Alps and homewards

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The climb up to the Glacier Blanc began with an easy-looking walk up the road, so Heather volunteered to carry the rucksack, but the road managed to climb 300 metres in five kilometres so she gave it back to Gavin after all for the last bit! The total climb from Ailefroide to the refuge was about 1000 metres (similar to Skiddaw in the Lake District). That sounded daunting, but the path was well designed to make gradual zig zag progress up the mountain with amazing views when we rounded the corners. The first glacier encountered was the Glacier Noir, so called because it is covered in stones so that you can't really see that it is a glacier at all! In the centre of the photo, you can see the hole where the meltwater comes out from under the end of the glacier. It was quite a climb from there until the path dipped into the Glacier Blanc valley, where there was a torrent of meltwater with a bridge over it, and from where we had the first views of our refuge for the night. Some scrambling and another hour or two took us to our destination, full of bronzed hardy people who had been up since dawn crossing numerous glaciers and climbing rock faces. Gavin couldn't quite believe that the refuge could sleep 132 people, but when we saw the dormitories we found out how! Our large room had a row of mattresses pushed together along both long walls, with top bunks as well, with room for perhaps 60 weatherbeaten explorers. There was a communal evening meal which was not vegetarian, so Heather was given 'some eggs' (an omelette).

Our dormitory was designated the 'late-risers' room, for people who didn't need breakfast at 4:30am, so we were all given a lie in until 7am when we were turfed out and fed. After taking in the fantastic dawn views of the glacier and the mountains, we walked down with a lovely couple we had met from Henley-on-Thames, David and Mandy. They kindly offered to drive us from the car park at the bottom to the train station in Briançon where we found a delicious lunch. (The French do know how to eat, even if not how to be vegetarian!) We continued on to Valence, where we stayed overnight in Hotel Saint-Jacques (which had another excellent fishy restaurant).

The high speed TGV train took us to Lille on the following day. We amused ourselves with scrabble as usual, and smiled at the English announcements in a thick French accent from our "French train-driver". From Lille it was another short scrabble-length journey to Calais, where we stay tonight, before crossing to Dover and coming home to Oxford tomorrow.

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