Aletch Glacier

We've decided to head up to the Eggishorn side of the Aletch Glacier for a few days. We've booked a chalet hotel for 3 nights and 4 day passes to the chairlifts/gondolas, so we can explore the whole area. It's all a car free zone so no camping in the van possible (and up at 2000 metres it would be a bit chilly at night!). The disappointing weather is now breaking and the forecast is pretty good for the next 5 days, so we should see some great views. We leave early tomorrow but its only about an hour and a half from where we are now, so we'll get the whole day there on the arrival and departure days.

We're staying at Fiescheralp in the Hotel Alpina and will be doing as many of the high walks on this map as we can fit in.

The Underground Lake of St Leonard and The Torrent Neuf

Today we drove down the hill off the mountain and went to the town of St Leonard, about 7 km from Sion. We visited the underground lake there, Europe's largest subterranean lake. Tourists can go inside in small boats and so we did. A little spooky!

We then went in search of the Torrent Neuf, which is a 500 year old bisse around the town of Saviese. Bisses are small waterways constructed by the Swiss to channel water around the mountains for irrigation purposes. Many have been adapted to form walks, to enable hikers to enjoy spectaculars views. This bisse is particularly spectacular as it clings to the high rockfaces around the mountains and cable bridges have been built so you can cross the valleys.

The weather wasn't great so the pictures are a little dark but this is the view down the Rhone Valley.

One of the cable bridges. This one I enjoyed on my own but on the previous one a bunch of kids came on whilst I was crossing and shook it about! Very scary!

This is one of the bridges viewed from further down.

This shows the bisse, with the footpath alongside it.

This poster shows people of yesteryear who maintained the bisses, standing on single planks on the rockfaces, 100's of metres up - women included!

Moiry Glacier

Sunshine seems to have vacated a lot of Europe currently so, rather than pursue more sedate summer activities, we have been exploring the higher slopes, which are stunning without sunshine. Today we hiked our highest yet this trip, Cabane De Moiry, at 2825 metres. The weather wasn't brilliant but it stayed dry until we were showered briefly with hailstones at about 4.30pm.

We took the standard route from Laq du Moiry to the cabane, starting at about 10.30am. This walk forms part of the popular Haute Route, between Chamonix and Zermatt. We have now completed several stages of this route over the years, and are toying with the idea of coming back next time to do the whole haute Route in one go!

Laq du Moiry

The view on the way up.

The view looking down. The car park where we left Valerie is alongside the further lake.

The terrain on the way up - somewhat 'challenging' !!!

The view at the top.

We came down and climbed more boulders to get to the leading edge of the glacier. However, by this time it had got very cold and hailstones came down. Note, 5pm and *very* cold!!

This was the view from the leading edge of the glacier. The cabine at 2825 metres is just visible on the point below the mountain to the left. The way up had reminded me of the climb to Barafu Huts on the last leg of Kilimanjaro.

Trient Glacier

After a few days slobbing around whilst it rained, we decided to hike to the Trient Glacier. The weather was beautiful when we woke up but quickly deteriorated as we progressed down the motorway towards Martigny. We arrived at Col De La Forclaz about 9.30am and after 15 mins uhming and ahhing as to weather we walked from there or Trient decided to leave from here. We, and a Swiss couple and one from the Netherlands debated as to the start of the footpath but eventually found it and set off. This was a lovely undemanding walk along one of Switzerland's bisses, constructed to irrigate the mountain slopes. About 50 minutes later we reached the Chalet Du Glacier which, given it's location, offered a surprisingly good range of refreshments and food. We had hot chocolate before setting off on the more demanding path to the front edge of the glacier. The path was quite steep and involved walking over large boulders - this isn't too bad going up but is more challenging coming down. The end of the footpath was quite a long way from the leading edge of the Glacier, but this is expected in the summer. With binoculars you could explore the deep and dark crevaces and it all looked quite spooky. The pictures don't do it justice, either to its stark beauty or its size.

The walk back down the Vallee Du Trient

As we passed the Chalet, it started to rain but thankfully just a few spots. It didn't really rain until we got back to the van

Mont Rouge

Today we went up to Thyon 2000 and walked the mountains. We've been up there plenty of times before but never tire of the views. We'd never got to Mont Rouge before but we did this time.

We went up further but this is Mont Rouge from above (marked by the cross).
















We then embarked on a bit of rock climbing and got to the next peak Mont Loere.

We would have gone a bit further and got to Greppon Blanc but we had started late so didn't really have enough time, and we really needed sturdier boots to tackle the rocks. Something for next time!

The view was lovely at 2600 metres.















A welcome beer at Les Collons and then back to cook supper and crash out.

Portes du Soleil

We headed off (over a week ago now!) to the Portes du Soleil, a group of about 12 towns and villages in Haute-Savoie in the French Alps close to the Swiss border - well, at least 4 of the villages are in Switzerland, so not just the French Alps! We based ourselves in Chatel, a lovely and lively little place, with great facilities. We found a nice campsite L'Oustalet just on the outskirts of the town with lovely views.

We parked and unpacked the van and didn't drive it for the whole time we were there. The free shuttle bus stopped right outside the campsite and with a Multipass, all of the summer chairlifts were ours for 5 days for the grand sum of 12 Euros! We saw all the towns and villages to the East of the area and were able to see spectacular views from the mountains. We did a lot of walking but using the chairlifts meant that we were able to go way, way further than our legs could carry us. We viewed Lake Leman (Geneva) on one side of the area and the high peaks towards Mont Blanc on the other, with all the super green valleys and picture postcard villages in between (well except Avorais!).

Looking down to Montreaux on Lake Leman from Tour De Don (we had some hard walking to get here!).

Highest point on the chairlifts.

Looking up to the higher snowier peaks, including Dents Blanches from about 2300 metres.

His lordship on the zip wire which went across 2 valleys.

If you click on this pic to get the larger version, you might just see him, the little grey figure - take a line across the middle of the picture and go to the right.













We had only planned to stay a couple of nights but stayed 5 and only left when we did because the weather forecast was really bad for 2 days. We will return here, there was so much to see and do and the area is well set up in the summer for all visitors, from families with young children, to walkers of all ages and mountain bikers. The mountain bike trails were everywhere and very well set out with different gradings for all abilities. A chair pass at 90 Euros for a week for a biker gives access to every trail across the area and we thought was great value. You'd never do them all but with the chairlifts, you don't have to waste anytime getting up the mountains.

Anyways, we left in the pouring rain but said we'd return to the area to see some more, as we'd had such a good time.

Les Bains D'Ovronnaz

We decided to relax at a thermal spa, but having been to the one at Sallion already this trip, we decided to go to Ovronnaz instead. It was a long climb up the mountain but the setting was lovely. They are building a new suite so the setting wasn't quite as pristine as it would normally be but it was a lovely day. At 1300 metres, it was like swimming in a series of massive hot baths 300 metres above the height of Mount Snowdon!... with these views...

Chamonix

We headed for Chamonix. The day had been cloudless skies and we were hoping to be rewarded with great mountain views. The drive was glorious once we were off the Peage. We stopped to pick up groceries (as the prices are cheaper in France than in Switzerland) and then just admired the views as we climbed. A few stubborn clouds lingered to deprive us of the highest peaks but we enjoyed it nevertheless.

We came down to Chamonix and were surprised at just how many people were there!!! After a quick look we drove on to the outskirts to stop for dinner. We stopped at what was clearly a joint frequented by much younger people than us but they served us up a couple of beers a great pizza and the best moules et frites considering they were only Euro 10 - the ones in Biot were better but they were Euro 15! We stuffed our faces admiring the view and watching young people playing boules alongside is. It would only be a 1 hour drive to our final destination, which is probably a good job as the button was straining on my shorts!

To Tournon Sur Rhone

We headed off to Tournon. We made good progress until we decided to take a detour that looked scenic on the map. Well, the road started off okay, but after about 20 minutes had turned into little more than a track. Hairpin bends and steep inclines/declines made for a bit of a hair raising journey but the views were good. We needed there to be a bridge over the river at the bottom otherwise we'd have to go all the way back - eek! We met a very fit Dutch cyclist who quizzed us on the road we'd just come down and after a conversation, he said he'd give going up it a try! Thankfully he reassured us that there was a bridge and that he had come over it - phew! Another 15 minutes and we crossed the bridge and arrived in Saint Fortunat Sur Eyrieux, a pretty little place where we stopped to have coffee.

From this point on, we enjoyed what were the prettiest views we've had whilst touring. We found a spot with a lovely view and some cows for company and had a picnic lunch.

We pressed on and stopped at Le Mastre to get groceries before looking for a campsite for the night. Quite by chance we found a lovely campsite. We saw a little sign off the main road and decided to follow it. Well, the directions left a little to be desired but we found it eventually and it turned out to be the best campsite we stayed at during the trip thus far. Les Roches was delightful and our only regret was that we couldn't stay longer. This was just an overnight stop but next time we're in the area we will visit this site and spend some more time there. We set up camp, the only occupied pitch in a bay of eight with a lovely view.

Before supper we walked down the hill to the campsite's private riverside beach, which was deserted.

We walked back up the hill and cooked supper and enjoyed it whilst admiring the sunset (and battling with a very stiff breeze - but at least a wind keeps the mosquitos away!).

The next morning we had coffee and fresh croissants, packed the van up, thanked the owners for a lovely stay, albeit brief, and went on our way. Lots more scenery and we arrived at Tournon but were too late for the Chateau, which was closed for siesta. We decided that it wasn't that important so we had a ride around the town on our bikes, bought some figs at the local food market and decided to press on.

The Ardeche

We headed for Sampzon, near the Pont D’Arc. We weren’t doing the Gorges today but the scenery was still great. After a long hot (32 degrees) drive and stocking up on provisions on the way we found Sampzon and headed up a steep drive to the village at the top of a hill. We didn’t realise that our campsite was at the bottom by the river but the detour gave us a fabulous view of the area. There was an antenna on the top of this hill, so we would be able to identify where we stayed when we toured the gorge later - it's the little bump in this picture that I took a day later.

We eventually found the campsite, a nice place with a pool and plenty of shade. However, there was to be no breeze and very high temperatures for our 2 night stay. The next day was so hot we couldn’t manage much else than a walk down by the river Ardeche and then an afternoon by the pool. The evening was then spent avoiding mosquitos – we failed miserably as we were covered in them! The morning we left it rained before we got up but it cheered up by the time we left and we had a lovely day touring the Gorges De L’Ardeche.

We ended up at the end of the Gorge at a lovely village called Aigues, where we had lunch and admired the view over the Ardeche river.

From the Gorges, we headed up to Vogue, a medieval town of the Ardeche. We went via Alba La Romain (where him indoors stared endlessly at a pile of rocks and a roman amphitheatre ). We found a campsite in the new part of the town, set up for 2 days and did some shopping. The site was virtually deserted and we had the place to ourselves. The wind meant that mosquitos weren’t a problem. The next day we cycled around the local villages. We did the old village of Vogue first but found the Chateau there closed. The village is very old and worth a stop without the chateau, and we had coffee overlooking the river before we left, which was very nice.

We came back to Valerie for lunch and to do a repair on the old man’s bike, before setting off to Lanas and St Maurice D’Ardeche, stopping at Lanas for a beer before heading back.

We were on a roll, so decided to go back into Vogue to go down to the river before calling it a day. The old man admired the view by the river bank !!!



















Back at camp after an ice cream, we had a dip in the pool and a sunbathe, before grilling pork and vegetables for supper with a bottle of the local.

Avignon

From Moustiers we headed to Avignon. We found a campsite on the Ile De La Barthelasse, an island in the Rhone across from the city. This was a great location that gave a view of the city but gave breathing space away from it. We cycled into Avignon on the afternoon we arrived to get our bearings. We then cycled along the banks of the Rhone in the late afternoon, enjoying the late sun and the cool breeze. The next morning we were up early and cycled into the city, locking our bikes up at around 10am. We had a day touring the city (in a very strong wind !!), including the Palais Du Papes, Pont D’Arc etc, having lunch and then doing a walking tour from a tourist map around the oldest parts of the city.

We arrived back at the bike ramp at 3pm knackered to find the bike lock had been cropped and my bike had been stolen - it was attached to the other one but that was still there. The old man walked back to the campsite whilst I rode his bike through a street carnival procession to the police station to report the theft. I’m not sure that the French police do anything about such thefts, apart from give tourists a piece of paper to enable them to claim on insurance ( SO BE WARNED!!!). 

The next morning we went to the other side of the Rhone to Villeneuve D’Avignon, on what was the far side of the Pont D’Arc when it was built. We toured the fort there and walked around the village before setting off to find the Avignon North branch of Decathlon, to find me a new bike.

After a new bike was sourced and a humungous set of locks to avoid any repetition, we headed off to the Ardeche.