Hurrah! Finally a decent night’s sleep! However this was interrupted by not rain falling on my tent but snow / sleet! We had a hasty breakfast with snow capped peaks behind us and set off ready for the final climb of Alp Bovine.
The ascent wasn’t too bad because we had done most of it the day before and pretty soon we were on relatively flat paths which contoured around the hills which is always good! Snow continued to fall intermittently which was pretty cool although we all decided the weather needed reminding it was July!
We then start the descent down towards Champex which took us through cow fields. The 1st was not a good experience and we were all convinced we were going to suffer death by bovine as they all proceeded to chase us aggressively down the hill!
Disaster averted, we continued down the hill and finally the clouds lifted and we were fully able to appreciate the stunning views. Also did some pretty cool river crossings although we did meet some very grumpy walkers going the other way!
On the woodland path, Mel sent the boys on ahead to sort out food before the shops shut (it was a Sunday).
Eventually we all met up in Champex by the lake to find that the only shop there wouldn’t open for another 2 and a half hours! Adam, Jack, Ben and Chris decided to hire a pedalo and Ash, Laura, Hannah and Callum weren’t far behind!
Finally the shop opened for us to discover how ridiculously expensive Switzerland is! 120CHF did not go far and we also then spent another 100 Euros! Waiting for the shops and doing the longer variant the day before had put us behind our schedule and we investigated catching a bus from Issert to La Fouly our planned stop for the night as it was Hannah’s 18th Birthday. We had to decide whether we were going to get the bus from Champex or walk on for a while like Mel wanted. No one could decide but the group’s faffing made them miss the bus anyway so we walked on. The walk was pretty easy all down hill and then we had to wait another hour for the bus to arrive, which was nice chill out time in the ghost town of Praz de Fort.
After a short 10 monute bus ride we finally made it to a lush campsite where everyone had showers for the first time since Chamonix. We celebrated Hannah’s birthday in style with a cheese fondue and beer! Happy days! The party celebrations however meant it was a very late night and tomorrow is a very long day with a 1000m climb to Italy….
Jess
Last night was uncomfy but I was so tired I slept like a baby! We were on a hill and every five minutes we woke up spooning at the bottom of the tent!! We awoke to snow, quite heavy snow which covered the mountain hovering over our camp. The fog came in and we packed our bags to leave. I swear everyday Faye and my bag gets a little bit fuller!
We set off into the foggy wilderness at 8.45, late but not too bad compared to yesterday! We bravely climbed up the mountain in record time, in snow now, to the top which looked stunning at it was snow covered. A while later we got chased by a herd of cows with bells because Ashley sounded her mating call, ha ha! They all went mental and chased us down the gill. We soldiered on down further until we reached the botton and corssed a huge waterfall. A crazy French woman shouted ‘veet, veet’ at us as we crossed the river and some of us nearly fell in!
After hours of walking we ended up at Champex lake but the supermarket only opened up at three. We have hours to wait. I also forgot to mention we are now in Switzerland! (Bless Laura! We had been the daybefore too!!!) Things are very expensive here by Ash and me had a larger on the edge of the lake! We also went on a pedalo for Hannah’s birthday occasion, it was rather cold though and the boys in the other pedalo splashed us!
We carried on downhill til Praz de Fort and then got a lovely bus a short way to La Fouly. We are now showered up, sat in a hut at the campsite all cosy and warm. We have had risotto, fondue and Hannah’s birthday cake. Off to bed soon, love Laura!
Laura
My birthday!
We woke up to snow falling. Hard start but come the afternoon the Swiss sun came out for us. We had lunch by a lake after a few of us did a tour round the lake in Champex on pedalos. We discovered that Switzerland as VERY expensive but marched on further to the next village after some fab group pictures with birthday badges and banners. The bus took us to La Fouly and we camped and cooked our meal in a lovely campsite. A very late night but a wonderful day with a birthday cake with sparklers to top it off!!!
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