Friday:-
The guys all decided to head up on a route that afternoon, so I was left with some chill time, made a nice meal and got an early night after a day of trying to rest my knee.
Saturday:-
Another quiet day, managed to read all of the first Discworld novel and get some sunburn. Was expecting the guys back at aroun 5, last I'd heard they'd gone up onto the Mer De Glace to bivi and do a big rock route the next day. Nine came and I was getting concerned, not long after just as I was going to bed Sam turned up. They actually changed their mind last minute and went to the hut I mentioned in a previous post to sleep. Then did a big rock route on the Plan and got back down. After the route, Sam carried all their stuff down on the lift while Al + Al walked down due to lack of a lift pass. They were supposed to meet Sam at the carpark, but somehow missed him and decided he must have got the bus, so went for a wash and a burger. Afterall, what else would he have done?...
Actually, Sam was in a seperate park of the carpark apparently. He saw Ally + Alex drive round the roundabout, and thought they'd be around any minute to get him. An hour goes by and he's getting concerned. More time goes by and the busses have finished. Sam somehow convinced a Spanish couple to get a Taxi with him to the campsite, and they paid for it!
Sunday:-
Spent the day with the guys just chilling out around camp and in town, knee felt much better. Got bored and went for a walk.... knee felt much worse!...
Monday:-
Another quiet start, it'd been raining all night and was still raining in the morning. Felt rather run down so headed to the supermarche to buy some real food. Got back to camp and tidied a bit, was getting pretty horrible just randomly finding food/clothes in strange places. A Lad I spoke to earlier in the week came over to ask if Sam fancied a climb up around the Grand Capusin area. He seems to climb pretty hard and be very experienced, recently soloed the Frendo Spur in 4 hours and he's only just left school. Sam should have fun keeping up with him! They all got their gear together, with Ally and Alex planning on heading up that night too for similar routes.
They all left, I decided to head into Argentiere again to look into Interrail tickets and a few other things, broken up nicely by a couple of hours back at camp and a pizza I bought. When I got back to camp after dark I was surprised to find Ally and Alex sat there, they'd managed to miss the last lift upso thought they'd come and entertain me.
With them getting the first lift at 6:30am I decided I'd go along for photo purposes and then to get a few things done in Chamonix afterwards. Ally took Sam's place in my tent and Alex managed to squeeze inside the porch, a bit sneaky but it saves them money. Shit nights sleep due to some Eastern European group near us at it all night on the guitar and folk songs.
Tuesday:-
Awoke at 5:00am wide awake (4am UK time), got scared shitless by turning round to find Alex glaring through the mesh at me. I thought he was still asleep, bastard. Got stuff together and headed to the Midi station. It's the quietest I've seen Cham since I've been here, until we got to the station.
Mornin!
Loads of alpinists, and a few tourists, we crammed in and headed up.
At the top the light and visibility was amazing, and no feeling sick due to the altitude either. Got some amazing photos, and then paid to get the Cablecar over to Italy and back.
More amazing shots on the ride, and it finally occured to me what an amazing place this is, I was so jealous of all the climbers marching down the ridge and heading out to routes, I tried to follow Ally and Alex with my longer lens but they were rather far away, and also managed to spot what I think was Sam's tent near the bottom of the Grand Capucin.
Possibly Sam's Trango 2 beneath the Grand Cap.
The Grand Capucin
I was very apprehensive in the past about the dangers up ther, but after a good few hours taking it all in, there is no fear holding me back to get out there and give it all a go, only my injury!
Back at the station, I headed back down by 11am and enjoyed a French McDonalds, mainly to take advantage of the free wifi and power. So far it's been either one or the other...
I then decided to get a bit more money's worth out of my pass and headed up the Brevent/Planpraz lift. More great views and photos. Got back down and headed to the trainstation for a bit more info in Interrail. Headed back to camp and fell asleep for a few hours!
Just under 140 photos to process.... Might end up more like 100 really good shots, but it'll give me something to have a crack at the next few days. Most of them should be on Flickr/Facebook shortly. Expecting the guys back down on Thursday. I've hopefully got a physio appointment tomorrow, decided I'd rather just pay the €60 to a British physio here instead of mucking about with the French state hospital who by most accounts will probably refer me somewhere private anyway..
Other than that it's a couple more chilled days, suntan, reading, the kinda things most people do on holiday I suppose...
[Edit] - Processed the photos out of sheer boredom, check them out! Bed in a min, tired....
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