May 28, 2005
High Mountain Walking
'Why don't we take the cable car to 2300 metres and do a walk from there. There won't be much snow.' - those words were uttered without a care in the world.
The next thing we knew, we were trekking for four hours across deep snowbanks upto our waists, on the edge of near vertical drops. We were trying to follow the 'Grand Balcon' trail, but hardly a trace of it remained visible under the snow, and a two hour walk turned into a four hour marathon across the high mountains of Chamonix.
It is not my place to lay blame for our trek across dangerous snowy mountain terrain, but I will let the evidence speak for itself.
This man may or may not have been responsible for us trekking through the snow for four hours. His identity has been concealed to prevent repercussions.
The scenery was nice, with good views across the valley, and at the beginning the going was not too bad.
High mountain scenery
After a couple of hours we stopped for lunch, and we discovered to our horror that an unknown person had forgotten to buy bread in the shop. Again, I will not place blame, but leave you to regard the evidence...
We ploughed on after a banana for lunch, and arrived exhausted at the Mer de Glace where there was thankfully a train back down the mountain.
Walking in the mountains
At the end we had very wet feet.
The high mountain having been sucessfully conquered, we enjoyed our train ride back down to the valley, where we went to buy snowdomes and other high quality tourist merchandise.
May 26, 2005
Alpybus suck
Alpybus have recently contacted me, apologised and made amends. They have convinced me that this experience was a one-off and not the norm, and so I no longer dis-recommend them!
The first task of the Chamonix trip was to get to Chamonix from Geneva airport. Sounds easy? We contacted alpybus, who subsequently ignored my reservation request for two weeks.
I followed up with a direct email asking about my reservation, and they told me that they don't bother running in the low season. They then recommended a public bus service that had stopped running a few weeks previously.
When I pointed this out, and asked them to double check their information, they decided to ignore me. A big thumbs down to alpybus - don't use them unless you have to.
Arriving, as we did at about 6pm, our choices were limited - the last train connection had gone and a taxi is apparently 250 euros or so. This leaves the airport transfer taxi guys. A bloke asked us for 50 euros per person, and we bargained down to 40 euros. He knew we didn't have much choice, and I reckon it's an overpriced racket the transport to Chamonix from Geneva business.
Right now I'm starting a campaign to lobby the Swiss and French governments to build a fast, direct hourly train service for 20 euros return. Well I would if I could be bothered.
May 24, 2005
Chamonix Blog 2005
Following the dramatic success of the Chamonix Blog 2004, and my recent return to Chamonix on the traditional annual visit, I present to you the Chamonix Blog 2005!
Obviously, I haven't had time to do anything except the very most important item, which is the blog logo...
On the trip were Tom, Kevin and myself. Any ideas that resulted in us nearly falling off cliffs, drowning in snow, or forgetting to get bread were entirely the fault of Kevin, and not in any way anything to do with me. Cheques will not be honoured.
May 13, 2005
Wounded Cactus
Catheryn very kindly bought me my very own cactus, which I am quite excited about. Unfortunately, I have been a little clumsy, and my beloved cactus took a nose-dive and was seriously injured in the process.
Still, I have high hopes for it's recovery, and maybe even one day a flower will appear. I'm not sure how often I need to water it, but it's quite close to my speakers, and I'm sure that will do it some good.
So, if everyone could take a couple of minutes now in respect of my cactus' injury, that would be greatly appreciated. Any well-wishers should leave their sentiments below.
Poor, injured cactus
May 07, 2005
Walking the Loop: Erith - Bexley
The London Loop is a 140 mile circular route around London
Stage: 1
Route: Erith - Bexley
Date: April 30th 2005
Walkers: Myself and Tom
Weather: hot, humid, sunny spells
Walk Departure Time: 1.30pm
Walk Finishing Time: 5.10pm
Walk Distance: 8.75 miles
The first section of the London Loop was a roaring success, with scenes of magnificent industrial decay, an abundance of rivers, a stately home, and the thriving towns of Erith, Crayford and Bexley.
May 04, 2005
London Loop Blog
A couple of weeks ago, it was decided that it would be nice to go for a walk in the lovely London countryside. At this point, I discovered that there was an M25 for walkers, known as the London Loop, which goes for over 140 miles right around the outskirts of London.
We decided arbitrarily to walk section 3 of the Loop, a lovely 8 mile stroll starting from from Petts Wood. Off we went, but unfortunately we were unable to complete the walk due to getting completely lost.
I was the victim of extremely heavy criticism for various dismal failures such as 'not bringing a map', 'not bringing any instructions', 'getting on the wrong train', 'not telling me about the walk until the day before', 'mud on the path', 'not enough water', 'the starting station being south of the river', and 'going round in circles'. You get the picture.
In order to redeem myself and actually walk some of the London Loop, I purchased the very handy London Loop Recreational Path Guide, and armed with this bible of London Loop walkers, the London Loop will soon be tamed - every last mile - no stone unturned - no path too overgrown - no zone too far - starting from the south bank of the Thames at Erith in zone six, and finishing near a rubbish tip at Coldharbour Point on the opposite bank of the Thames.
No-one knows how long this epic journey will take, and who will accompany me on my mission, but you will find out right here - The London Loop Blog has been born...
Scenes from the failed first attempt...
We started off the right way through the lovely woods.
We had a rest - it's very tiring walking round in circles all day, and Tom had a small telescope stuck in his eye.
Helen looked shocked when we told her we had to walk back to zone one.
May 01, 2005
Lonely April
A whole month seems to have passed by without me managing to write a single blog entry whatsoever. Poor, lonely April with no blog entries.
You musn't think that I didn't do anything worth writing about in April - that would be a grevious misperception. Amongst many other especially exciting things, I visited Brockley Park, Petts Wood, Farnborough, Dulwich Park, Cafe Pacifico, Soho, Essex, Sardinia, Erith, Crayford, Bexley, Bromley South, and Kentish Town.
I saw 'The Machinist', and 'Bullet Boy' at the cinema, and 'Beeches' play live. I cooked dinner a few times, and went out for a Vietnamese. Catheryn also moved to London, and she cooked me dinner a few times as well.
I ordered all 19 of the cycle maps from Transport for London, and had to make a few bookings on the internet for various holidays. One night riding home from work, a gang of youths threw a grapefruit at me, which obviously ruled that night out for blogging.
Sometimes in the evening, I was a little too tired to write in the blog, so you see, it's NO WONDER I've had no time to write this blog, what with my obviously FULL and BUSY life.
But the time has come to fight against this relentless tide, and the blog will fight on in the face of such mighty adversity.
To this end I present to you a useful analogy using Tower Bridge...
This represents blogging in April - The way is blocked.
This represents blogging in May - The way is clear.