Up at 6.45 to a nice blue sky morning. Still some issues with breakfast and packing up so we had another slow getaway! We had a short stop too while Chris and Adam visited the local (daylight robbery) shop to get the £5 baguettes!
A few kilometres of trekking took us up the road to the base of the 4x4 trail which led up and up and up to the Alpage du Pulaz for a quick toilet and snack stop in the heat. From tere we set off up towards the Italian border!
As we got closer there was an increase in snow on the ground and as we got near the Col and Italy we started seeing people in full waterproof and warm gear…. This didn’t bode well! It wasn’t until we reached the sign and crested the col when the wind, snow and cold hit us full on!
A very quick photo later we started the descent and although some snow continued to fall lightly the temperature definitely increased thankfully.
A very picturesque trek down to the Refuge Elena followed and despite the ‘No Pic-Nic’ signs we made good use of the facilities and picnic’d ourselves silly! When it was time to go we descended into the valley and because it was early (and illegal to camp in Italy) we spread ourselves out near a random carpark and dried out the tents, towels etc while attempting to fix Adam’s thermarest.
The girls returned from an exploration with the very nice surprise of a box of ice lolly with some quite strange flavours… Mint and liquorice?!?! But very nice nonetheless!
We eventually headed back out of sight towards the river and set up camp before cooking another meal of couscous, tuna, sweetcorn and mayo. Another fairly early night and out first illegal camp seemed to work out just fine!!!
Dave
For once… a sunny morning!
I woke up at 6.30am, the others were up too. We got ready whilst enjoying some strawberry ham porridge that everyone agreed made it taste better.
After doing our teeth we were given some more group food to carry. I carried the baguettes again, they are good for me to carry as my bag has long straps. We set off knowing we had 1000m height gain ahead of us. The warm sun tempted us to loose our layers several times.
When nearing the large mountain Ben came up with the stop and go tactic. This caoused Adan, Chris and Dave to become the slow and steady rivals (in my head anyway!). We worked together and the time flew by until we met the snow. It was at this point where I was seriously regretting shorts and a t-shirt, I wasn’t the only one to acquire some layers either! After much shivering we were welcomed to the Grand Col Ferret- with more shivering!
A team photo forced my hands to go blue, but soon enough I had managed to quire some much needed layers. We then set of downhill into the Italian valley where we hoped to meet a refuge when we could get rid of some group food by having lunch.
As we ate our picnic by a sign that said ‘no picnics’ we went into the refuge to stock up n crisps, pricey chocolate and water. Soon enough it was time to set off, while we tried to adapt to the basic Italian language!
We eventually met the valley floor and found a nice sunny spot where we could dry stuff, fix Adam’s thermarest and eat ice cream (thanks Hannah!)
We eventually found ourselves a little camping spot- in the nation where camping is illegal- but it is ok because we didn’t know! After going to the loo wit the guys (not together) we had a nice couscous, tuna and sweetcorn meal which we all gladly ate. The girls washed it down with Hannah’s birthday wime!
Mel kindly cleaned our bowls as Ben, Adam and I were contemplating the idea of jelly- which sadly didn’t happen.
Awards resulted in Adam and Ben both for being good sports and helping me. The da ends with me sitting down in my sleeping bag writing this diary, Callim on my left listening to some music and Adam on my right on his phone. My back is itchy now, so I have to go…. BYE! Xxx
Jack
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