We slept until 8.00 today then John woke me up, wanting to beat the Germans to the waterfall! We were the first campervan in the parking area, so we did ok! The day ended up being quite a long because we ended up hiking 24k with 670m of ascent.The waterfall drops 380m over 3 levels,... Continue Reading →
Austrian adventures
I have a new camera and a new iPad so I thought I'd better do a practice blog to make sure everything will work ok once we hit the road. Good job I did. I took a few pictures of the van, no problem, but when I came to upload them to the iPad, of... Continue Reading →
20th December: The descent to Marrakech
After another bad night's sleep, I got up at 5.30 to go to the loo and take some more painkillers for my headache. I then snuggled back into my sleeping bag to wait for the others to wake as they had an early start before climbing Toubkal. After a while, I became aware of John... Continue Reading →
19th December: Acute mountain sickness
I couldn't wait for the night to end. I kept waking every every hour or so and struggling to get back to sleep. Although the room was freezing, I was snug in my sleeping bag and my ear plugs reduced the sounds of the others snoring and high altitude farting... A recognised condition! However, as... Continue Reading →
18th December: A long day climbing 1500m in the Atlas Mountains
We got up early and had a large breakfast of cereal, yoghurt, bread and jam. Then we filled our flasks and checked our packs, donned coats, hats and gloves and set off to climb from Imlil to Riad Atlas Toubkal high in the Atlas Mountains. As the snow on the paths wasn't too bad, we... Continue Reading →
High mountain adventures in Morocco
Later this week, we're off to Morocco to climb Mount Toubkal, the highest mountain in North Africa. Four times the height of Snowdon at 4167 metres, it'll be the highest mountain we've ever climbed, our current highest being Griffith Peak near Las Vegas, which is 3372 metres. As well as contending with the altitude and ascent, and staying... Continue Reading →
17th August: Le Roux to Aiguilles
We had originally planned a 8.5 to 9 hour day over three high cols (including one over 2900 metres) and Pic du Malrif (2906 metres). However, because we were both a bit weary and the guidebook advised that it would be particularly difficult following heavy rain, which we had last night, we decided on plan... Continue Reading →
16th August: L’Echalp to Le Roux
We had a better nights' sleep in our single beds, after a lovely meal and a litre of wine, enjoying the company of various French people, including a young couple who spoke good English, who slept in the upper section of our bedroom. John was excited to have toast for brekkie, rather than plain bread,... Continue Reading →
15th August: Refuge Viso to L’Echalp
I don't think any of us slept well last night. The room was stuffy and we took it in turns to go to the loo. Therefore, we were up early for breakfast and, when we set off, there was still frost on the ground. It was lovely and peaceful and we had the paths to... Continue Reading →
14th August: Refuge Agnel to Refuge Viso
We had a long, hard day today with nearly 1400 metres of ascent over 20 kilometres. We left at 7.40 and set off up to Col Agnel (2744 metres) on the border of France and Italy. After enjoying the views, we began a long descent to Granges del Rio (2000 metres), stopping for a coffee... Continue Reading →