Oopsie-daisy

Day 6.

We left Fouly and all I can remember was climbing too much and too high and just wanting to be arrived. Our arriving point was at Champex-Lac, a nice town at 1466m.

Actually, we just descended the whole way. And then we climbed at the very end.

I can just remember bitching and whining the whole trot to the camping site, at the faaaaar end of the town.

We waited for an hour for the camping to open, checked in, installed our tent and went for a swim in the huge lake. It was scorching hot and the water was sooooo COLD. But it still felt good.

We wrote post cards that we sent the same day but which found their way to their addresses a week after. Talk about snail mail.

After that we went to eat at a restaurant and paid way too much for melted cheese and bread (fondue and croûte). Cost too much too. Was yummy tho :)

Sleep came easily afterwards.

Day 7.

We packed the tent and left for Trient.

It was pretty hard, it climbed a lot and it was really really hot.

The trail went through a few small Swiss towns. One which had a small house with it's lawn filled with garden elves. Horrid.

Our trail ended at Trient at 1310m

, in a cosy, very cheap shelter.

Of course, that too was at the very end of the town.

It was perfect with a kitchen, a big wash room and bunk beds.

We left our stuff and went to have ice-cream in a near-by "bar" to congratulate ourselves on our terrible day.

It felt nice to sleep in a room filled with people we had already seen plenty a-time during our tour.

Day 8.

We started to day walking with an israelien group of 4 people.

They were nice, we had met them the very first day at Col du Bonhomme, so we had started chatting along the way.

All I can say about the day that it was scorching hot AGAIN and that I had a bad day that day.

I felt gutted and even more so when we had climbed to Col de Balme at 2191m at taken pictures where we jumped.

I hated seeing myself in them, I felt so ugly and fat. So I was very very gutted, my feet hurt, my knees were fucked and I was insanely tired.

I had a lot of trouble walking that day, I kept crying and bitching and stopping for breath.

I guess I had a panic/angst attack. I couldn't breathe.

And to make things worse, while descending very narrow man-made wooden steps, I finally twisted my left ankle that had tried suicide for a few days now.

My ankle did an "L" with a nice big dull sound.

Tears swelled in my eyes, and I had the scare of my life. Bizarrely, it did not hurt.

I just picked my sniveling self up and kept going. 2 hours to go.

We finally stopped at Argentière, at a nice gite that served really good food at 1380m.

We toured the nearby town a bit but just went to buy a few apples. They were not very good tho...

Day 9.

We had breakfast and left for La Flégère at 1857m. Before arriving, we had climbed Le Lac Blanc at 2352m.

It was really fun because we climbed ladders a bit of the way, it changed for all the boring walking :D And we saw a mountain goat with its baby. Hihih.

Refreshing.

Upon arriving at La Flégère, it was 11.30 am. Early.

I looked at Olivier, who looked at me then looked at the map and looked me again.

I told him that I preferred continuing walking since it was still early. 5 more hours, and we'd have to climb till Le Brévent 2152m.

Easy peasy japaneasy.

It was horrible.

My GOD it was horrible. The sun in our backs, the weight on our shoulders.

We suffered.

When we finally arrived at the shelter we were camping next to, on the road descending to Les Houches, I was over joyed. Not only because we finally STOPPED, but also because we had a magnificent view of the Mont Blanc. Royal.

Dinner was soupe, spaghetti, omelette and apple pie crumble without the pie or the crumble. Just a silly biscuit.

This was our last night on the trip. HEHEEEE!!!

Day 9.

The descent was quite rude.

Very steep and difficult on the already broken knees.

After 2 hours we finally arrived at the town of Les Houches at 908m where we stopped to eat breakfast. Bread, cheese and pastries for later, bought at a boulangerie.

Our trail passed through Le Col de Voza at 1653m to descend to les Contamines-Montjoie at 1164m.

We passed by a mountain slope where we had gone to toast with Olivier's parents on Saturday upon our arrival on the 13th of August.

So we sat down on the exact rock we had sat on 10 days earlier and took a picture of us toasting with our water bottles.

We even called his dad to tell him we had almost finished. First he didn't believe him but once he did, he insisted on talking to me.

He wanted to congratulate me from the bottom of his heart because frankly, he never would've thought I could actually pull through and finish the trail.

....

Umm.. gee, thanks. I guess?

Anyways, we still had a long way to walk so away we fled.

The sun felt hotter than ever on the cloudless sky and walking on a cement road did not help. We raced to every shadow we could see on our trail.

After a looooong climb it descended. And kept going downwards. And just kept going.

GAH.

At 10 hours of walking, I had really had enough.

I was aching all around, my foot was killing me, slashing me with pain at every step and my knees felt like buckling at any second.

I wept. While walking, I wept.

Out of frustration, out of pain, of fatigue, I wept.

For one more hour we walked before arriving at our starting point, Olivier's parents' summer house.

Throw the bag down.

Kick off the shoes.

Collapse on the sofa.

Tear yourself up from the sofa and take a shower.

A long, hot shower.

Tend to your smelly decaying feet.

Rest.

Go eat a huge raclette at the nearest restaurant.

Switch off the alarm, collapse in your bed and SLEEP.

Aaah....

The next day we drove back home, took us 7½ hours, thanks to the traffic jams near Paris.

It was good to be home and to be able to sleep in our spanking brand new huge blue loft bed !!!!

AAAAAAA!!!!!!!!!

The End.