the birm*

Lizard skin

Snake skin

Kayaking on the Drome river.

So 15 of us left G-town early sat morn and headed to Crest for some kayaking. We got ready and, after getting the necessary equipment, got driven and dropped off at a spot about 25kms upriver. We spent the next 5 hours running fun class-2 rapids. The water was turquoise, cold and clear, the sky was blue, the sun was out…and most people got real brunt! (being still under the influence of my previous sunburn I had a long sleeve rashie, sunscreen, sunnies and broad-brim straw hat on all day, so though I enjoyed the sun it didn’t touch my skin!). everyone was in a single or a double open plastic kayak, but I was able to paddle a “shark” (an in-closed playboat), which was a lot of fun!!

We headed back to Greg’s g-dad’s place where we had some dinner and played games. It was a beautiful place, large farmhouse, in the French countryside. Very scenic indeed and a good change from high, sheer mountains. A great place to relax and take in the sounds, smells and temperature of the country. That night, lying on the road watching the stars, I saw an amazing shooting star that seemed to explode twice really brightly and crossed the whole sky from top to bottom…

The next day we had a bit of a meeting, singing songs and a time sharing. Following this great time was a huge lunch and more games in the sun. a great, fun and relaxing week end!

Skype me!

Amazing! I just talked to my friend/old flatmate Tom (from tenwithtom.com) on SKYPE, using my headphones plugged into the mic socket of my computer. So, if you have a computer and access to the internet (pref broadband), you can call me using SKYPE (a free downloadable program). My username is weeksi. Speak to you soon!

Years (and years?)’ worth of daily bread for the price of a meal!

I went to G-town yesterday to walk around and go to the local Christian bookstore. I was able to purchase a small (pocket-size), soft-cover, contemporary French translation of the Bible for 3.99Euro. In France, you’d be doing well to find a meal for that price (for those who are used to talking aussie dollars, it’s about $7). So it hit me that, even in this country where everything seems to cost heaps, you can still get the Word of God for the price of a cheap meal…

Lovin’ it!

Precipitations…I love them! (I think the subject I post most about is rain…sorry!). apart from that one day I got sun burnt on my bike (last Saturday), it’s been raining pretty consistently for the last 2 weeks. Not heavy downpours (though there have been some), but cold, fresh misty rain. In fact, at times, it’s hard to tell whether it’s raining or just wet (because of cloud cover which, at this altitude, you are constantly walking in)…in any case, I love it. I love the greenness, the freshness, the wetness and the splashness (sounds of rain, creeks, drains, drops, tin roofs…). The bonus is obviously that I have no will to head out on the bike at this stage due to the snake-like-shedding stage of my sunburnt arms…

Coffee or milkshake?

So this morning I dreamt I was hanging out with Dave Grohl. I was at one of his gigs and we were chatting and stuff. I woke up thinking that was real cool and that it would be unreal to have coffee/a milkshake with the likes of Dave Grohl who, in my opinion, would be worth having a chat with. In this category (of famous people who, evidently, I will neither meet nor have a coffee with but who I reckon would be worth spending some time with) are also the likes of Moby, Ben Harper, Norah Jones, Lenny Kravitz, Beth Gibbons or Robbie Williams. They just seem to have interesting ideas/views/lyrics…

Visors on helmets are good…

As it was rainy and grey when I left I only thought of taking extra emergency stuff just in case it got real cold…I didn’t even think of sunscreen. Thankfully, due to the visor on my helmet, my face remained un-burnt, which wasn’t the case for my arms and legs…

I guess 6 and a half hours spent in the sun above 1500m is a recipe for sunburn. Sat night was so painful I could hardly sleep, sun was bad all day and now, Monday, both shoulders/arms seem to be bubbling, kinda like goose bumps. I assume they’ll be peeling soon. Note for later: pack on the sunscreen or put on a long sleeve shirt!

30mins of downhill is free…but i paid for it!

The day looked rainy and cloudy but blue sky was poking through, so I thought I’d give it a shot. I grabbed some food, an ER blanket, extra clothes and headed off. Just getting to the start of this epic ride was 20mins worth of cranking uphill (5km and 150 vertical metres), but that would be but a warm up…

The first 1.5km to Mizoen was straight up and would have killed me if I hadn’t known that the next 1000m of vertical climbing weren’t so steep…

So anyway, two hours of granny gear later (in 3 years I used my granny gear about a dozen time in Australia…) I was up on the Plateu d’Emparis, 2260m. from there it’s a lovely flat ride for a while before crossing a stream (which is tiny in summer) and climbing a bit more to the col (saddle).

I was having heaps of fun riding through the bits of snow left on the track…until I got to the track I had to head down to the stream. It was almost covered with deep snow (too deep to ride in). as for the “stream”, it was more of a rushing river. Twenty minutes later I found a spot to cross, only getting one foot wet in the icy bath. That’s when the snow kinda got annoying…it was ankle to waist deep, so riding was impossible for most of it…so I pushed and pushed, feet frozen and arms burning.

After an hour of trudging and hauling I got to the top of Col du Souchet, 2365m, and admired the view of the Meije across the deep chasm. It’s an amazing spot. The plateau is so flat and green (well…usually) and the mountains so steep and white…

This is where the real fun really began: half an hour of sweet, rolling, downhill single-track. the whole way down I’m thinking “woohoo, I gotta do this again”, not even thinking about the 2 hours of up hill or the hour through the snow (well…I did think I’d prefer to do it in a few weeks when the snow had melted!).

i got to the bottom, filled my bladder back up (I had just finished the 3 litres I’d taken) and had a mars bar. From there (Chazelet) it’s a nice run through the middle of some villages and down to La Grave. Then it’s road back to the bottom…except I tried the river track. 40mins later I was back on the road, having ridden a bit of it and pushed for too long!

So 6 and a half hours after I left camp I was back. I immediately went to soak in the fountain…ahhh, so cold and relaxing! I then went to check on my sunburn…

Fees, charges and fees.

Is pretty much what you get when you use a credit card overseas… I’ve been following my account details pretty closely since I got to france but only just realised what some of the numbers were: 2.5% conversion fee on purchases or withdrawals plus a $4 flat fee on cash withdrawals. So, yes that’s right, you’re worse off if you get cash out to pay for things…no wonder my bank sent me a new card via DHL in less than a week! Oh yeah, and I also found out that the phone number labelled “reverse charge” is only reverse charge when you use an operator and only when important (like the theft of a card…). Banks: you can’t live with ‘em and…no that’s it!

A new era?

Well there you go, as of 20 minutes ago, Nicholas Sarkozy is the new French President. He beat his opponent (Mrs Royal) by a mere 6% in the second round. Sarko, as he is called here, is from the right (whatever that means). Like most politicians, he has a few good ideas and some weird ones too. I just pray that he won’t hinder God’s work in this country.

To bike or not to bike?

Well it had to happen! What with the end of winter, the grass growing everywhere and the weather warming up, a bike had to be obtained! So I searched long and hard, missed out on some ripper bargains but eventually found a good one for a good price. Thanks to the sale of my NRS in Australia (thanks Monkey!) and some other money saved up, I was able to get a GT avalanche 1.0., which prob doesn’t mean much to most of you! Basically it’s a mountain bike, which will allow me to ride on tracks and on road, up and down hills. I took it out for a wee 35km spin the other day with Marc and Caleb (two other workers here at camp). Let’s just say that it’s a real blessing to ride!