Gently Carbonated

Holiday! Yummy!

2011-07-02T21:56:00.001+01:00

Devon 2011: On the road with Imogen...

2011-06-26T23:26:00.001+01:00

She reckons she's got the route sussed, we're not so sure....
9 hrs & 5 service stations to Devon, and that was just the bit from Birmingham!....poor Imogen not happy in car seat in 27 degrees!

Candes St Martin ... pretty pretty!

2009-09-29T22:27:00.000+01:00

Chateau Nitray

2009-09-29T22:26:00.000+01:00

Chateau Nitray courtyard

2009-09-29T22:25:00.000+01:00

There's Chateaux and there's Chateaux ...

2009-09-29T22:04:00.001+01:00

Days 14-17

(... and the best ones are the ones that do the wine...)

Sunday travelling up to Loire. Still very hot. Sometimes the van feels like it's sticking to the road, you can almost feel the hot tar vulcanising with the tyres under all that weight. I get a bit obsessed with tyre pressures and decide that's part of the problem we're only getting like 14 mpg, forgetting that its got more to do with me trying to get 70 mph out of a 4 ton van with a 6 litre V8. Doh. We stop at a couple of those free automatic pointe de service on the autoroute peage, but of course theres no way there gonna handle 80 psi, they just kind of do this depressed hissing thing ... So I have to carry on with this under-performance burden nagging away...

Still, by the time we get to Camping Le Saule at Cheverney I've forgotten all that nonsense. Great family site, all mod cons, dead clean, if a bit expensive. Get the barbie on, crack some beers and we're relaxed again, under the trees ...

Monday bike to Chaverney (well, its Cheverney, right, but Chav-erney seems more appropriate for the Euro tourist trash here). Pasta at Pinnochios opposite the chateau. Good grub, poor service (bouffe!). In the Chateau a huge baying pen of French hounds. Dont walk on the grass signs. First encounter with irritating Spanish. 16th century leather wallpaper. Certat majoribus astralis?? Do the tourist trundle & shunt round the great salons of the house. Still fun to bike in the flat coutryside down poplar lined avenues.

Tuesday seems to be the day of the Ch (once I'd got the 80 psi gonflage sorted) ... Like the knights that say ni. Chambord, Chaumont, Champignons, Chenonceaux, Cher...

Great Royal Chambord definitely worth a look. We didn't go in, but it seems to me the most impressive thing is its size and stature as a total statement anyway. Sure there was plenty inside, but I already had the message - big, royal, powerful, opulent, complex, grand.
After that we went down the road along fantastic raised levees giving the only relief to the landscape, to the B of the day, Blois. B, for but though, as well, cos we struggled to find proper parking or access, so balied from Blois after a quick lunch in the bus car park by the river (not even a great view of the Loire at that stage).

Then on to Chaumont over the Loire, a quick appreciative, but weary glance over to the Chateau perched delicately above the river. Now head through more open and less touristy country to the River Cher and Chenonceaux, passing the caves de shrooms on the way. Champignons? Mushroomed in the dark. Best place for 'em at 6 euros a visit!

We seem to like that, less touristy. We arrive at the truly beautiful Chateau Chenonceau as numbers are dwindling, and its threatening thunder, so it works out well for us. More history, prettier gardens, and incredible artwok than you can shake a stick at. Home of Catherine de Medici, the queen ruled France from here for a while. Amazing original 16th century tiling to
the floor and .... on the wall.

We end up at a small field campsite (Civray de Touraine), mostly run for canoeist and fishing folk, basic but fine for us ... The last Ch of the day on the River Cher.

Wednesday. Caves ... Head off for Athee looking for Chateau Nitray. A couple of wrong turns through flat Loire farmland winds us up at a poo dumping point de service in a tiny village, and me with unpleasant stuff on me kegs. Not really the mellow day of caves and tasting ... Still, we find Chateau Nitray, drive through a 17th century coaching arch into a beautiful, lazy courtyard, and all that shit (sic) disappears. Greeted by a huge, sloppy french hound, it's a while before Monsieur proprietaire pops up, completing a sale with someone else. This is The Count. He owns the place and makes the wine. What a nice guy. What a bloody great spot. Watch an enchanting movie about barrel making, and wander of our own accord around the site. End up with a couple of cases of very palatable Chateau Nitray (Cabernet Franc and Sauvignon blanc)... To cap it all, the place is a France Passion site, and had we been in the market for a kip, parfait.

Roll out back to the road with wide grins towards Vouvray and Montencourt. The Chateau Montencourt is kind of grand, accomplished but a bit up itself. We only slightly enjoy the comprehensive but shabby museum. The wine is good but the sales girl aloof. Despite ourselves we grab a few cases of Vouvray, but only for the wine, not the label!!

Now its along the winding levees of the Loire south bank, we pass through pretty Brehemont, & find the Chateau Usse just about closed, but local cave still open for some friendly degustation, choisir les vins numero trois! We learn about the quality of the 2005 wines, the chenin & sauvignon blancs, & the sec/demi sec Vouvrays. Not to mention the vital importance of breathing
a wine. Somehow, can't imagine how, we end up walking out the door with 3 cases, plus a petite gratuitous Touraine from our new friend.

Finally, a long hot French day washes us up at Azay-le-Rideau (jewel of the Loire...). Clonky home cooked chicken & chips dinner at a little auberge, with harassed Henri, and the crazy 10 minute scheduled American family. Eerie, fantastical, moving songes et lumiere at Chateau Azay in the misty rain caps a romantic evening. Scary red monks & the realm of the wasp king....

Loire & Chateaux

2009-07-07T09:53:00.000+01:00

VTT Sancy

2009-07-06T20:52:00.001+01:00

Haut Auvergne, Parc des Volcans

2009-07-06T20:52:00.000+01:00

Days 10-13. Le Bourboule, Mont-dore, Lack Guery, Puy de Sancy, Puy de Gros.

Leave the Dordogne region after dropping in at Chateau de Val, with its unique 6 spire tower architecture (huh? What about the weird metal horse). Lucky escape from car park with 2m limited d'hauteur (2.6m van!!).

Diversion to Tour d'Auvergne for lunch, then Chastreix, hoping to sample at least one of the famous (?) 5 cheeses of the Auvergne cheese route (really). (ok... St. Nectaire, Bleu d'Auvergne, Cantal, , &). Quelle horreur, fromagerie ferme, and the much vaunted France Passion "stay with your camping car gratuit on your hosts farm" turns out to be the church car park (11th century no less, to be fair). Still, Nadine in tourist info is most helpful, indulging our franglais, as well as tickling our fancy for some upland country.

And so we find ourselves meandering up & into the neat little spa town of Bourboule, on the very upper reaches of the haute Dordogne, and marking the gateway to the Sancy side of the Haute Auvergne. Its impossible to resist the hills though, so despite vague earlier motions by Mrs S to restrict mountainous expeditionary mularkey in the van, we're soon climbing up to the high plateau of the Massif de Sancy. Lac de Guery & the views from the col are astonishingly picturesque ... Another lucky turn in our travels.

Mont-dore has a more compact, Chamonix-ish feel to it, but something tells us theres a better deal to be had, & follow our noses to a campsite at Les Grandes Cascades. Next evenings hike to see the 100ft falls was worth it, kind of Hardraw Force in a mini Alpine setting. That evening was probably the best bbq in the world watching Puy de Sancy fade out in a rosy smudge above the meadow.

Ride the telepherique up to the plateau, hike up to Puy de Sancy, then on to Puy Gros. Peregrine falcons calling, & swarms of swifts feasting on clouds of mountain top black flies. Cable cars on part time so we plod back down the summer scars of the pistes. Double bonus - pass the actual spring source of the Dordogne, and Helen gets to come down a red run!

Day well rounded with 4 course blow out at Comptoir Cyrano. Kier & Bordeaux accompanying duck gizzard salard & lamb shanks. Proper French cuisine & worth all the hundred sheets!!

Next day we're back in the valley for the local Sancy outdoor festival - mostly focussed on the Sancy-athlon triathlon during the day & some funky displays in the evening (BMX, skate/blade half pipe, dry tooling comp, all to DJ Franks awesome 80s break beats!). We pile up the mini Bourboule gondola with the bikes in the aft, and do a wee circuite verte in the forest. Then Mrs S hits the downhill trail (dewd!) home, while I blast round the local black 20k - well recommended with awesome 6/7 km trail & single track descent.

We depart this lovely part of the Auvergne feeling thrilled to have found such a gem...

Haute Vallee Dordogne, Aubazine, Chateau de Vallee

2009-06-30T11:32:00.000+01:00

Froglet

2009-06-30T11:24:00.001+01:00

Woody woodpecker

2009-06-30T11:22:00.000+01:00

Day 7, 8 & 9. Woodlands, lakes & gorges in the Haute Dordogne.

Secluded & tranquil, shady & slightly eerie woodland camping at the almost deserted Gimel-les-Cascades - only the froglets in the showers & depressed proprietaire (even the Dutch haven't come this year!).

Lac de la Triouzoune at Neuvic gives us a tres agreable lunch & afternoon swim spot at this local recreational lake. Maybe its the arguments about which of the 15 beautiful lakeside emplacements we should choose, but something doesn't feel right.

We press on, and a lucky "deviation" takes us down a precarious wee road clinging to the Gorges de la Dordogne, with EDF's functional but impressive barrage d'aigle - a mini Hoover damn.

Big rolling countryside with great views over to the Volcan Mountains around Mauriac, then its climb climb up to another Barrage & the fabulous lac above Bort.

At Aubazine we pitch on a terrace just by the lake with a perfect GnT vista down to Chateau de Val. Very hot - best part of 40° - so we're melting during the day! Take a 14km spin on the bike early evening sweating buckets, lucky we've got the lake & swim platform to ourselves to cool down.

Plenty of wildlife, kites, buzzards ... Best of all great spotted woodpeckers at Domme campsite & near Neuvic, then green woodpecker at Aubazine.

Villages de vallee de Dordogne ...

2009-06-27T13:09:00.001+01:00

Day 5 & 6. Sight-seeing les jolis villages!
Stacks of impossibly pretty villages with drop dead gorgeous views. Highlights were cathedral & gorgoyles in old Beaulieu, dramatic Roque Gageac clinging to the sandstone cliff above the river, and the incredible views over miles of the Dordogne from Domme sitting stolidly on its ancient hilltop. Not to mention local caves full of Cahors Malbec. And a curious old brummie at the campsite who'd been on the road in his old landcruiser for 3yrs & 750,000 miles!! That is a road trek.

Shitty Shitty bang bang !

2009-06-27T12:51:00.000+01:00

Day 4. Argentat.
Unfortunate shower of shit in morning due to exploding hose during "vidange". One cannot overemphasise how unpleasant this is. Argentat, at least, was still looking fresh & pretty, where we stopped for Gallettes on a roasting hot day (35°).

Man nearly eaten by hippo in Dordogne

2009-06-24T10:12:00.001+01:00

Day 3. Monceaux-sur-Dordogne, Argentat.
This fisherman had a lucky escape today, when a hippo didn't break out from a local zoo, nor wreak carniverous carnage on the river.
Back to the studio, Bob.

And, relax ...

2009-06-24T10:11:00.001+01:00

Day 2. On arrive sur la Dordogne. La riviere a camping du Salou est belle et tranquille, beaucoup d'oiseaux, les swifts, les swallows, les pied wagtails, et les noisy chaffinches. Pas de personnes, mais plein du vin. Tres agreable, comme ils disent.

Looking for Hawes on stag...

2009-06-21T21:53:00.000+01:00

Gav Booth as Luke Skywalker.

Haut cinq !!

2009-06-21T21:52:00.000+01:00

Day 1. Camping at the chateau. Lucked out at an old place nr Tours called St. Ustre. Genuine 1700s Castel, but with swimming & local plonk.
I like !!

Florence has to stay at home to look after the fish...

2009-06-19T01:14:00.000+01:00

Miaow.
Gulp.
Bubble.
Miaow.

...

Time for a break...

2009-06-19T01:09:00.001+01:00

... is about 3 weeks I reckon... less is a waste, more is indulgent...

I'll be in France, or the back garden or thereabouts ... you can see
my location on the Latitude map embedded.

A bientot !

Swimming in powder on Yret face

2009-01-09T18:38:00.001Z

Moment of the week was piling down a fresh line to the left of the chairlift in about half a metre of fresh powder !

Brass monkeys

2009-01-05T21:32:00.000Z

Minus 18 here this morning... Phook me, that's cold sat on t' lift!
Crunchy on the piste, and very choppy off piste. Good news is theres no buggars here! Only saw 3 skiers all the way up to the top of the hill.... The mountains all mine, ha ha ha!

Smoking damages your health

2009-01-05T21:11:00.001Z

First day out, first ride out. Not much point sticking to the piste - seems to me that 10mins on the lift is more than enough to find a line in a snow bowl as simple as Monetier... Stumble off the chair lift, blast off the red as soon as poss, head for the tree line, do the steep, even if its not deep.
And whatever you do don't drop into that really funky looking gully cos it'll dump you out below the lift.
Doh!
Le Tabac. Thought that was just about French fags, turns out its about nasty mogully blacks too. Don't follow me & don't do this on a board. Its just not worth it.
By time I get back down, Helens starting to look good on the nursery slope which is sweet relief from screaming feet & calf muscles.

Serre Chevalier Day 1. Meet at the bandstand.

2009-01-04T22:08:00.001Z

Weathers absolutely stonking, not a cloud in the sky. Helen spends the morning on the nursery slope with glamorous Gavin - not me, a real instructor.

Monetier, Serre Chevalier

2009-01-04T22:00:00.001Z

A long journey via Jet2, the Frejus tunnel & the Pass de Mongenevre - lager-drinking brits at the airport (wa-hey! only 7am!), chain smoking french pissing on the side of the road, and achingly stereotyped crap italian drivers.

Relieved to finally make it to the end of Serre Chevalier valley & the picture book hamlet of Monetier... Room with a view at the top worth all the effort.

2008-11-18T11:28:00.003Z

CloudCamp London, last week, 13th Nov. In the church off Clerkenwell Green near the old Freeserve office that I'd never really noticed.

Generally, a very interesting evening. Heavy infrastructure focus. Clear that cloud models, their adoption and thinking across both providers and consumers, is still immature and developing.
Market growing quickly. Couple of very smart and (becoming) successful products out there.
Sun had a good strategic understanding of where the market was likely to grow from first (more to Paas, Daas, Iaas than SaaS). Plenty of overlap/confusion/misuse/synergy between cloud, grid, virtualised, dense format, and utility computing. In some realms the terms are interchangeable, but as product offerings they are cleary distinct. Exactly what the cloud is remains unclear to many people. The market is young so it feels very open. This is good and bad. ie Opportunity, but market needs to be ripe. We want to start building to be ready, question is whether all the other players are sufficiently visionary.

---------------------------------
Notes from various lightning talks (5 mins), discussion groups & 121 conversations.

Canonical.com - Simon Wardley (consultant / snr manager)
Importance of standards, transparency & portability.
Highly pertinent comparison with the re-packaging of debt in current financial crisis leading to the collapse of the different levels of products. Message being that if you aren't aware of how your suppliers have built their product from cloud & saas, or your suppliers suppliers, then your service can come crashing down if only one saas block in the stack fails. However if you've anticipated this by designing in standards-based portability then you may be able to mitigate.

Quest - Joe Bagley (CTO)
Cloud, grid, virtualised & dense format (blade etc) computing models' green credentials.
Only 0.3% of input power to data centre may make it to CPU. Even idling, huge amounts of power are lost. C/G/V/D approaches are improving things a little, BUT short version is, few models really green. None doing anything much useful to report at granular level on env/carbon budgets. Not one of the cloud providers has proper published environmental position/policy.

Arjuna / Newcastle Uni - Paul Watson (Professor)
Development of Service Agreement & Policy management structures/standards for governing & controlling hand-offs from enterprises to private or public clouds.
Ie proposing that "contracts" should be developed to support cloud federation (but this is currently an academic exercise).

RBS - Rhys Jones (Tech/Infrastructure Director type)
Clouds are cool. But there are obstacles to corporate cloud adoption.
For corporates, clouds can rpovide benefits (see CIO feedback from Cisco) ... move budget from capex to opex (more predictable), and automatic optimisation.
Also represent a rapid application / rapid infrastructure option - which can allow bypassing of normal controls (governance often associated with biz/tech roadmaps & capex control).
[For us, this is the classic opportunity: an organisation wanting to innovate or develop rapidly outside their normal stack because it creates a pseudo-greenfield]
But, there are obstacles in changing the *culture* of control (both governance, and hands on tech control).
Additional point that many corporates wont move until more convinced that the "service gaps" in cloud offerings are being closed.

Cisco - Phil Dean (snr architect / client support type)
Feedback from CIO's on current state of cloud & Saas models/offerings.
Like:
Consistency (support easier globalisation)
Simplicity (easier to 24/7 support)
Service orientation (promotes agility)
Don't like:
Loss of control
Compromised risk management & security
Migration (& hence transitional hybrid operation)
Technology focused, not business focused
Need:
SLA's, standards, security & BCM at "service aggregation" layer.

Zimory - Philipp Huber (CTO?)
There are still things missing to drive to pervasive cloud computing
- interoperability standards
- too much chaos in vendor mkt
- security issues (solution= pervasive encryption?)
- transparent billing models
- SLA's (jury still out on EC2 move in this direction)
Zimory = interesting server resource brokering model ie online market for spare cpu cycles.

Sun - Wayne Horkan (UK CTO)
Sun predicts a "goldrush" to cloud models, though expect this to be dominated by infrastructure oriented Paas, Iaas or Daas.

Microsoft - Neil Hutson (Snr Director - thought he said for Telco, not sure)
Azure. Duh.

Cloudstart - Duncan Johnson-Watt
Cloudcover product - insurance through the cloud.
Tools & dashboards for monitoring & managing an operations different clouds. Enabling (Gui-driven) failover & failback between diverse clouds & images.

Rightscale - Josh Fraser (Biz dev)
Appears to be some very smart bits. Enables full automation of on-demand virtual servers (configured as your image) where you want them when you want them. Either according to pre-defined demand schedules (timeslots), or more cleverly, according to rules based on your existing infrastructure's performance. So, this allows you to automatically "spin up" new resources (e.g. an extra mysql node) when your infrastructure is under stress (cpu, io, ram). Fox news used this approach to bring online new db servers (36 mysql nodes!) to manage peaks in "voting traffic" from their website during US election.

---------------------------------
Other blogs:

http://gojko.net/2008/11/14/cloudcamp-london-2-private-clouds-and-standardisation/

Day 6. Powder day dewd!

2008-03-02T18:34:00.002Z

Finally got fresh flakes today - at the point we least expected really since we'd given up on the weather.
Headed back over top of Arpette, and had incredible fresh trax around the bowl near Crozat lift. Almost none of this area had been tracked, so we were beaming. Got plenty of parallel riding in between us, cutting gorgeous figure8s, and swoopy big carves on the steeper stuff. Probably only 3 inches or so, but enough to make conditions ideal. We even had a little sun & blue sky!
Finished our week with one last ride down the gully to Verdons - despite some more little snow slides, the fresh made this a dream, with fast, smooth riding & loads of small lips & kickers, all now with soft landings.
Wicked week all in all, & Rich even tried to lose his passport to stay on for more...!

Day 5. Boar-Ding in the rain.

2008-03-02T18:33:00.002Z

Well. What d'you expect? Its puns r us here - gotta stay amused in the rain right? ... you were never gonna get Pullitzer material.

Got out late cos it was pissing then drizzling then mizzling. If I hadn't been meeting Andy, i'm not sure what would have happened... buggar all, 'appen.
Got out of the bubble into thick cloud at Grand Roche - met Andy, having posh hungover restaurant fodder, & we weren't allowed to have just coffee. So we said ta-ra & headed intrepidly down into the gloom & mist. Traversed over twds Bellecote, then up to Roche de mio via fave caffy at belle trieuse.

Munching baguette butties in the bubble, we had to get beyond onomatapia & decide what 2 do.
Snow, rain, & wet avalanches wouldn't put us off so we took the easy blue Carella to our fave gully above Verdons, then messed about around super slush Borsellier.
Bit of a mishap as the blue from Verdons cut across the gully... Looking to get some air from the lip of the road i got more than i bargained for -about a 6ft drop into the next section of the gully directly where a huge concrete drainage pipe came through. Almost half pipe, full pipe, cardboard box for me, if it hadn't been for the deep & soft slushy snow to cushion it.

Took in some funky little side stunts on bottom of gully/blue, then froze, wet through, up on the verdons chair. From the top a final, sugary run home in the mist was livened up by a motivational Milka cow warming up the little un's on the piste.

Day 4. Sawdust & dogspit.

2008-02-29T10:30:00.001Z

Drove over to Les arcs for our free days forfait in the other half of Paradiski (paradise ski?!). Eschewed the ease & convenience of the funnicular (who wants to be in a slushy crush of sweaty Frenchies at the end of the day?) for the thrills of navigating our own way to arc1800. Needless to say we got lost - only monsieur la poubelle, with his fags & recycling, got us back on target. We got found by the helpful, if over-dressed, fifi la tourisme, who explained everything & even let us park in the administration car park, gratuit.
A little (long) stroll through Arc's authentic 70's cobbled streets, past the knobbing dogs, got us to the Transarc bubble - definitely the best way up the hill here.
Pleasant cafe & terrasse for coffee at top - even an avalanche park to learn rescue techniques.
Rode some blues & reds up here - dull fairly featureless bowl from Col de la Chal to arc2000. Headed to Tuffes bumps & moguls to get above the bowl for some off piste interest - but only really got about 3 or 4 decent big turns on the steep (not deep).
Headed up Aiguille rouge - reasonable red - not many options to get away from the piste, very mogulled.
Then back over to the other side via Grand Renard. Best coffee of the week at Le Poudreuse...proper separate jug of steamed milk n all t'lot. No powder though.
Afternoon spent messing around in & out the woods between the blues & reds of Vallandry/Plan Peisey. Heavy in places, but more interesting terrain. Spotting trail ideas from the chairlift Rich explained that patchy cover was no problem - he could ride everything from dogspit & sawdust to slate & shale. 10 mins later he proved his styles by riding tree stumps - or thats what he said anyway.
Raced back over for last lifts to arc1800, taking in the groomed & carvable slalom stade/course for final grins.
Overall, fun in the trees, but size, variety, flexibility & snow quality wins hands down for La plagne.
And quite why they've built that daft boat on a wire to join up the two sides...?
Did some of the gear shops in Bourg. Not a lot going on - intersport crap. The boarder place on the main road's ok - couple of classic old surf style kamikazi boards from the early 80s (?)
Had pizza (v. good) at Mama Mias back in Plagne 1800. No sign of Harrogate Road...

Day 3. Mont-Chav-init

2008-02-29T10:28:00.001Z

Its only a name I suppose, Montchavin. And a great spot - big open bowl with a couple short bumps, steeps & gullies. Poetic irony though to have shared the chairlift up with a couple of ski-blinged Essex guttermouths.
We only had a half day, knackered, and Rich recovering from his vom freakery in the witching hour. Still, we rode pretty hard & non-stop around L'Arpette for 3 or 4 hours, mostly in the big bowl below Crozat, which had fantastic soft snow and plenty of terrain to play around on - more or less all to ourselves too, crazy Euros just seem to want to cruise piste.
Popped over towards Dos Rond, over the boarder cross, then a hilarious descent into the trees. Deep, sugary, untracked, and even fun if you keep your tip up & arc your turns. Boards off twice, though, eventually clambering down to a skidoo trail or road & walking out to the Carroley chair. Definitely had that one to ourselves!
Had to skidaddle quick to get last lifts back. Piled from l'Arpette to Bellecote in 6 or 7 mins for last lift up & back to Plagne.
La Mine bar in 1800 seemed more lively than the centre, and was worth a pint - even if it was full of Brit ski knobs.

Day 2. Mullahs don't snowboard.

2008-02-27T11:36:00.001Z

But plenty of dickheads ski...

Found a few more nice off piste spots today with good softish stuff. The bowl under the roche de Mio cable, back of verdons sud, and down in t'trees between pollux & carina. All that flat blue stuff above Plagne villages sucks though.
Very quiet tonight - went to Legend Bar & Bar No BLM (eh?) - not busy for apres. Good burgers in Le Far West (or so we thought).
Good bus service (navette gratuit) back from Centre to 1800.
Rich declared himself "really really fit". Then he went to bed with a headache at 10.15, and 2 hours later violently razzed up his salmonella burger.

Day 1. It hasn't melted ...

2008-02-25T21:48:00.000Z

The all important cold white stuff is here. The snowline is high though, maybe 1700 or 1800m. And at the moment, the freezing level is much higher. It was so warm today, i would guess air temp in resort (1800/2000) was 14-15 degrees, with a hot sun. We were sweating buckets trying to put the turns in on the steep. The advantage of the warm weather is that theres some soft stuff around. Its not powder, but if you half close your eyes, keep the tip of the board up, and head down something south facing & off piste...
We headed up to Le Biolley, then down & across Plagne Centre & Bellecote to Roche de Mio. Rich bust his binding so a fix from SkiSet in Bellecote was a relief - theyre not really focused on boarding round here.
We didn't bother with the high point of the Glacier de la Chiaupe, instead following the softer stuff on the blues down the back to Versant. Dropped into a nice tight gully down to Verdons sud, with lots of small, but chunky avalanches.
Back up to Les Verdons then slogged over mixed stuff according to the aspect of the slope - icy then sugary piste & soft then crunchy off piste. Finally blasted the blue behind Centre back to Plagne 1800, and necked our own lagers cos we couldn't trouve la boozer - have to sort that tomorrow!

Picnic at Aire(de Fontanelle)'s rock

2008-02-25T18:47:00.000Z

I nicked the mayo & moutarde sachets, Rich made the butties ... Oh. Happy happy.

Superfly to the Alps

2008-02-25T18:36:00.000Z

Managed to grab a bargain late Friday night for La Plagne, even the Jet2 flights were more expensive than the apartment!
Rich got us a motor on his fancy black Amex business, and we were off - into the bright sunshine of a beautiful spring morning in Geneva.
Thank heaven we got a free upgrade to the mighty Toyota Auris, with its incredible top speed of 140 kmh. At this rate, with the valley temp at 18°, would there be any snow left?

Stag on the A82 (no sign of RAC)

2008-02-06T12:15:00.001Z

Stag on the A82 (no sign of RAC), originally uploaded by gavin_sweet.

Homeward bound. Stag broken down?

Curved ridge wash-out

2008-02-06T12:04:00.000Z

Unfortunately the plan to combine a guided ascent of Curved ridge on the buchaille with a bit of instruction to improve our winter technical skills had to get changed.
We teamed up with Cliff from Alan Kimbers school in Fort William:
http://www.westcoast-mountainguides.co.uk/
It was so wet and windy though, that just getting dragged up an out of condition grade III route for the hell of it seemed pointless.
We took Cliff's advice and stuck to the shelter of great gully, where we messed around practising snow and ice belay techniques - bucket seats, deadman, axe belays, etc, including stomp and footbrake descent techniques. All good stuff.
There was a lot of avalanche debris in the bigger steeper fields, so at points it was slightly nervy day. I've been playing on the hills for over 30 years, and hadnt seen quite so much avalanche action before - big dumps of snow, unbonded, turn to mush as the temperature goes up, and then slide slowly down ....

Bidean - mission accomplished

2008-02-06T12:02:00.001Z

Bidean - mission accomplished, originally uploaded by gavin_sweet.

From Coire nam Beitheach we plodded up the ridge against a strong wind. Crampons awkward but more or less required.
Deserted on the top. Took 5 mins for a buttie. Wind chill very low again, maybe -25 or so.
Descent easy, and followed a shallower line from the bealach back into the corrie - more or less all sliding on our bums.

Coire nam Beitheach

2008-02-05T09:12:00.001Z

Looking up towards Coire nam Beitheach, originally uploaded by gavin_sweet.

Conditions on Saturday colder and a little less windy. A couple of inches of frash snow right down to the glen.
High avalanche risk with so much snow around, and we didnt want to burn up before long day with guide tomorrow. Straightforward route up Bidean via nam Beitheach seemed a good idea.Legs warmed slowly but by the time we made the high corrie to the south west we were going well. Several other parties out looking at buttresses below Aonach Dubh, not sure whether they saw them through though as there was a deal of snow up there, and we saw groups exiting below later.
The Coire nam Beitheach was filled with snow, but it was still light and holding together well. Followed a line to the side of the middle of the headwall by an obvious rib of rock in the centre. Quite steep but avoiding any obvious danger from cornices. Easy exit to the sharp ridge of the bealach where we were smacked in the face by a very strong wind.

Beinn Fhada

2008-02-05T08:56:00.001Z

Beinn Fhada, originally uploaded by gavin_sweet.

Made the ridge in fast time, but very strong winds on top, blowing at maybe 50mph, with gusts of 60-80mph. Goggles essential, and at times almost impossible to stay on feet without crouching for shelter. Elected to go without crampons - mostly just blown powder on well consolidated snowpack on the ridgeline - so more agile in just boots. Wind chill probably -20 or -25.
Struggled to the summit, but opted to descend back into the glen from the bealach beyond, rather than carrying on up to Stob Coire Sgreamhach - just didnt have enough daylight.
Dropped down open slopes then a few easy snowy ribs and gullies back into Lairig Eilde, above the gorge that heads up to Sgreamhach.
Long and easy going walk out through thick wet snow, and slush.
Followed another group out who ended up sat next to us in the Clachaig - where we had to perform essential rehydration, using that well known dark beery medicine.... Haggis, neeps and taties well recommended also.

Ben crossing Allt Lairig Eilde

2008-02-05T08:49:00.001Z

Ben crossing Allt Lairig Eilde, originally uploaded by gavin_sweet.

Bit of a late start to Friday, having driven up through the mad weather on Thursday - snow nearly closing the M6/M73, lorries blown over, hurricane winds etc.... relieved to get to the Clachaig before last orders...
Set off in a howling wind up the Lairig Eilde between Buchaille Etive Beag and Beinn Fhada/Coire Screamagh. Plenty of snow around but temperatures only really hoverng around zero in the glens.
Sketchy manoevre crossing the burn, then up the nose of the most easterly of the sisters of Glencoe. A couple of steep snowfields before we gained the ridge, as you move up the grass ramps between the crags, but more tiring than anything, kicking steps mostly in soft and unconsolidated snow.

Scottish winter fun pt.1

2008-01-30T00:06:00.001Z

Chalets at Clachaig Inn booked.
Me n Benjamina should get 4 solid days in. Shifted location this year, down from Speanbridge, to try to take advantage of proximity of routes in Glencoe. Means we probably won't get on any Kintail classics (Saddle/Forcan ridge), but we got defeated there last yr anyway (except in the Cluanie Inn).
Desperate to crack Bidean/Lost Valley headwall this year, we've bottled it twice when in steep & poor conditions. Hoping for some technique improvements from Alan Kimbers guide school too.

theNetStart making progress

2008-01-29T23:58:00.001Z

The model is starting to look a bit better now in terms of documents...
Incubation methodology
Platform description
Community engagement terms
... Workshop with Q&A soon.
Marco & I trying to create a draft products breakdown for everyone to see the targets for the platform.
Lee doing an energetic job on various partners (uni's, rda's, corporate etc), but nothing we want to announce yet.

Google calendar ought to be easy..

2008-01-29T23:50:00.000Z

Its got a great easy to use UI...and you can see other people's stuff.
Fab!
Then what? It lets you down!
XML & ical interfaces, but you try getting it working seamlessly with M$ Outlook (including recurring appts...eh? Eh?)
And what about with Google grps where u really want to integrate? Insert the code, previews nicely, then...doh!

Make it work! Please!

Kitchen technic

2007-12-09T18:32:00.000Z

Just by the by, gadgets now back up and running in the lounge / kitchen ...
> Squeezebox + Slimserver 6.5.4
> Silverstone HTPC w Blackgold Tuners, XPMC etc
> Arcam 8 series AMP/pre-AMP / CD
> Infocus SP1405 Projector
> SeViC KC2 10.2" LCD TV + DVD + DVB-T + MP3 + DivX
And of course...
> Britannia L100 6 burner (unbeatable at just making stuff hotter)

Kitchen-tastic!

2007-12-09T18:28:00.001Z

The completion of the building work at home demands celebration & publicity, so I thought I'd brush off the dust on the blog. And something tells me that my new found involvement with theNetStart will have me contributing more regularly than ever in 2008 - but more on that soon.

Anyway, after a ridiculous, exasperating & tear-filled year, battling with every incompetent & thoughtless party that's been involved, we have almost got our home back to a normal, livable state. To say this started with a barely noticeable drip and ended with a dispute the Financial Ombudsman had to help with, pretty much taking out a year of our lives along the way, its
insane. You wouldn't want to make this stuff up, so I'm bloody glad its over. If I had my way, there'd be a new annual fireworks display in Roundhay Park to commemorate the victory of the little man (thats me) against the big corporation (thats them).

All of which leads me, naturally, to come up with a festive ditty to be sung to the classic seasonal tune...

Back in two thousand six, we had a little leak...
Twelve months of hassle,
Eleven crap contractors,
Ten wasted oak trees,
Nine broken promises,
Eight hundred phone calls,
Seven days a week,
Six shoddy claim handlers,
Five blazing rows.
Four-ty thousand pounds,
Three sets of worried parents,
Two stressed out Sweets,
And another bloody hike in insurance premiums!

(With no thanks at all to everyone who made this hard for us by screwing up, being late, or continually needing to be chased, harrangued & double-checked to do a half-decent job).

Of course, I don't believe anyone reads these damn blogs, least of all customer service directors in insurance companies. So I might just have it all printed up on a sandwich board and parade in front of Churchills like a sad loon, challenging him to come n have a go if he thinks he's hard enough. F***ing stupid mutt.

Anyway, if you do know me it'd be great to have your support. Text me at my normal number, with the word KITCHEN, followed by A, B or C.
A (you poor things, you must be so relieved its all finished)
B (can't believe the way you've been treated, i'd love to make a contribution to your legal campaign)
C (we're sick of hearing you go on about it, just let it go now you mentalist)

Ypres & Flanders.

2007-10-04T10:34:00.001+01:00

Stop at a quirky little site, mostly mobile homes, at Mont des Cats. More gnomes than cats though.
Memorable for an evening in with Star Wars & one of our new plonks (not long, then). Famous Belgian frites & mayo for lunch.
In the flat Flanders country-side we pass scores of WWII graveyards for various nationalities, many British. Odd names, like Derry House and Hill 62. We drive around, curious, and wanting to pay some sort of respect, but not wanting to take too macabre a fascination. Many have a simple monument inscribed "Their name liveth ever more".
Ypres is awkward & we can't park, so we drive past Menin and head out. Thought provoking enough. Without all those brave souls maybe we wouldn't have been free to do this European tour.
The last continental leg of the roadtrip comes gently to an end as we kill a couple of hours waiting for the ferry at Zeebruge, appropriately, with a nice cup of tea.

Driving North.

2007-10-04T10:32:00.001+01:00

Montelimar to Langres to St Jan Cappel.
Didn't get woken in night by ravaging werewolves, just by friendly rubbishman in morning. Next two days motoring north are relatively uneventful. Quiet & well maintained autoroutes most of the way, which we break with a few diversions to N routes, and the odd navigational argument.
Langres was apparently voted the 50th most historic place in France. Not sure what that really means, but it has various ancient looking city walls & so forth. The campsite is well full of oldies, some of whom are definitely zombified so we decide not to drink the local water just in case.
We missed our stop at Beaune for a visit to a cave, so instead a trolley dash at L'Eclerc nets us half a dozen cases of vino. Wonder how long those will last?
Pile off the motorway again somewhere north of Reims for some champagne options. All seems a bit closed up so we end up back in L'Eclerc at Laon. (Where the whole town weirdly smelled of onions. Hmm.)
Do a lunchstop at a war memorial marking one of first sites where tanks used in WWI. Between the cholera & the shells, it must have been grim with just a metal box to live in.

Fete du Verdon.

2007-10-04T10:30:00.001+01:00

A beautiful morning - just a few high clouds in a deep blue sky - seems to bring an end to the mistral's poor weather.
Before leaving the campsite we empty our waste tanks and find a conker in the vidange ... H wonders if we have illegal Squirrel stowaways shitting in our bog.
Its a lovely, lazy Sunday, ideal for the local Fete du Parc, a string of family stalls flogging honey, pear juice & chevre produits, but dominated by issue & interest groups covering everything from local hydrology & forest management to goat farming & basket weaving. Its an intriguing view into the local Provencal world. We feel a bit like intruders, but still trot dutifully around all the displays. Very Liberte, egalite, fraternite etc, though I think our English accents inhibit any real dialogue.
We leave one honey cake better off. A free "navette" shuttle bus takes us back to one of the car parks they've laid on down the road - full of British & Dutch cars of course cos the French have ignored all the signs and abandoned their motors in the verges & ditches.
Find Probably the Best lunch spot in the world Ever, overlooking the mouth of the Verdon at Lac St Croix, put the awning out & our feet up, enjoying the admiring stares of other folk in the layby, feeling very smug. Despite the Roadtrek being an obviously unusual vehicle we've only ever really had compliments & lots of open-mouthed neck turns - most of the time we modestly accept it, sometimes though you just have to lap it up.
We do the Gorge from the bottom up in a turbo pedalo - with slide! Up close views of the steep overhangs & caves reaching up 100s of feet are interesting, but rank a "nice" after the previous days dramas.
Race the other pedaloes up, then back. Can't figure a way to get out of my boasting to use the slide, so end up in the water on the way back - gorgeous cool waters.
With time on our hands & a perfect sunny September evening we decide to start trucking north.
The rolling Luberon is like a lush warm Cotswolds. Vinyard after vinyard, fields of maize, hidden chateaus and imposing Roman architecture.
It gets a bit spookier once we're off the beaten track. Eluded by first one campsite at Cadenet, then a second at the Harry-Potteresque town of Malemort. Long straight avenues of poplars in the fading light all start to blend into one... With thoughts of getting permanently lost in this French twilight zone we aim instead back to the autoroute and find ourselves a nice "aire" to sleep over in. H says I've got the heebie jeebies still - though I think driving round it 5 times before settling is quite normal.

Mental Verdon.

2007-09-30T23:22:00.000+01:00

So, as we check out, Madam assures me that the best route round the Gorge du Verdon is the Route des Crets. "Tres dramatique." And its ok with a large van? "Oui, oui. Maybe thin here or there".
Merci beacoup. Lucky for Madam we didn't return to Camping le Source, or peut etre there would have been some tres dramatique strangling by Helen.
It starts innocently enough, all pretty fir trees & properly marked macadam. But quickly & quietly it creeps up on you. Til before you know it, every hairpin threatens to steal the bike rack, or throw you V6 first into the chasm. Even the white lines chicken out and leave you with a vague fraying tarmac edge.
For Helen, shes obviously thrilled. Sat gorge-side of the van, 3ft up from the road, and above the front wheel, makes the straight 1000 ft drops seem imminent with every car, corner or cyclist we have to lurch to evade.
Hanging on to map, breakfast & sanity proves a challenge, and by the first pass at 1200m we need a medicinal stop.
The best & worst are to come after alpine-esque Palud sur Verdon. Climbing to the absolute edge of the gorge, we stop for lunch & recovery. A silty turqoise ribbon is about 1500-2000ft below. A couple of guys are climbing this wall. I'm well impressed, while H thinks they're daft as arseholes; until we discover its all bolted. Pah. Still, it really brings home the scale. And the dozens of commanding Egyptian vultures soaring around the cliffs add to the drama too.
So, cinq pointes to madame thus far.
Unfortunately, as we climb further, the traffic thins, the cloud thickens, and the road seems contorted into a continual mobius strip. And then it starts to descend too.
To Helens credit, at no point did the ensuing colourful language actually describe any kind of actual death. But the point was clear.
Only, my brilliant driving skills, and a robust 1st gear rescued us.
And eventually we came out of the fog to the rim of the lower gorge, where we could kind of enjoy the view. Kind of. Once we dared look.
Back for the evening in Moustiers, the food seemed to taste even better - perfet chevre chaud, pink lamb etc - though I suppose that could have been the ambience, and the well-chilled Chateau le Seuil, not just the relief.
Stumble back to the van to compare notes on whether the faces in the cliffs round the chapel on the hillside are a giant protective dragon or a huge gorilla. Good job the local tourist board has lashed out on those expensive floodlights then, or lushes like us would never have seen them.

Pilgrimage to Moustiers-Ste-Marie.

2007-09-28T23:21:00.001+01:00

Totally blown away by a jewel of a village at the mouth of the Gorge du Verdon, complete with its own tiny mountainous chapelle that perches citadel-like on the crags above.
Flint-cobbled streets, pastel coloured terraces give way to a steep climb up a chasm, to this incroyable little church to Notre Dame des Beauvoir. Temple steps out front, tall cypress trees and a crumbling bell tower. All gloom, gold, candles & solitude inside. Its like Indiana Jones does a week in Provence.
Back in the village, they've even managed to do the crap exhibition thing well, with decent modern art tastefully scattered around the place, including an igloo thing made of car bonnets. Brings the tourists of course which means Yanks & Japanese get on my tits though.
Hanging on to inspired state, we drift down to lakeside campsite at St Croix and build our own crap Goldsworthy installation on the beach with big pebbles and a cheap Cabernet Sauvignon.

Round & about Verdon.

2007-09-28T23:19:00.001+01:00

Cool, blustery Mistral reduces otherwise obvious thrill of lying on beach, so try our hand at a few autoroutes round Aix.
Eventually make it to tiny hamlet of Esparron-du-Verdon. Local private chateau in hands of local dons, the Castelllane family, is tres des res - looks like they've funded/strong-armed the new road.
Steeply terraced lake with rock stratas make it pretty dramatic. But reception from local gal is pretty grumpy. H thinks she's been left to close site up for the season & clean the bogs, when she clearly rather be practicing for Sat'dy night's country & western do at le village hall.

Un Village en Var.

2007-09-28T22:47:00.001+01:00

Beautiful, serene campsite on the banks of the River Argen.
No English spoken (what's that, you say) but Madame welcomed us with open arms, and we became her oldest friends.
Nature-tastic site. Spotting an Otter as soon as we pitch is a surprise. Soon the ducks are laughing away, and we find trout, a merganser or a gargagney, kingfisher, dragonfly, freshwater clams & mussels, french poodles & english labradors.
We seem to be between Ying & yang Dane couples - typical danish... One side raisins, one side sugar. Maybe simultaneously celebrating & sulking over Bergman.
A few English here too - politeness makes it seem a bit like a p.o.w. camp sometimes..."Hello, hello. Er, hullo. Yes, hello. Good morning" etc. But they're harmless enough.
Roquebrun-sur-Argen itself is a very pretty Medieval provencal place near St.Tropez. We push the bikes around for a pleasant hour or so, admiring hidden alleyways & a 16th century eglise (st.pierre).
There's always some crap exhibition on in places like this. We bumble in hopefully, then back out, cursing the art classes our parents innocently attend.
The local Wine Cooperative saves the day. Through garbled French (some'ing about grapes) we guzzle tastings of 4 reds & roses, buy un couple de bouteilles at about 10pence each, then wobble back to the van to polish them off before the Mistral sets in.

Roquebrun-sur-Argens

2007-09-28T22:45:00.001+01:00

Brown rock. Well, red, really. Big, too. Very impressive.
And great vin rose from the local wine cooperative, only 1.5 euros.

Cote d'Azur parte deux.

2007-09-27T14:46:00.000+01:00

Sand etc.

K9 rides again.

2007-09-27T14:43:00.000+01:00

Entering France, the sun comes out, the air is cleaner, and there's less tail-gating. So, the obvious giddy response is to drive a 23ft van into the centre of Monte Carlo.
After we were whistled at by Eric Estrada, PC Plod of the Principality, and gently but firmly assured we couldn't park such a vehicle ("you must go to France") we took our winnings over the final border to Cote d'Azur.
Spent a pleasant hour on the beach, but neither of us could see what all the fuss was about, and headed back to the hills.

Liguria & bust.

2007-09-27T14:41:00.001+01:00

The Lake Garda marathon closes our options for more travel around Malcesine so we break for the border. Scruffy wild west Liguria gets in the way, as does some dirty Italian gesticulating to us at the motorway toll who Helen nearly leaps out & punches. Go on!
As you can see, our beautiful campsite was "in a wide green space". Not.
DFIBs.

Prawns & crispy lard-krebs.

2007-09-27T14:39:00.000+01:00

Post-wedding excitement/trauma is eased with a long lazy lie in, a luxury after 2 weeks in the van - despite partial enforcement due to hangover.
There's always an afternoon breeze - maybe the mistral - so the lake is choppy enough to add some difficulty to the "most painful bellyflop" competition from the swimming platform, with Anna & Dave (who wins on redness and thwackness points).
Riva is buzzing this week with the local society's 31st annual Festivale di Micologica, a display of 2-300 odd mushrooms. We're thoroughly entranced for at least 5 minutes. No psilocybins (spp?) there, for the experts amongst you.
In the evening the sun goes down quickly behind these steep hills, and in the dark a tiny chapel lit high on the hillside floats eerily & romantically. Barbara sorts us all out with a lovely family meal (prawns & crispy lard-krebs?), and plied by the friendly waiter's heavy hand with the Limoncello we are soon all contemplating our own navels...

Clare and Dan's Wedding.

2007-09-27T14:35:00.001+01:00

Congratulations to both.
An incredibly picturesque setting at the castello in Malcesine, with plenty of amazed tourists gawping at us in our glad rags.
Fascinating civil ceremony by a very sincere registrar, based on the Italian wedding articles. Despite the administrative language the sentiments are very positive & loving.
We have a champagne cruise back, followed by a great evening meal, and Dan's display of break-dancing!

Malcesine.

2007-09-27T14:33:00.000+01:00

The Castello perched dramatically on the shore of Lake Garda.

Super steep biking at Passo Tremalzo.

2007-09-26T13:22:00.000+01:00

Ants in me pants gets to me quick of course, so I'm eyeing the bike with a kind of twitch, when H backs my plan for a quick blast.
From the previous day's "short sprint" up a fire-road so steep I had to surrender, I should have guessed another expedition in these parts would turn out to be an epic Capt Post-it would be proud of.
The trail I was aiming for appeared to have a long but "green graded" ascent, then some decent single track downhill. Maybe 20-25km.
I started out at 2200ft, & was 12km & 1000ft of climbing in, when I had to abandon trying to pace with another rider from the local club. At that point he said it was only another 10km to the top. Aaggh!
Do I give up? No, of course, I just become more (blindly) determined to get to the top now - not competitive or anything me. This is why people die on the Hilary step of course.
And not accurate either. After a stamina-testing 3hrs, 24km & 3700ft of climbing to just below the summit of Mt. Tremalzo (1972m) I could finally sense an end to the madness.
At this point I decided for sure there was no way I was gonna let a bunch of armor-clad, full-face helmet, minibus-&-trailer-ascending, stamina-less, tourist-tripping, ride-it-once-carbon-frame, cheeky-bastard Jarmans get the better of me, and despite feeling totally shagged, ripped a pace through the final summit tunnel & piled down into hairpin heaven.
The descent was almost worth it. Steep, twisty, loose rock on an endless high trail heading down into the pine forests above Lake Garda. Scared most of the folk I overtook or passed on the way down, and burnt out my front disc pads.
I'd have probably enjoyed the last couple hours more - finishing the 47km (!) loop with a pretty lakeside path - if I hadn't been anxious for Helen expecting me 2hrs earlier.
She in the meantime had been for a cooling swim, but got some allergic welts from the wetsuit - now, my fault of course :-)
Still, at least the Jarmans never caught up with me.

La Dolce Vita.

2007-09-25T22:13:00.000+01:00

Pleasant & relaxed though Riva was, while we were in the van, our free-spirited approach somehow didn't sit comfortably with the unavoidable tourism-oriented nature of Riva.
So we retreated a dozen hairpins into the hills, to the charming and serene Lago di Ledro.
Beautiful clear waters, chilly but fantastic for swimming (with wetsuits) surrounded by broken, rocky hills - pine forested and thrusting steeply up to about 6000ft.
We hung out with Bob the funky beagle puppy, and Mr French Fixit, who helped us with an ingenious repair to our collapsed awning.
Met the nicest, friendliest pizzeria staff - beats all those other super-cool grumpy Italians.
Also met "allergic man" who sneezed at everything & anything, and insisted on a rambling explanation in German. Apparently.
Got some washing done, barbied some huge steaks, sat in the sun, sheltered from a mini tornado.
Generally chilled out really.

Viva del Garda!

2007-09-24T13:08:00.001+01:00

Finally made it to the farthest point on our journey, and one of the reasons for coming at all.
Passing through the posh chav resortville as we came up the West bank of Lake Garda somehow reminded us of one of those summer special episodes of "only fools & horses"... "awright del me old son, just fought i'd let you know that me an the missus are in Riviera del gardina" etc etc.
Fortunately, Riva doesn't have quite the same class. Its much more low key and has a generally pleasant if slightly tourbus feel to its quaint old town & port.
The campsite was nothing to write home about - so I won't. The interest was really only in the storm that whipped up overnight and the ensuing awning collapse as a few 100kg's of water pooled up and then popped one of the supporting legs with its weight.
Arse! We managed to bodge it back together and take a little solace knowing that the tented folk fared worse than ourselves.
Helen found the old Hotel Perla, where she'd been as a kid, and had revised for the 463 O'levels she got.
Great spot for the windsurfing crew - clean water & a good breeze. One of the days in Riva, must've been 2 or 3 hundred windsurfs out.
Lots of Irish people around too - never did get to the bottom of that. Ryanair maybe.

Bloody tunnels.

2007-09-24T12:07:00.000+01:00

Beautiful arched roofs. Horrible arched roofs.
Tunnels really should be round & big enough, not pointy and sloping and hungry for motorhome damage.
Came through unscathed but definitely ready for a break in Riva.

Café life in the chi-chi resort of Iseo.

2007-09-23T21:50:00.001+01:00

Wondering into the cute little town of Iseo, with its neatly cobbled piazza, designer shops and waterfront cafes, you could see why it was so popular with locals, though apparently relatively (surprisingly) undiscovered by the (German) tourists ubiquitous elsewhere.
Salads, gelati & coffee. Lambos, Porsches & Harleys. These were the slightly incongruous themes. Still, we settled down for a molto bene lunch at the local pizzeria.
We watched the world go by, and soon spotted an opportunistic young floosie on the arm of a much older, greyer and wealthier fellow. As she pushed him into a gelateria, Helen figured out she must be, the ice-cream heart attack killer bimbo... trying to secure an inheritance by shocking his heart with a super cold cornetto. Despite our strong suspicions though, we just didn't feel we could approach her to challenge her motives - after all, we didn't really know the correct form of address... Bimbo, bimbino, bimbinetta, bimbinora?
Things moved further from the sorbet to the ridiculous when we came across Derek the diving dog. He was a beautiful spaniel who needed only the slightest nudge from his owner to leap the 9ft from quayside to lake to fetch his stick.

Switzerland to Italy: Heights, hazards & hardships

2007-09-21T11:15:00.001+01:00

Made it through the Bernina, Julier & Aprica passes. The Swiss roads were fantastic, and trundling up & down in 1st/2nd gear the van performed brilliantly. In Skye we'd freaked when we got the brakes smoking in the Cuillins - none of that fortunately.
Near the top of the Bernina pass in a high valley we stopped and took the Diavolla cable car to the summit. Plenty of glacier action to take in as we supped a decent local minestrone.
Passing down into Italy the relief of successfully navigating the passes quickly wore off as we approached our next two hurdles.
First we hit the Swiss border, naively expecting to breeze through, having already been given a onceover by the border guards on the way in. Now, they started to take a very active interest in our vehicle weight. With no real documentation to prove anything we resorted to an old Roadtrek sales doc we had. In the end it seems like we were saved an HGV tax purely because the very pleasant guards just didn't know how to operate their weighbridge!
Worst was to come, as we hit the Aprica pass & insane Italian drivers. The map had made this part of the route look a doddle compared to Bernina. No no no. Several arguments, screams, sharp intakes of breath, a litter of kittens but mercifully no actual scratches, later we had only made about 20km after 2 hrs or so.
We took a tactical decision to divert south to bigger roads. We landed on our feet again, winding up on a lakeside pitch at the pretty Lago d'Iseo.

Switzerland: Mt. Bernina

2007-09-20T14:53:00.001+01:00

Pontresina campsite above St Moritz provided us with this stunning
backdrop to our camp in the forest. I said below it was Chunetta, but
I think actually its Bernina & Pula at around 3900m.
Unbeatable - made the nightly frost and freezing worthwhile.

You can take a 4 ton van to Europe but you can't make it blog.

2007-09-20T14:52:00.001+01:00

Plenty of technical problems appear to be conspiring to stop me
posting here at the moment, which is a shame cos I know you're just
waiting on my every word.
Anyway, we've come down through belgium, luxembourg, france, germany
so far, into switzerland, where we are now... in an unbelievable spot
- in the alps above st moritz, camped up by a river river on the edge
of a forest, sat in the sun, idly watching mountaineers on the snowy
flanks of mt chunetta.
So, more later hopefully, if I can get some photo posts sorted via flickr.

Heidi land ?!?

2007-09-20T14:51:00.003+01:00

Heidi-land (!)
For real!
No sign of Peter & Clara, or the proverbial Swiss hippy though - just
these cute goats. Maybe they'd eaten them.
This place is at a fancy service station near Lichenstein (the hills
in the background) which had amazing food and the poshest toilets
you've ever seen - granite work surfaces, stone tiling & pristine
stainless plumbing like a chic boutique hotel or something. Except for
the grumpy truckers.

Heidi land !?!

2007-09-20T14:51:00.001+01:00

Gateau hunting

2007-09-20T14:50:00.001+01:00

Can you see a cherrykierschtort whatnot anywhere? Neither could we...
Black forest was lovely - all beautiful rolling meadows and deep pine
vales - but somehow seemed to lack drama.
Lots of fancy clock shops, but we ended up at Aldi for the food shopping !!
Did manage to get Helen spinning around doing a Julie Andrews though -
youtube soon... that certainly woke the hills up.

Vianden: Haworth of Luxembourg.

2007-09-20T14:46:00.001+01:00

From Musselly Brugge to meatilicious Vianden, we navigated the web of
neat euro-motorways passed Brussels & Liege, with their clipped
herbaceous borders and sleek concrete spans.
A minor GPS error by GS meant we were 20km in the wrong direction
before we realised Ypres wasn't gonna happen. Doh! Have to try again
on way back.
Headed down to Luxembourg via the exciting border tax haven of Hosen.
Lux seems rolling & pleasant in a hygenic & tellytubby version of
Wales kind of way, until we hit the dramatic hidden valley between
Stolzburg & Vianden. At the reservoir we see Otter ducks befor
glimpsing the impressive Castle.
Victor Hugo's connection with this quaint cobbled town has ensured an
ongoing literary & book fair, a diverting backdrop to our stroll up
the hill. Watching a Kingfisher hunting as the lights come up on the
chateau really makes the evening at the campsite.
Hugo and Victor. (Well that's what I think anyway).

‘Allo allo

2007-09-20T14:32:00.001+01:00

Belgium:
Helen says its famous for lace, chocolates, catholics & avoiding the
war. And there's Tintin & Poirot of course. Neither of them were
around so we settled for a wander in Brugge's picturesque straats &
pleins. Its a very pretty place, perfect for a coffee on a terrace in
the warm afternoon sun where we could congratulate ourselves on how
unusually organised we'd been getting a full 6 hours of tourism in on
our very first day.
And now mes amis, I predict a murder - the moules et frites were
partners in crime, but it was the steak hache that got a grilling ...

Full steam ahead

2007-09-07T19:52:00.001+01:00

Full steam ahead, originally uploaded by gavin_sweet.

Highway 61 ...

2007-09-07T09:59:00.000+01:00

This is roughly the route we're planning to follow.

Basically get off ferry in Zeebruges, and head south, stopping in Bruges and mostly avoiding France.

Find the Black Forest somewhere in southern Germany, then head over to the Swiss Alps.

Smoke the brakes down into Italy, then cruise to the Lakes.

Go to Clare and Dans wedding.

Catch some rays and olives, before heading over to Cote d'Azur.

Head west along French riviera then turn north up through eastern France via Beaune, etc.

Get back on ferry...

What a spanner!

2007-09-03T19:51:00.001+01:00

What a spanner!, originally uploaded by gavin_sweet.

Preparations for the big trip - gavin is happy pottering-as long as he has his tool in his hand