Baby cows...

We spent over three weeks in Val Masino and had a fantastic time with fellow travellers Paul and Kay.  Even though my toe was sore and my camera AWOL, it was lovely to relax, enjoy the sun and swim in the (way too cold) river!  The weather was pretty hot at times, so we spent quite a lot of time in Bagni di Masino, a nearby valley at higher altitude.  Whilst in Bagni, we stayed in a peaceful, shady setting near a mountain stream.  The area was owned by some local farmers who had a herd of cows and a handful of goats.  Everyday was accompanied by the distant (and sometimes less distant) sounds of the cow bells.

We awoke one day to discover one of the cows tied about 15m away from the van.  It soon became clear why she was there when we saw the farmer with most of his arm in her lady bits.  It seemed there was a problem with the birth and the situation seemed quite fraught.

Eventually his wife and another man arrived and they tied some cord around the (just visible) legs of the calf.  The cord was then tied to a stick and the two men hauled the calf out.   It took a lot of effort and the cow wasn't happy.  Eventually the calf fell to the floor, but lay motionless.  It was quite sad to watch, and we hoped mummy cow would be OK.  Then to our surprise, the calf stirred and showed signs of life - it had survived!

Mother and calf sat and recovered from their ordeal.  The calf tried repeatedly to stand, but didn't manage it in the first hour or so. The farmer's wife was passing about an hour after the birth and was very surprised to see that the cow was still in labour...  She easily delivered the next calf, who looked healthier and a little more spritely.  

It was lovely to watch the cow and her calves for the next few hours. It was particularly funny watching the calves exploring and taking their first steps.

Climbing without left toes...

It's been three weeks since my big left toe took a battering in Chironico and it's slowly on the mend.  I've been climbing a little with a massive Simond rock shoe and recently managed to squeeze into my very soft and loose 5.10 Project shoes.  Wearing a shoe isn't too bad, but weighting small edges is difficult.  I'm also climbing very nervously as I don't want to fall badly on it.  I've still managed to climb quite a bit, but have to be very selective with the problems - pretty much anything which uses the left toe very little.

I've recently sent an awesome line called Oscurita - a great compression problem, which mostly uses heels rather than toes...

Broken toes and theives...!

Part two of our road trip began in much the same way as part one…  We stopped in Fontainebleau to break the journey on route to the Swiss/Italian Alps.   We weren’t particularly psyched by Font – probably because we’d just spent three months there, but we were much more excited about getting to the Alps and playing on some rock in beautiful mountain scenery.  We were planning to head to Val di Mello to meet Paul and Kay – some friends we’d met earlier in the road trip.  Font to Val di Mello is quite an epic drive so we stopped for a couple of nights in Chironico, Switzerland en route.

Part two got off to a bad start…!  Day one of climbing in Chironico I managed to break my big toe on my left foot and badly stub the big toe on the right foot too!  I was trying a problem called Tomahawk; I had done all the moves and just need to link it.  On one attempt my foot slipped whilst turning a bulge and I fell with my body rotating towards the wall.  I hit the pad whilst still rotating and both my feet slid towards the base of the boulder.  Both big toes got slammed into the rock, with the left foot bearing the brunt of it.  The pain was instant and I fought to remove my very tight rock shoes.  My toe started throbbing and I felt a little queasy.  I sat on the pad, raised my foot up and started to think about how long I have to stop climbing…  I figured at least two weeks, maybe more.  Normally, this wouldn’t be so bad, but I just had about two weeks rest!  C’est la Vie!

Toe breaking fall!

The next day we drove to Val Masino in Italy, where we met Paul and Kay. It was great to see them again and catch up.  We found a beautiful, quiet place to park with a view across a wildflower meadow.  I spent the next week or so watching Claire, Paul and Kay climbing, but could at least amuse myself doing pull ups!  Claire’s wrist is still a little sore, but seems to be improving with time away front the Font slopers.

After 10 days I managed to climb easy problems with a trainer on my left foot.  I also treated myself to a highly stylish pair of Simond rock boots.  They were way too big, but gave my toe lots of space to move and allowed me to do some easy climbing. 

Even though I had to refrain from climbing, it was still fun to go out and take photos… Until someone stole my camera and lenses!  We were out bouldering and had left food, clothes and cameras on the ground.  We were only bouldering about 5-10metres away, but at some point my camera bag disappeared. It was very annoying to lose my camera, and quite surprising that someone managed to take it when it was so close to us.  The only consolation was that I had recently downloaded the photos/videos and didn’t lose any footage.

We reported it to the police and began the painstaking task of trying to claim from an insurance company.

Tour de UK

We had a fantastic trip back to the UK.  First stop was Bristol, where we spent time catching up with friends and putting Juan through his MOT. It was lovely to see people in Bristol and I even squeezed in a quick session at the climbing wall - although I felt weak on plastic! After Bristol we made the journey to Cumbria to visit Claire's parents and enjoyed the occasionally sunny Lake District!  We managed to get out climbing a couple of times - once in Eskdale and once in Gillercombe.  The weather was a little unpredictable, but we still climbed some nice problems.

Finally we drove down to Norwich to visit my Mum and Dad, Sam, Rebecca, Fran, Paul and Rupert (and a chat with Jenny on Skype too!).

We thoroughly enjoyed catching up with everyone, and will miss you all whilst away on the next leg of the road trip.