Today we enjoyed arguably the world's finest pancakes at Harrie's at the Waterfront in Cape Town. The "cold" front continues with temperatures in the mid-twenties and an abundance of sunshine.
Tomorrow is one of South Africa's seemingly unlimited number of public holidays and we plan to go buy new wetsuites and try them out in the freezing Atlantic.
Supposedly there's a cold front in Cape Town. This must be why i'm walking around in a T-shirt and it rained for less than one hour today. Oh, and we did see some clouds.
But other than that the weather here is as gorgeous as ever. Natalie and i are currently staying with Natalie's mother in Hout Bay and generally we are doing as little as possible.
Today we've seen three countries, four large lakes, two blizzards, four mountain passes, traveled for 6 hours by car and 1 by train, driven over mountains and under them, and finally gone skiing for 2 hours.
So this is just a quick entry to say that we're back in France, managed to get here fast enough to ski this afternoon. We took a really interesting route through the Bergamese Alps to Valais in Switzerland to get here. In another post i'll log the route because i'd recommend it.
Anyway, this was Natalie about 2 hours ago.
And yes, the mountains here are still gorgeous. Pretty good powder today too.
We've spent the last two days exploring Lago di Como in the area surrounding Lenno. Our apartment is very close to the place where they filmed the "recovery" scene in Casino Royale.
For those that don't remember, he was recovering from being shot at, attacked by a man with a machete, falling down several flights of stairs, being poisoned and his heart consequently stopping and needing to be restarting by electrocution, involved in a serious high-speed 9-roll car crash, and finally being cruelly tortured.
Go on, go watch Casino Royale and see if you can place the above scene.
This is a pretty good place to recover, but nowhere near Montenegro, or even the Czech Republic where it was shot, so it's interesting that they brought him all the way here. Hollywood geography is fantastic, you can just do whatever you want. After leaving here they're suddenly on a yacht arriving in Venezia. However, you'd have to leave from Venezia to get out into the Adriatic anyway, unless they sailed around the whole of Italy, which i'd imagine would take some time.
Anyway, Hollywood fantasy aside, the Villa Balbianello, where Jimmy Bond recovered, is rather splendid and it's gardens immaculate. In the afternoon yesterday we took the tiny cable-car (funivia in Italian) to Pigra and got an elevated view of the lake.
Today we were off to Bellagio, which is apparently the number one destination to visit in the whole of the lakes area. According to Shelley it's not only the best in Lombardy, but also the best in the world. Don't get me wrong, it was a cute place alright, but perhaps Shelley needed to get out more?
On a bench in Bellagio. Was this description really necessary?
The lakes are certainly relaxing and there's plenty to see. i'm getting intense ski-withdrawal though, and keep thinking, when i see these perfectly landscaped gardens, about how i would ski them if they were covered in snow.
Tomorrow we're going to look at an Italian market in Argegno and then wander round Mennaggio in the afternoon.
Today we spent the morning negotiating our way through the crazy traffic of Milano to try and see the sights before driving north to Lago di Como.
It rained. It rained and rained. It rained incredibly heavily and then it rained some more. We got wet. And it continued to rain. The Duomo is extremely impressive, both on the inside and out. La Scala theater was less impressive, but then we didn't go inside it.
Natalie, Dad, and Mum, outside the Duomo in Milano. With a lot of pigeons.
i enjoyed the world's most expensive pizza while the rest of my party enjoyed the company of the world's grumpiest waiter. Actually that's not fair, he was extremely happy once i'd got my wallet out. Here's a tip Nasty Waiter-Dude, get out of the service industry.
My extremely poor navigation ended us up driving in the opposite direction on the A4, the world's most hideous road. With any luck, we won't have to go anywhere near that road again. We've plotted a route through Ticino and Valais in Svizzera which means that for the remainder of our road trip we'll be mostly driving north and west from now on.
Anyway, the towns around the Italian Lakes are actually quite large and the roads inversely proportionally small and tricky. Consequently it took us a lot longer than we thought to get to Lenno, where i'm now sitting having repaired the light bulbs in the bathroom and hooked up their AV system properly. We've forked over a huge amount of cash and a hefty deposit to be in this apartment. i'm hoping we get it back. So far our hosts seem rather disorganized.
However, the apartment is as described and is very tastefully decorated and pretty close to the lake. Not sure what the plan is for tomorrow. We've driven more than a thousand miles in the last week and spent more than 26 hours in the car, so tomorrow, whatever we do, i hope it doesn't involve playing dodgems with the Crazy Italians again.
Just heading to bed in Presazzo which is between Bergamo and Milano. Very long day as we drove for nine hours from Krk in Croatia to Milano via Lago di Garda. The lake was shrouded in mist and it rained for all 400 miles of our trip.
The above photo shows Natalie on the pass above Lago di Garda at about 800m. There's still snow up there. We met up with my parents at the hotel and tomorrow we're going to start by going to see Milano.
Two days ago we were wandering around the "Pleetveechkah" National Park in the middle of Croatia. The waterfalls, i scarcely need to say, are spectacular. So spectacular that we took nearly five hundred photos of them. It's incredibly late, i'm incredibly tired, so therefore i ask you to infer the beauty of the other four hundred and something photos from this one.
Extra points if you can spot me. Ok, two photos.
Even more if you can see Natalie. Fine, ok. You forced me into it, but seriously, this is the last, before i collapse.
Three countries in six hours - not bad going. The strange thing about the trip was that we'd said to ourselves that we didn't expect there to be much difference between north-eastern Italy, western Slovenia, and north-western Croatia. But it was remarkable just how different they all are. Italy was rusty brown hills topped with terracotta-roofed villas and castle. Very Italian-looking actually.
Slovenia was white domed rocky hills with plains covered with light scrub and sparsely populated with tiny towns. North-western Croatia was extremely hilly, bordering on mountainous, covered with Alpine trees and even more sparsely populated by tiny villages.
The area that we are in is called Plitvicka and this area was at the center of the conflict several years ago. We'd heard that there were some remnants of the war, but didn't really expect to see anything. So we were surprised to see many of the villages close to Plitvicka showing very real signs of fierce fighting.
Many destroyed houses, some razed, some with caved in roofs in every village. Many of the houses had dozens of bullet-holes in them. We drove past an old church that must have been the center of some close combat as it was peppered with bullet holes. It was very interesting to see, but extremely disturbing at the same time, to see the bullet holes riddled around windows and doors. Makes you wonder who won these fire fights, and, in these now sleepy villages, how war could have ever broken out in the first place.
Every village showed signs of war. This was one destroyed house close to the National Park. The villagers in these places are clearly poor. Very few cars and very little going on. Was it really necessary for the various armies involved to smash these places to bits? More evidence that war is utterly pointless. This war was many years ago but the scars are still very evident.
Another bullet-hole-ridden house. At least this one was being repaired. But there are many many more that i suspect won't be set in order for many years to come.
It's also interesting, now that we're in "Eastern" Europe, how much cheaper things are. An hour's motorway driving in France is about E20. In Italy it goes down to E15, and here in Croatia only E5. We were charged E0.70 at one toll, and the man behind the counter, seeing the GB plated car, gave us English money in change for the 1 Euro we gave him. This was a nice gesture, except he only gave us 10 pence, which is equivalent to only 13 Euro cents, not 30 cents. Whether he was genuinely ripping us off, or trying to be helpful, i don't know, but we only figured this out once we were out the other side of the toll.
Regardless, it's still a lot cheaper here, we just paid E35 for a two-course meal at the hotel restaurant, that would easily have been E60 in France.
We've only seen the waterfalls from the balcony of our room so far as we got here too late to explore the park, so tomorrow morning we'll be out to go and play with the Tv setting on Natalie's camera and try and get some good photos. We might take the time to enjoy the scenery too.
This post is costing me ten Aiyoorohs ("Euro" with an Italian accent) to write, so you better enjoy it. Early this morning we le-. No, rather, early this morning we were still packing. Much later this morning we left Seytroux and drove south and east for the plains of Northern Italy.
Natalie in Verona next to the Fiume Adige.
Italian roads are made out of polystyrene and Italian drivers are all taking crazy-pills. The A4 from the Aosta Valley to Verona is now officially my least favourite road on the planet. It's not even finished yet, which didn't improve matters much. i think that the Italian government watched The Matrix Reloaded, copied the apocalyptic highway of the future, and then sprinkled some of their ugliest countryside alongside it. i think they did this so that people wouldn't notice how bad the driving is. While the road is stupendously ugly, unfortunately the driving is just stupendous. Most of the way along this horrible road i just wanted to close my eyes until it was all over.
Me, driving in the Italian Alps, before we got to the nasty A4.
On the plus side, Bergamo, my parents will be pleased to hear, is probably the prettiest place along the way, definitely more attractive than Milan, and we got a glimpse of the hillsides which the Italian lakes hide behind, which also looked inviting.
The most striking difference between France and Italy is the season. France is still having Winter, while Italy is firmly in Spring and headed rapidly toward Summer. The temperature in Chamonix this morning was 4C. The temperature 20 minutes later once we'd got through the Mont Blanc tunnel and into the Aosta Valley at roughly the same altitude was 16C. It seems that 5km high mountains do have some effect on the weather.
The entrance to the Mont Blanc tunnel from Chamonix.
In fact, today was a sunny warm day in Italy and the drive wasn't all bad. The Aosta valley must have the highest concentration of Forts and ancient Castles i've ever seen and were really spectacular. We got a scare when the car moaned about a lack of oil and we were miles from a Servizio, but conveniently i had a spare can and we timed the maintenance with a picnic lunch while we were still in the Italian Alps. To add to our woes, it seems Italy doesn't like my bank cards, but hopefully Croatia will.
Ian on the Torre dei Lamberti.
Verona seems to fit the mould of most Italian towns we've visited: ugly on the outside and bursting with charm and elegance on the inside. We completed a speedy tour of the town, taking in the Castelvecchio with its Ponte Scaligero overlooking the Fiume (river) Adige.
Natalie at the Arena at tonight.
We walked to the Piazza Bra and were amazed by the Arena, which in my opinion rivals the Colosseum, if not for size then for architectural style. After that we visited the Torre dei Lamberti, the Casa di Giulietta, of Romeo and Juliet fame, complete with vine and balcony, and had supper at the Ristorante Greppia nearby where we felt rather underdressed, but then allowances always seem to be made for tourists. The food was excellent, but not quite enough to sate my Alpine appetite.
Casa di Giulietta.
Our hotel is nice and comfy and quiet and we're both looking forward to a good night's sleep after a hectic day. Tomorrow we're off to Slovenia and immediately after that Croatia on our way to Plitvice. Hopefully i'll be able to send an update from there. See you in Croatia.
Giulietta's vine, as climbed by her Romeo, and her balcony.
Today was, probably, our last day skiing of the 2007/2008 season in the Portes du Soleil. i say "probably" because we still have one more half-day here on the 15th when we might be able to get out, and apparently there's skiing somewhere near the Schwarzwald, so maybe we won't be putting the skis away just yet. i hope not.
Natalie in the new trees we found above Combe a Floret.
We wanted an easy last day. We don't know how to do easy days so it was down the Snowcross Crozats, the Arete des Intrets, the Coupe de Monde, and the Canyon du Pschott (all black, bumpy, and off-piste for those who don't know the names). Being really tired, and me having a bad headache which throbbed only while i was skiing, we came down through the trees, trying to pick out an easy route. This worked fine until i made a wrong turn and then this happened:
It's difficult to summarise the last 4 months here. The excitement starting out our adventure, the intensity of chalet work, the pain at having to let Allez Alps down, and then the relief at finally getting to do what we love. Living in the mountains, meeting old friends and showing our passion for skiing to other friends and newcomers to the sport. Living in France and picking up as much of the culture as we can. Waking up and looking out onto snow-capped mountains every day. Drinking Evian out of the tap and breathing some of the cleanest, clearest air in the world. I think this photo summarises, much better than i am able to articulate, just how we feel about being in the Alps:
We were both quite sad today as we unclipped from our skis for the last time in a while. Tugged off our boots and packed away our gloves and helmets. But there's nothing to be sad about. We've had the best time. Tomorrow we're off exploring Europe and in a few weeks we'll be in South Africa, getting more sunshine.
Moreover, we will definitely be returning to the Porte du Soleil, just as soon as we can. We can't wait to come out walking and biking here in the Summer. So until then, it's absolutely not "goodbye". Au revoir, Avoriaz. A bientot.
i like to jump. i'm not particularly great at it. i haven't mastered 360s, 180s, or even 1s yet. Actually, that's not true. i think i did a 37 the other day. Anyway, here's a few jumps of mine. Total air time: 0.045s.
Yesterday was our last full day skiing. The sun was out, the powder was soft and fluffy, and my acrobatics was nothing short of legendary. In short, it was a perfect day.
Me, not somersaulting on Bleue d'Arare. i got some pretty sweet air of this little drop-off.
We met up with Dan and John by coincidence in Plaine Dranse and skied a couple of runs with them. Well, they were on boards, but we tried to ignore this fact and pretended not to be with them if we thought anyone was looking. We can't be caught socialising with boarders - we have a high reputation to maintain.
Ian, Dan, and John. We finally got out skiing together! Note how we've cunningly hidden their board from view.
Anyway we shot off down some of the simply excellent powder and i spied a wind-lip in the distance. i headed straight for it and, when i was about a meter away, pushed down hard. The purpose of doing this in powder is to compress the snow ahead of you, making your own personal jump out of the compacted snow. Well, my wind-lip turned out to be an ice-boulder from a recent avalanche and my skis went straight into it as opposed to over.
Natalie expertly navigating a tight steep canyon above Plaine Dranse.
i completed a perfect, though unintentional, forward somersault and landed on both skis and promptly wiped out spectacularly. My skis didn't even come off.
Dan sitting on the left where he had a sympathy wipe-out to make me feel better and me, on the right, marveling over my tracks, which show how my somersault didn't touch the ground. If you look to the left from me, in this photo, you'll find my tracks leading to the left, and then a gap, and then more tracks. The gap is where my awesome somersault happened.
Dan had food poisoning and John was suffering with painful ribs and a very sore shoulder after a skiing incident in Morgins, so we left them at a cafe and headed on to Linga where we ate at probably our second favourite restaurant in the area. We sat out in the sunshine and worked on our ski tans. We could have sat there the whole day, but the powder was too good so on we went.
Me, getting some Alpine sunshine.
We skied all the way down to Linga, cheekily skiing the competition run where the piste was groomed to perfection. We got to go fast here. After that we made our way back over to Plaine Dranse down a new route to the far left of the Les Combes lift which was excellent through the trees. i think we found the route that Phil has always wanted to try out. After that is was back up Cornebois and then down the dark, shadowy, black mogul run that is Les Reynards. i came down the powder while Natalie took on the moguls.
Natalie, pre-moguls, in Plaine Dranse.
i think we both must've fallen at the same time. i made one good turn and then, on a very steep section of powder, crossed my skis and tumbled headfirst down the slope landing on my back and sliding. The slope was so steep i left a completely undisturbed gap which i'd tumbled over. Fantastic.
We rushed around the resort, trying to squeeze in all our favourites before the end of our second-last day. We had some great snow on Fornet, which wasn't in a whiteout for once, and then Natalie led us down her new "expert" route of our new tree run above Lindarets. While it's true you shouldn't follow me, my wife's chosen routes are seriously not for the faint of heart.
Our skis. We'll miss them in the off-season.
We couldn't have wished for a better day.
Only two more days here before we set off on our European road trip. i can't believe it's the end of the season already and that it will now be some time before we get to ski again. i think we should move to a mountainous country which has continuous Winter. That would suit me just fine. Antarctica comes to mind but they don't have many ski-lifts.
Natalie on the home run today with dramatically lit clouds to mark our arrival.
Anyway, for the interested few readers, on Sunday we're driving to Verona in Italy and spending the night somewhere near the town center. The next day we drive to Plitvice (pronounced "plitvich") in Croatia and have a look at their waterfalls which now make up a World Heritage Site. After two nights in Plitvice, we drive to Krk Island which is just off the northern Croatian coast in the Adriatic. Natalie's booked us a fabulous hotel which advertises itself as being 5m from the Blue Flag beach. i'll be taking a tape measure with me.
Ian on the home run today with dramatically lit clouds to compensate for his gorgeousness. i think of all my gear that i won't get to use until next season, i'm going to miss my helmet the most. i love my helmet. Maybe i'll sleep with it on back home.
Then it's briefly back through Slovenia and a return to Italy and Lago di Como where we're meeting my parents for 5 nights of me, Natalie, and my Mum hiding under the table as my Dad attempts to communicate with everyone in Italian, including us, no doubt. We're staying in a great apartment which apparently is really close to the villa they used to shoot the "recovery" scenes of the last James Bond movie.
After that the parental units take the quick way back to the UK while Natalie and i spend one more night in the French Alps on our way to the Schwarzwald (Black Forest) where we're staying for a few nights in an, as yet, undisclosed location.
Then a final sprint across France or possibly Belgium if we're feeling particularly daring and our return to the Uck. We're only there for a few days before heading south again. This time a lot further south - to South Africa, in fact, where we'll be mooching off our friends and family and generally making a nuisance of ourselves.
In South Africa, i suspect a fair amount of tobacco will be inhaled, along with a correspondingly large amount of sea-water as i try and remember how to surf. Surfing is with the feet sideways to the fall-line right? Very strange.
The best bit is that Natalie is also going to learn to surf and hopefully Paul's knee will be strong enough to do a bit of coaching. We're in Sunny South Africa for three weeks and the middle week we're spending at the Tsitsikamma National Park, which is about 600km east of Cape Town, in a log cabin on the rocky sea front where waves have been known to crash 20m into the sky.
Then it's our return to England and, well, stuff. Work. Nine-to-Seven. The Mill. Can't say i'm particularly enthusiastic about this last part. Perpetual holiday is infinitely preferable.
Finally got around to posting this video of Natalie and Jonathan skiing in Morzine on a blue run called Les Granges which is on the route from Morzine to Les Gets. This was on Jonathan's last day when the three of us skied in the morning.
Note the exceptionally deft muggle-avoidance techniques implemented by Jonathan.
Clot (noun):
Natalie skiing down Tovassierre on the way to Morgins in some heavy snow. We got very wet.
Today we attempted to go to Torgon. However, despite the fact that Snow-Forecast told us there would be light snow today, there was something of a blizzard going on. Everyone else seemed to know this besides us because we were practically the only people out. We skied down to Morgins and were two of only about ten people on the entire 11km run.
We ate at Les Fontaines Blanches and, as usual, Natalie had the rostis while i gorged myself on their world-renowned (it is now) Soupe Goulasch. At the table next to us there was a clot of muggles.
They were discussing their route for the afternoon and, just to annoy me, mispronouncing as much as they could. They were going to head up to MossetteSS and then over to CHavanetteSS, down to AvoriaZZ, and finally back to ArdenTT. They were British. Correct me if i'm wrong but isn't basic French taught in all British schools? Surely round about day one they mention that you hardly ever sound the last letter? i seriously suspect they were doing this just to wind me up. It worked. Don't get me wrong, my French is appalling, but at least i try.
Natalie and i did find their plan rather amusing, however. They were in Morgins at 13:30. Their plan was to spend the afternoon in the Fornet ("Fornay") valley. For those that don't know the area, which they clearly didn't, it takes Natalie and i, skiing non-stop, and by now we ski pretty quickly, about an hour and a half to get to Fornet from Morgins. You need 2 draglifts and 5 chairlifts to get there from Morgins. Two of these chairlifts are incredibly slow, and even slower in a blizzard.
It was amusing because, given their standard which i was able to judge purely based on their conversation, they'd only get to Fornet by about five o' clock. Furthermore, in a blizzard, Fornet is the last place anyone would want to go. It's almost always a whiteout and the light, now that Spring is here and the Sun is more vertical in the sky, is so flat that contrast, even on a clear day, is at an all-time low.
They left half an hour before us and we caught them up on draglift number one of their journey where one of them had fallen off and was walking up to the top and another, who must also have fallen, was trying to catch a drag from midway up it - very difficult. Those muggles had that successfully ascended the draglift were nicely blocking the release point, making our own dismount rather trickier than it needed to be. Smirking broadly like the arrogant fool i am, i set off from the depleted clot in a schuss. We didn't see them again. They're probably still on that draglift now.
Silly muggles!
We ascended the Lindarets chairlift, turned right, moved aside the suspiciously colourful tapestries in the shape of piste netting, skied past the top the Avoriaz Snowpark draglift while carefully avoiding the rapidly approaching buttons, stepped on the right combination of moguls, and voila, the hidden level we'd been looking for since we got here opened up before us and it was filled with treasure.
Natalie in the cool new area.
After four months here, skiing nearly every day, and with five weeks skiing here previous to that, we're still finding new areas. i know i keep saying this, but this new area we have skied past on almost every single occasion we have been skiing. We've unlocked 3 new areas in the last week alone and that's just in Avoriaz. i think it's safe to say that we will be returning to the Portes du Soleil. And once we get onto randonee, the area will exponentially increase in size again.
Ian valiantly fighting the moguls in the Cool New Area. Not very elegant.
Anyway, back to how cool this area is. Basically, it's in the trees above the Combe a Floret and Les Tannes runs down to Lindarets. It's off to the right from the top of the Lindarets Express chairlift. It's quite hidden because of the draglift which is used to get people to the top of the Avoriaz Snowpark. i'm safe in saying that this new area became an instant favourite. It's redeeming features:
Natalie showing those that know the area where the New Cool Area comes out onto the Combe a Floret piste.
In fact, with this run in our repertoire, we can now get almost all the way from the top of Avoriaz to the carpark in Ardent without skiing the piste at all. The piste is like a busy super-highway that we hurriedly cross while looking both ways. The off-piste is significantly superior. Plus its always pretty cool to scare the muggles by appearing from the trees at random locations and knowing that they're wondering how you just managed to materialise from nothing.
I can't wait to get back on it. Tomorrow we're off to Torgon for, probably, a last look, for this season, at another favourite: Barbossines.
