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11.30am. "Breakfast At The Oasis", (Maria Muldaur meets Supertramp in Minor Swiss Holiday Resort?). Notice the headless person in a pale pink dressing gown standing next to our van? You probably assumed it was a towel hung on the wing mirror to dry. |
Monday 150903: A clear
morning after overnight groundfrost. At 9.30am as we left
Täsch there was still no sun shining onto either campsite.
It was shining in the Rhône valley though! After a while we found that for once the autoroute was preferable to the route nationale, which was stuffed full of roundabouts and circuitous town centre-avoiding detours. We rolled out west along this very major river valley and into Martigny to refuel. Swiss diesel's cheaper than French and we wanted to use up our Swiss francs change. What happened I don't know, but I got the amount wrong and ended up busting into our last notes. I was astonished to find that our tyre pressures were still correct, (and they remained so throughout the holiday). Then we turned back to the autoroute, should have gone for Centre Ville, but had lost the signs for Chamonix and ended up doing 12km at 90º off route. If we hadn't done that though we'd never have seen that Swiss Army-owned t25. Once back in Martigny we quickly found the Chamonix road and, winding through steep vineyards, we set off up the Col de la Forclaz.
From the last of the hairpins before the forest started, we had an almost helicopter-view of the Rhône valley. This is a long pass and fairly steep throughout, (but with plenty of trees to land in, should you become airborne at any stage). |
We were using a lot of 3rd and 4th gear, and 2nd on the hairpins.
A long way ahead I could see the back end of a panel van.
We were really going well but.....,
I'd rather like that panel van up ahead to be a t25, I thought. Just to see how well we're doing with a heavy load of fuel and everything else on board.
So........,
Is it?
No.
Is it though?
Yes, it damn well was!
And by then we were gaining on it considerably.
It was Spanish-registered. A child in the back was looking at us.
Without busting a gut we quite quickly closed up on the van. Its exhaust smoke was minimal so it didn't seem to have an unhealthy engine, but it had been changing gear more than us and in different places.
And then I saw why.
It had no obvious load on board, but it did have a TransporterD badge, (and presumably no turbo). Hmm, no contest?
We sat politely in line, but cars behind were looking impatient.
"If there's a good straight we'll overtake. It's number two that makes the queue", I said to Jo, quoting my old dad.
There it was, a reasonable straight and we weren't likely to get a longer one and.....
Well, I never! That is so rare on the continent......
A right turn indicator from the young woman driving.
I snicked(-ish) into 3rd and within 150yds her dismal diesel van was 100yds behind us.
Really.
Wow, we were having a good day. (So good at that point that I think me eyes went a bit funny and for a couple of minutes I couldn't speak properly).
And I cheered, (not too loudly), then immediately let out a small happy sigh, (was it relief? I think so), as we drove over the French border into the wonderful scenery of Haute Savoie.
Although national and regional differences are certain to overlap borders, it was immediately obvious that we'd left Switzerland behind.
The road surface relaxed and became bumpy.
We relaxed.
Even the van relaxed.
And there were no armco barriers on corners where you'd certainly expect them in most of western Europe.
Then there was the Col des Montets, not such a big deal, unless you were travelling in the opposite direction. Very steeply down we went, videoing nearly all the way and on into Cham, which is what you used to call Chamonix if you felt you needed to be considered cool.
Mont Blanc was in very clear view for much of this stretch and what a monster it is. The highest mountain in the Alps, (about 15,800ft). It was first climbed by Balmat and Paccard at around 6pm on 08/08/1786. You needed to know that, didn't you.
In July the temperature in Chamonix can be about 25C, but around -5C on the summit and the wind can be blowing at 100kph up there.
In the winter it's colder!
We'd brought with us in hard copy of a great deal of advice and, (almost), local knowledge of the Chamonix area from the excellent Mr Brickyard, an extreme winter sports fanatic.
251083: He's sold his house in Huddersfield and is moving out to Cham!
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<----- Here he is 210104 in Chamonix. 020204: "Hi dude, and anyone else with an interest in 10,000
things, while sat in the flat the other day listening to couleur 3 (99.9fm) there
was mention of 10,000 things, and even a note to go to the website! cool. well
done, they've cracked the valley!.
(Oops, May '04, he's back in the UK). |
I remembered amongst The Brickyard's information that there was
one campsite we should avoid
a good one was Camping Les Deux Glaciers.
Meanwhile Jo had been looking in the Alan Rogers book again and had found us "the site with the best mountain views". We pulled onto Camping Les Rosieres.
A sample, much less than a quarter of those views.
The office was closed for lunch. I chatted briefly with a German who arrived in his "Bay Window" VW Camper, (the model before the t25).
After a while a somewhat weasl-y, weedy, moustachioed, end-of-season-looking little chap opened up the office. [Brickie: "That's the bloke that came at me with a brush handle after I complained"].
Jo had found yesterday's News of the World at the local newsagents.
Would anyone believe that's a bread-maker just inside the van? No? I thought not.
We set up next to some Brits with a new Jag and caravan. The Bay Window was nearby.
I dug out Mr Brickyard's info.
Ah!
"Les Rosieres is where the chap stole my passport after trying to charge £10 per night for providing no facilities other than the toilets".
Well, we'd got our awning up by then.
We weren't going to move in a hurry.
Following Brickie's advice that the local shops were expensive, we headed out through the centre of Chamonix. But we stopped for this shot:
The Glacier des Bossons.
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We were soon driving steeply down what we felt was a potentially very dangerous dual carriageway with sharp bends, enormous drops, low speed limits fortunately, escape lanes, roadworks, big lorries, in fact almost everything you might possibly need for a very nasty collision and not very much to stop one. We caught glimpses of a steep and vastly elevated road to our right. It couldn't be the other carriageway of our road because it was on our right, and by rights it shouldn't have been, should it? On through Les Houches and before Sallanches we found a large Intermarché and stocked up.
Where else in the world perhaps would you get from a supermarket car park a view like this one? OK, apart from outside Netto in Kathmandu). It is Mont Blanc. I checked the map. Did you think we had a special aerial on the roof? |
