations on the GR5. My left knee still had twinges of pain so I breakfasted on Nurofen super strength pills and vowed to take it easy […]
This was a very long day. I ended up walking over 23 miles and 4000ft of ascent in over 10 hours out on the trail. Started off with the descent into Briançon making me thankful I hadnt attempted it the previous night as it took nearly 2 hours and i guess it would have taken […]
This was a very long day. I ended up walking over 23 miles and 4000ft of ascent in over 10 hours out on the trail. Started off with the descent into Briançon making me thankful I hadnt attempted it the previous night as it took nearly 2 hours and i guess it would have taken […]
Chris left me an email in his usual very positive tone reminding me that we had only one day of rain on the PW. So I left Modane yesterday to find that my head quickly becoming enveloped in thick cloud and dampness. However, arriving at Col de la Vallée Étroite at 8000ft I was confronted […]
Today the weather broke and I walked in rain all day to Modane , 17 miles in less than 6 hours with only one stop. The going was easy on the GR5E with only about 500ft or so of climbs all day from Lanslevillard. I kept reasonably dry, the Scarpa boots kept my feet really […]
Made it to Val D’Isére today on my 9th walking day from St Gingolph on Lake Geneva. The new Scarpa boots I bought in Chamonix en-route are great, my heel blisters caused by the Raichle boots I bought in Cambridge have now disappeared. The vertical ascents on this route are amazing. My prediction is it […]
Here is the summary of the first two days walk that I propose starting on Saturday. I intend to follow the GR5 from St. Gingolph on Lake Geneva to Nice. I’m using , for the first time the memory-map software [Important the Alpes version MMV5/IGN/PE/MB388/CI is faulty call 01189062600 to get a version that has Geneva […]