In search of cafes; short family hikes

Not always do our kids share our enthusiasm for walking, so incentives ‘to get there’ are often required.  In most cases this takes the form of food or drink. Given that Chamonix is a glacial valley its sides are steep so a cafe or buvette at a key view point can be a welcome break.  Here are some of our favourites. We’ve not been specific on directions as the paths are pretty well sign posted (as you might be able to see on the photo below) with estimates of length in minutes which seem to be family pace.

Cascade du Dard (1,233m).

This is probably one of the easiest short walks that can handily be combined with a walk up to Chalet du Cerro .

Cascade du Dard has views of the 20m high waterfall and Aiguilles Rouges.  It takes about 20 mins to get there if you park in the car park at the last bend on the road to Mont Blanc, or 40 mins if you walk directly from Barrats A.

Chalet du Cerro (1,358m)

This is a further 40 mins on from Cascade du Dard.  Just behind it is the viewing platform for the Bossons Glacier, the longest in the valley, if not in Europe I think.  Alternately you can park next to the Mont Blanc tunnel and ascend for 20 mins or walk from 45mins from Songenaz in Les Bossons.

La Floria (1,137m)

This is worth the effort if only to appreciate the beautiful flowers.  These frame the fantastic views of Mont Blanc on the opposite side of the valley. This is also situated on a public foot path, a little above the Petite Balcon Sud so you can picnic providing you purchase a drink.

The walk takes about an hour from Barrats A or about 45 mins from the Brevent, Les Nants (next to the Tennis courts) or Paradiz des Praz car parks.

Chalet du Chapeau (1,576m)

This is placed within the l’Arveyron canyon, offering a view of the Drus and the Chamonix valley.  It also has a view point 15mins higher up which gives great views of the foot of the Mer de Glace.  The walk takes about 50 mins from La Lavancher or 1hr 15 mins from the village of Les Bois. We cycled from Chamonix via the Bois du Bochet cycle route just to add another dimension to things and locked the bikes up near Les Bois.

Cascade du Berard (1,456m).

This is within the area of Vallorcine at the top of the Chamonix valley. It’s at the beginning of the much longer Col du Buet walk, but a great introduction to this part of the valley.

It’s a gentle 25 mins stroll from the car park in the Buet hamlet.

Short family hikes have the advantage of leaving you half the day free to do things that might be higher on the kids list like, swimming or visiting the lake.  Or alternatively taking advantage of a break in the weather when the skies decide to demonstrate why the local flora & fauna is so lush and green.

And if they don’t fancy walking, here are some other ideas when the weather is good.

and when the weather isn’t so good….

Our new addiction, Geocaching

Fortunately a GPS device isn’t just for tracking how quick or able you are, it also enters you into a great big treasure hunt game: Geocaching.

It seems it was a concept only developed 10 years ago when the US government ‘removed selective availability’ so you can now swap GPS coordinates of what ever you want.  With sat navs such as Garmins, coordinates of little plastic containers can be downloaded and we can now swap Christmas cracker tat with complete strangers to our hearts content, after a good old forage in the countryside.

More than 4 million people geocache in nearly every country on Earth. Geocachers are families with children, retired individuals and grandparents, hikers, explorers, and outdoors-people.  As we seem to fit into most of the ‘younger’ categories we thought we’d give it ago.

Having registered on the official Geocaching site we thought we’d try locally before hitting it full force on holiday.  We were amazed with how many there were in Kent and bagged 6 on out first day. Registering and joining is free and it has the added benefit of encouraging kids to walk for miles.

Coming to Chamonix we’ve identified 16 within 2 miles of the flat. The hunting has already kept us busy for parts of our first few days, but we’ve learnt lots:

• Check out the finding clues for each cache before you set out, photos and hints can be invaluable.  In the UK you can google them on a smartphone of course, but this gets rather expensive when overseas…
• Have a GPX foot path map of the local area if possible, not just road maps, as something that looks close when flying as a crow can be surprisingly far/dangerous if not on proper paths.
• Don’t get fooled by ‘earthcaches’ unless you are prepared to do all the forfeits and answer daft questions.  We down loaded the coordinates for everything local and wasted quite some time on the way to the Bossons Glacier looking for an earthcache which wasn’t a box in situ but instead expected you to answer questions, take photos and email photos before you could ‘claim it’.  Of course we only realised this when we got home…
• Don’t forget to take a pen and write a little note in the box just to say thanks.
• Go armed with plenty of small swappable items like badges, key rings, go go crazy bones, small figurines etc..  We’ve seen/picked up necklaces, packs of playing cards, packs of felt tip pens, marbles etc.
• Avoid leaving food items that animals might eat the box for.
• Look out for the trackable geocoins.  This is a proper old fashioned chain letter type of thing and you can see which countries it has travelled and decide where to take it to next.
• Don’t feel that your pleasant walk/hike has failed because you haven’t found every Tupperware box indicated on the GPX!!

We’ve had great fun so far and done many a scramble to find a little plastic box which contributes to the little bits at the bottom of the kids ‘toy box.  The views have also been rather spectacular.

Here is a picture of our first French find in Les Gaillands, La belle et la bete.

We’re team name Barratscham so please say hi when you pass us.

The link between Mont Blanc and Prostate Cancer

It all started as a beery conversation in the pub Christmas 2008.  “Lets do the three peaks in 24 hours.”

Having been there, conquered that, a new challenge needed to be devised. “Well Mont Blanc can’t be that difficult can it?  It may be the tallest mountain in Europe, but with a little training we can manage it.” And so they were off.

With a team substitution of Alex for Jose, the training began. Many a weekend has since been spent running in the mud or walking in the snow, as you saw in January.

Now with just over a month to go, it seems awfully real.  In true unorganised bloke style they’ve suddenly realised that ferries need to be booked and exact dates agreed.  Any excuse for another trip to the pub for ‘a meeting’ I think

Thankfully the guide Seb Montez of Chamonix Guiding has been reserved, and one of charities decided on, Prostrate Cancer.

Seb was chosen because the training trip in Chamonix went really well last June.  There was plenty of crevasse rescue training, walking on the Mer de Glace etc.

While prostate cancer was chosen for equally instinctive reasons, as its an illness close to home.  Duncan’s Dad was diagnosed with it early in 2009, but thankfully after two sets of treatment he’s got the all clear now.  One of the team members also had a close scare, but the less said about cough and drop the better. (I’ll spare you the photos on that ).

Anyway, Duncan’s Just Giving page is linked to the picture below. Please consider contributing to make this little jaunt of more benefit than just a lads week away.  It would also be great to see that 0% disappear, thanks!

Oh yes, so being near Mont Blanc doesn’t actually cause prostate cancer, the link is that the ascent will be raising money for research into curing it

In preperation for the Mont-Blanc ascent; a walk in Kent

We’re at the stage when life is supposed to begin, we’ve had a swath of 40th birthday celebrations over recent months.  Duncan wasn’t content to just boogy away though.  He wanted to walk the Yorkshire Three Peaks.  Some kind of family tradition it seems.

Having planned it for months and bought our necessary water proofs and thermals, just after new year, the day came to our window dressed in snow, as Joad put it.  Yes, it looked beautiful, but oh how it prevented our babysitters getting to us.

So with various sets of grandparents stranded around the country we were faced with doing something a little more local.  His desire to do a long distance walk was not diminished by the snow however, so the Garmin came out and routes were planned and up loaded.  They settled on devising a walk near Pembury in Kent and left the women at home.

Having specifically sought hills though, the effect snow would have on the paths and subsequently leg muscles was not really anticipated.  The quick 18 miles took a little longer than anticipated, 5 hours in all.  Maybe it was the fact that the birthday boy was in fancy dress that slowed things down a bit?

They made it back in the light though, but at the expense of forgoing a welcome rest in the inviting looking hostelries.   Better planning next time, perhaps?  Fortunately they didn’t need to use his birthday present of a crevasse rescue kit, but the 4×4 came in handy getting to the start.

And so the planning continues.  Only 6 months until the Mont-Blanc ascent.   More long distance walks to fit in and even some fell running perhaps.  And don’t forget the shopping – plenty more gadgets and gizmos needed.

So who’d have thought that Pembury in January could act as a suitable substitute for proper mountains, but it did.

Just for those who like the detail, the 18 mile walk took them from Pembury, to Hawkenbury, Frant, Eridge Geen, Groombridge ad the edge of Tunbridge Wells.