the birm*

Dutch blitz in the mountains…

Candide and I headed down to her parents’ place down south (on the sea!!) over the week-end (we caught the train down on Friday night and back on Sunday arvo). Edwige (Canddide’s sister) was also there with her boyfriend, which was great (I hadn’t seen her for a while). We had a great time there with them and Candide’s parents (lovely folk!) chatting, eating and playing Dutch Blitz. I even managed to squeeze in a wee swim in the Mediterranean, which was freezing but sweet as!

Back to camp Sunday night for our… Mountain Camp. We headed into the mountains, with uncertain weather, towards the “refuge de la Muzelle”, which we got to after a quick car shuffle and a few hours uphill hike. B-E-A-Utiful!. And as words can only describe so much, you can check out the photos here: http://picasaweb.google.com/campdescimes/CampMontagne2008

The refuge was closed but there was a room (very fancy with gas cooker, sink, toilet and shower!) left open for “emergencies”! so the 7 of us had a great time hiking, eating (bread, butter, cheese, meat and soup), playing cards and sleeping (very tight and noisy due to 7 people being in one room at once…I found that toilet paper in the ears worked really well!).

The views were breathtaking, the hill/mountains very steep (and breath-taking!) and the waters of the lakes freezing (the one in front of the refuge had icebergs in it and it iced over at night. I had a dip in it but wasn’t able to stay under for longer than it takes to say “smokes!!!”)…and breath-taking.