Le Tour du Mont Blanc 1

The Tour du Mont Blanc (TMB) is one of the most famous hikes in Europe, covering 165km over 10-11 days.  Here is a map of the route (we went anticlockwise starting and ending in Chamonix).

 

DAY 1: CHAMONIX TO LES CONTAMINES

The TMB starts from a town called Les Houches which is a short bus ride from Chamonix.  Unfortunately we didn’t get to the trail head in Les Houches until 11.30 am.  We had stayed up until 1 am the night before unpacking bags and preparing our hiking backpacks.  By the time we got up, had breakfast and bought lunch supplies for the first couple of days we found that the next bus to Les Houches didn’t leave until after 11.

At the trail head.  So calm and relaxed....

 

As we had anticipated that the first day might involve a later start we had decided that we would take the shorter and easier of the two routes available.  We were glad that we did as we still arrived at Les Contamines completely exhausted 6 hours later.  There was a steep ascent for the first 2 hours and an equally steep descent at the end.  The views were good – predominately looking across hillsides to ragged mountains above and in the distance. We also walked through wonderful forest at the end.  However the views to come were even better.

I just love these slate roofs

 

 

This dog knew how to beat the heat

Les Contamines is a charming alpine village and we stayed in a delightful gite called the La ferme de bon papa.  It is an old farm house that has been wonderfully renovated.  Our room had its own separate toilet and bathroom and the proprietresse had added charming touches like placing toy rabbits on the pillows.  We ate breakfast upstairs the following morning in the living area with the proprietresse.  We had a lovely conversation in French and discovered that her son had spent 12 months studying, working and travelling in Australia to improve his English.  She also explained that the farm had belonged to her grandfather (bon papa) and that she and her husband had spent 6 years renovating it. 

Nemo, the shadow manager at the gite

La Ferme de Bon Papa

Some interesting paintwork in the eves of the church

 

DAY 2: LES CONTAMINES TO LES CHAPIEUX

This was a long and difficult day that involved an ascent of about 1000 metres to the Col de la Croix via the Col du Bonhomme followed by a very steep descent of 900 metres.  My ankle started to feel quite sore from the start of the day and I was in agony by the time we reached the Col de la Croix.  The views were however great as we looked back down to the valley that we had come from, across to more ragged mountains.  This was the only day that we also had to walk across quite a large expanse of snow.

The long and winding road

 

At the Col du Bonhomme we had a discussion with an American couple about where the path went next and the guy was convinced that we were actually at the Col de la Croix instead.  He didn’t seem to be convinced by Dale’s explanation of the map so I decided that I would ask a French teenager who was nearby and he confirmed that we were indeed at the Col du Bonhomme and that the Col de la Croix was still higher up (while very politely making it clear to me how I should be pronouncing Col du Bonhomme).  This seemed to convince our American friend although there were no thanks for saving him from heading off in the wrong direction.

The view back down the valley we had just ascended, with Les Contamines a tiny cluster in the middle to the left

 

Lac de la Gittaz

 

We had a revitalising picnic lunch at the Col de la Croix and I discovered that I didn’t have any ankle pain if I took my boot off.  This lead to me trying something stupid, which was to head off down a steep descent wearing a thong on one foot and a hiking boot on the other.  I made it a surprisingly long way down before coming to grief by slipping on loose rocks and cutting my big toe on a sharp rock.  Dale bandaged my toe and we decided that the only sensible option was to put the boot back on and take lots of Panadol. 

The thong and winding road

Just above Les Chapieux

We made it down to Les Chapieux and really liked it.  It only consisted of the Auberge de la Nova, where were staying, and a little general store.  We were able to pick up some local produce for our picnic lunches: pork saucissons, frommage and fresh tomatoes. 

The Auberge de la Nova is quite large and it seemed to be full.  So full that the owners asked if we wanted to pay more for our own room rather than sleep in a dormitory and we immediately said yes.  The Auberge had a separate building where everyone had to leave their hiking boots and batons.  All these boots hanging on pegs were quite a sight.

 

The less said about the smell the better

Liquid pain relief

 

We had a hearty  3 course meal (a common aspect to all the refuges is that they include a set menu 3 or 4 course dinner and breakfast) and they placed all the Anglophones together at one table.  We met John and Helen (from Canberra) and Tom, Jeanette and Wendy (from Ottawa) and we kept crossing paths with them for the rest of the tour.

DAY 3: LES CHAPIEUX TO RIFUGIO ELISABETHA

This was the day that we crossed from France into Italy at the Col de la Seigne.  I was able to walk up a bitumen road in my thongs for the first hour and after that my ankle was relatively ok when I was climbing.  Going downhill was still a problem but I felt much better than the day before.  

The rain brought out lots of these broad based snails.  It didn't help them when the buses ran them over.

 The ascent to Col de la Seigne was very long and we wondered when we might ever get there.

A relief to reach the Col de la Seigne, but no view as a reward

Plenty of snow still around on the ground

 

In this region France and Italy are separated by the mountain range that includes Mont Blanc and as a result the geography is very different on each side.  On the French side it is very rugged and remote while the Italian side opens into wide valleys and sloping mountain sides, which are still steep but not to the same extent as on the French side.  This is apparently because at one point the European and African continental plates collided here and the European plate slid under the African plate creating the rugged granite mountain range (predominately in France) which glaciers have then taken millennia to carve valleys into.  On the Italian side the old sea bed was pushed up and the earth is softer.  Both sides are stunning! 






Mip

We saw a number of marmots and also a squirrel-like creature, which ran across the path with a mouse in its mouth.  Unfortunately it was moving too fast to photograph. 

Our destination was Rifugio Elisabetha, which sits dramatically on a hillside overlooking the long beautiful valley below while being dwarfed by the steep mountain range behind.

Almost as soon as we arrived the heavens opened and there was a magnificent thunder storm.  Everyone who arrived after us was wet and bedraggled.

Nice and dry inside

So remote

 

We spent a lovely afternoon in the dining room drinking coffee and hot chocolate and reading and writing.  We had met a young French (she) and German (he) couple during the day and we crossed paths with them the following day as well.  We shared a small dormitory with them at Rifugio Elisabetha because although they were camping, they were driven inside by the bad weather.  She was lovely and very chatty with us and told us that she’d spent a year in New Zealand in order to improve her English. He was extremely remote and we were barely able to get a murmur out of him.  He was however amazingly fit and would race up and down the track even though he was carrying a large backpack including a tent. His girlfriend was slower (she was also carrying a larger pack than either of us) and he would often race off way ahead of her or alternatively sit down and let her get way ahead of him.  The following day we caught up to him while he was sitting down having a smoke (who says it’s bad for your health?).  We asked where his girlfriend was and he pointed into the distance at a tiny green speck (her back pack). 

While drinking our hot chocolate and coffee we also had an interesting chat with an English guy and his German girlfriend who were spending their vacation mountaineering.  They explained that the atmosphere in the mountaineering refuges is very different from the hiking refuges.  They said that among mountaineers there is a class system, which operates according to how high you are able to ascend, and which in turn, makes the refuges less convivial.

I should mention the showering system that operated at Rifugio Elisabetha.  We were given a token, which would supposedly cost 2 Euros, and which we had to put into a token box in order to take a shower.  Dale’s token didn’t work, which meant that he had to get redressed and go to reception for help and while my token worked, getting out of the shower cubicle was a real challenge.  These seemed to be ongoing problems as I heard other people talking about both issues and each time I passed the shower room someone seemed to be off getting help to get one shower working or there was banging and swearing coming from someone trying to get out of the other one.  Interestingly we were never actually charged the 4 Euros and we think that the payment system was designed to keep out the hikers who camp nearby and try to sneak in for a shower. 

There was also a regimented way of organising dinner in order to make sure that the campers didn’t also sneak in for a free dinner.  Everyone was kicked out of the dining room before dinner and then you had to wait for your name to be called out and you were shown to your allocated seat.

We were again seated predominately with Anglophones but also with a lovely French couple from Marseilles who may have been just a little older than us.  The woman couldn’t speak English so we got to have a great dinner conversation in French.  We may have been murdering French grammar but we were able to have a decent conversation covering a broad range of topics – which I think is pretty much what you’re aiming to do when you learn another language.  They were very well travelled and love to spend their holidays overseas and hiking and skiing in the French Alps.  They had been to lots of French speaking countries such as Canada, Morocco and Vietnam (as well as to Brasil and China).  It made me think about how everyone finds travelling much easier if they speak the same language but also that there are other disparate collections of countries that share a language other than the Anglophone world.  It’s easy to forget that there are also huge populations that speak Spanish, German and French outside those countries.  They also told us about a mad ultra-marathon that people run, around the TMB, including in the dark.  They must finish in 48 hours and the record is 20 hours.  It seems unbelievable but each day we saw several people running along the route, presumably in training.

Very fit.....but insane

 

DAY 4: RIFUGIO ELISABETHA TO COURMAYEUR

In addition to the standard route on this leg, it was also possible to get a bus to the Italian alpine resort town of Courmayeur or to walk via the more gentle valley route.  As my ankle and the weather both seemed to be improving we decided to take the regular route via Mt Favre Spur at 2430 metres.  I was so glad that we took this route because we got fantastic views of the Mont Blanc range even though the very top was covered in cloud.  Our guide book had indicated that this was the day when you would get closest to the Mont Blanc range if you went along this route.

From R. Elisabetta down to Lac de Combal

Aig d'Estellette.  I love the fine thread look of the snow on the rock

Lac de Combal

 

As we passed around the spur we enjoyed the close up views of the Mont Blanc range.

We were shocked to see how far the glaciers of the Mont Blanc range had retreated.  In this shot there are 3 glaciers, all showing exposed rock where once there was ice.  The one on the left used to curve around and meet the one in the middle, so you can see how much has gone.

 

About an hour later the clouds rolled in.  Although it didn’t rain seriously we spent a couple of hours walking with very limited visibility, which was quite spooky.  We would see vague shapes appearing ahead of us and we had to get quite close before we could work out whether they were trees or houses.  For a little while we thought we were lost but eventually we stumbled across the Rifugio Maison Veille where we sat at some tables and ate our usual picnic lunch.  When the French-German couple caught up with us a little later they said that they had not even seen the Rifugio because the cloud was so dense.  This was the most animated I had seen the man as we explained that they must have passed within several meters of the Rifugio. 

 

The descent into Courmayeur was murder.  It was steep, rocky, muddy and slippery.  We arrived in Courmayeur exhausted and my ankle was incredibly sore again.

 

Courmayeur from the ski fields above

 

Courmayeur is a very chic town and everyone seemed to be terribly well dressed.  Courmayeur is so chic that the cable car that runs up to the adjacent ski resort is sponsored by Armani. 

I felt completely out of place in the limited hiking wardrobe that was available and I assume that I was probably offending people by appearing in public so poorly dressed in my synthetic fibres.  Of course the other side of this coin is that I think there were a lot of people decked out in very fashionable hiking wear who hadn’t ever set foot outside the town.

I really wanted pasta for dinner and we found an excellent restaurant using Trip Advisor.  We were shown upstairs to a mezzanine level where I could just stand up straight and Dale had to stoop down.  There was room for about 20 people upstairs and it was completely full.  Both the food and the ambience were wonderful.  While we were there John and Helen (the couple from Canberra we’d met a couple of days earlier) also came into the restaurant.  When we said hello they very kindly said that they had been thinking about what to do about my ankle and that I might try taking some nurofen.  They and the Canadians called it ‘Vitamin I’ – an essential hiking medication!  I bought some the next day and it certainly helped.

 

Next time:  More Mont Blanc

Star Flyer 3

On our last day we visited the German holiday island of Rugen.  One of the German guys explained Rugen was formerly part of East Germany and has been rediscovered by the former West Germans.  And boy has it been rediscovered.  When we arrived at the main pier in the town of Binz we were confronted by wicker beach baskets as far as the eye can see. We non Europeans were awe struck by these beach baskets which open into a double seat with a hood.  Quite nifty.

 

When we arrived back at the beach later that day every basket that you could see was occupied. 

And we thought Smith's Beach at Phillip Island was crowded

 

Now as you can imagine these baskets aren’t the only confronting sight when you arrive at a popular German beach destination.  These ranged from the amusing boot scooting class to the positively horrifying sight of an older, larger woman bending over to put her bikini bottoms on.  The German boys also kindly let us know that there was nude bathing at one end of the beach.  We decided that a ride on the old steam train might be more appropriate for everyone.

 

The steam train ride was quite ‘jolie’, but when we got off at our destination we discovered that we didn’t have enough time to see the lovely old pier that is the highlight of the town.  So we wandered around, had ice creams and got back on the train.

Once we set sail that afternoon, we took our final opportunity to venture out onto the bow spit.  I went out for a short time for the photo op, but Dale actually enjoyed the sensation of the water rushing below the rope nets and stayed out for about 15 minutes taking photos.

 

On our last night on the boat we had the Captain’s dinner.  I am assured that this happens on many cruises.  Tracey and Debbie popped on stunning dresses accompanied by the jewellery that they’d been purchasing along the way while we went to the supreme effort of donning sports jackets.  The dinner was nice and Captain Klaus gave a delightful, and delightfully brief, speech.  I was then bemused and amused by the sight of the crew entering the dining room waving national flags and singing ‘We are the world’. 

So despite some (deserved) cynicism we did enjoy the cruise and would do a cruise again with Star Clippers.  However here are some observations about the oddities of the cruise.

Hotel staff.

The Hotel staff were fantastic and seemed to delight in entertaining themselves with towel art, which was most amusing. 

 

We were not surprised at being asked to tip the hotel, restaurant and bar staff at the end of the cruise and were given guidance about how much might be appropriate.  However, I was very surprised when the cruise director decided to use the guilt trip tactic of saying that we really needed to tip these crew members because they’re not paid very much.  We were absolutely astonished and felt like screaming – well pay them properly you exploitative capitalist slave traders!! It kind of worked because you felt that you had to do something because they clearly work for such a crap employer.

There are theme nights. These happened each night, after dinner, in the Tropical Bar.  The Tropical Bar had a tatty feel to it because it was on the open middle deck covered by a tarpaulin (including on both sides).  One night in the Tropical Bar there was frog racing.  This required you to pull a wooden frog, with a hole in the centre, along a 20 metre length of rope by jiggling the rope.  Who thinks up this nonsense?  Nevertheless, Dale, Debbie, Tracey and I were sufficiently drunk to get involved and managed to come last.  This was especially annoying because the nuisance Danish boy was on the winning team with some of the crew and a couple of days later he decided that he would practise his English by calling us losers. 

There was a crew talent contest another night, which was truly appalling.  The cruise director decided that she would sing an Enrique Iglesias song (that I didn’t recognise of course), in such a banal way that I had to keep waking myself up.  The Sports Team (more about them later) decided to dress in drag and danced (badly) to Ring Ring.  We were actually surprised by the Indonesian crew members who played guitars and could actually sing.  A passenger was finally allowed to sing because he had apparently starred during the music quiz night a couple of nights earlier.  Well he was completely flat so we decided that we couldn’t take anymore, said goodnight to the girls and slipped away to the strains of whatever the poor man was attempting to sing.

There was a sports team and a water sports team.  The water sports team were in training because there were no water sports being offered.  However I didn’t see much training happening.  They seemed to spend most of their time in bars in port.  The actual sports team consisted of 2 guys who were very nice and did organise and run the mast climb.  I think there were morning exercises available on deck for those who were interested and there was some mention of water aerobics.  But other than this I didn’t see much evidence of any sports activities yet I presume the cost of all these people was being built into the cost of the cruise.

The Evening Meal.  The food was excellent and abundant as the scales later attested.  However I found it quite disconcerting to be presented with a display of all the available meals each evening.  It was like a live version of the photos you see in many Asian restaurants.

 

Day excursions.  We had been warned that these would be offered and would be a rip off (because they apparently always are on cruises).  However we decided that we should try the first couple and although they were expensive we enjoyed them.  Then all the remaining ones were cancelled due to lack of interest.  The German cruise director blamed this on the large number of German passengers on board who she said did not like organised tours.  Ok, but could you help us out with information about what we might do in port?  Of course she wanted to be very helpful but actually had no meaningful information to give!

There was no professional entertainment on the Star Flyer.  I awarded brownie points for this but our German (former Lufthansa hostess) friend was very amusing in her criticisms about the lack of entertainment.  She was even more scathing about the crew talent competition than we were.  In her view it would have been very easy for Star Clippers to find actors and opera singers who could have been giving master classes!  This was very entertaining but I don’t know if she realised that the look on my face was one of horror and not agreement.

Sails not being used on a sailing ship.  The ship was always under power and the sails were rarely used in a meaningful way.  This must be false advertising as Star Clippers make a big deal about the ships being recreation clippers and the magic of sailing!  They are however quite adept at marketing.  Every time we left port they whacked up the 3 main sails and played opera very loudly.  This was charming and exciting for the first time as we left Stockholm but we became more cynical once we realised that the sails were for show and not functionality.   When we were delayed leaving Visby they did actually deploy 16 sails and this was magnificent. 

 

The cruise ended in the German port of Travermunde, and we took a short taxi ride on to the Hanseatic League and World Heritage listed town of Lubeck where we spent our last full day with John.  We had decided months ago that we wanted to see Lubeck rather than spending our last day in Hamburg, but I started to get worried on the cruise because everyone else was going on to Hamburg.  However we just adored Lubeck.  I’m sure Hamburg is wonderful and I would like to get back to visit some time.  But I’m incredibly glad to have seen Lubeck.

Has anyone seen my spirit level?

One of the surviving city gates

St Petri

 

St Mary's

We walked around stupefied by all the glistening verdigris of the many church and town gate spires.  In addition many of the town’s central streets are cobbled and a lot of heritage buildings have been retained.  I particularly loved the Lubeck Cathedral (started 1173ad) which had arches spanning wide distances and whitewashed walls and ceilings, giving an atypically light and bright atmosphere.  Too many European churches are dark and forbidding inside.

Lubeck Cathedral

Not sure what the religious significance is of foie gras in Germany

 

We also did a spot of shopping (glass vase), which thankfully John has safely transported home in his hand luggage.  Yes Dale continues to indulge in his vase fetish, but who can object to such a lovely object d’art.  I’ve already mentioned that the cufflink collection is expanding rapidly.  Here are the words for cufflinks in a few relevant languages.  I’ve left out Finnish and Estonian as it is too hard to pronounce.  I’ve also thrown in Spanish just for fun:

·        manschettknappar (Swedish)
·        manchetknapper (Danish)
·        manschettenknöpfe (German)
·        boutons de manchette (French)
·        gemelos (Spanish)

While we were out shopping, John did a great barge tour around the rivers that encircle Lubeck.

Driving in Lubeck?  Not that much fun



Political graffiti in English?

It's not summer in Europe without generous servings of ice cream

 

We stayed in another Trip Advisor selected Hotel in Lubeck and I’ve started making reviews.  I won’t ever be Rodney747 but I’ll do my best.

Quite a long day of travel on the Sunday.  We left the Hotel in Lubeck at 9:30am and after a bus, 2 planes and a shuttle bus, we arrived in Chamonix about 12 hours later.  John also flew home to Melbourne at about the same time as we left Hamburg.

Next time:  Le Tour de Mont Blanc 1