07 July 2012

marmot attack!

After a blissful but excessively strenuous yomp up the Muande valley last Saturday we arrive at gritty Lac des Rouies (Juan's favourite kind of place)...


then walk back down the valley to the Lavey refuge (just out of sight in this pic):


After the best refuge meal ever (fresh polytunnel veg grown adjacent) we pitch the tent. Using freshly mown hay as pillows (sneezing all night - Ed) we watch the moon above the Aiguille de l'Olan and the Sellettes glacier. Magical.


But the wind we struggled against us all day roars unabated - and the super-duper
light-weight tent flaps nonstop. Sleep eludes us. At 3am I move with my sleeping bag out of the tent into the gale. For a while I enjoy starry views intercut with scudding clouds. Then cover my head and pretend I am going to sleep. Various odd noises penetrate. An animal perhaps, but who cares. Then a bit later someone saying "marmot". Ok, fine. And then a sharp tug at my sleeping bag. Why is Juan trying to wake me up. I ignore him. But the tugging continues. Crossly, I unwrap my head gear and sit up - to find I am half a metre from a giant marmot, bearing its teeth and in no hurry to scarper. Holy shit. I scream my head off and it lollops off.

Back into the tent we go. And wait for dawn. After a refuge breakfast we hike back down to the car and drive home - to bed.

All this to explain why, this weekend, we are blobbing around at Vaulnaveys - this video of the garden being the most physical thing I've done so far:










1 comment:

  1. "blobbing" and "yomp" -both new words for me ;)
    Blog looks good. Keep it up!

    ReplyDelete