We love Marmots!

THE END...

Boo hoo, the trip is over!

We arrived back in Bristol last night and have spent today getting back into the 'real world'!

We both had an awesome time, with so many great moments (and some not so great moments - poor Juan!).

Thank you so much for following our blog. We will probably add one more post of our most memorable moments soon.

We can't wait to see you all,

Claire and Jase!

Return to the Forest...

We ended the trip as we began... clambering on the beautiful boulders of Fontainebleau in the forests south of Paris. In all we spent 12 days in Font and enjoyed 8 days of climbing. The Bouldering (with no ropes and just crash pads) was a welcome change from the sport climbing and gave us a good mental break from the mental pressures of falling off all the time! Although we still fell lots, is was generally short distances onto comfy pads!Ideally, the best weather for bouldering is cool and crisp; below 10C and low humidity makes it much easier to hold the often very sloping holds. When the weather is hotter the rocks feels greasy and the palms sweat lots making it much more effort to hold on. Unfortunately, and rather predictably, the summer weather was hot and humid! Most days were 30C and humid! The morning and evening were pretty balmy too! However, we did have one (relatively) cool day with a chilly max of 22C. This was the sending day, and I manged to get a 7a+ and a 7a.Claire climbed her best ever and managed a handful of 6a's and a couple of 6b's, which was great considering the friction. Claire's shoulder is definitely improving and, although still not better, she is still seeing a steady increase in strength.I was pretty pleased with the 8 days. I managed nearly 20 6a-6c's and one 6c+, two 7a's and a 7a+.

Bugs!

We’ve seen some great bugs recently. We’ve managed to catch the less shy ones on camera! Lisa: these pics are for you because there weren’t many bugs for you to see when you visited us!Please identify them all!

Ceuse

We stopped in at Ceuse for just over a week, and enjoyed the world famous climbing. We both agreed that the climbing in Ceuse is the some of the best we’ve done anywhere. The rock is exceptional and the routes are brilliant – so many great climbs. There were, however, a few downsides… The more popular routes are quite polished, which can make some moves more challenging. However, this didn’t generally spoil the routes too much. The biggest challenge with climbing at Ceuse was the walk in. The crag sits at around 1800m, some 500m climb above the parking area. The walk was a 2 mile (doesn’t sound much) steep walk, which took around an hour. It was quite an effort, especially in the heat, but it was a lovely walk. The flora and fauna at this time of year are stunning; so many wild flowers and lots of bugs (see ‘Bugs’ post) and lizards to look at (the lizards were a little camera shy though)!

We also spent some time with a lovely French couple – Fabien and Amelie. We met Fabien and Amelie in Spain and they told us to get in touch if we went to Ceuse. They live in a beautiful house, with stunning views, just below the crag of Ceuse. They were extremely kind and let us use their shower and internet, and invited us for a great dinner one evening.

Fancy dress

We (reluctantly) left Spain and began the final part of our trip through France and home. We stopped for the weekend to stay with Adrian, Delphine, Liam and Luka in Toulouse. We had a lovely stay and were lucky enough to time our visit with Delpine’s fancy dress birthday party. Unfortunately, we didn’t have any costumes in the van, but (fortunately) their neighbour had many costumes. Claire went as a clown and I ended up in a grass skirt – not for the first time! We ate, drank got merry and danced lots! The Sunday was spent relaxing and recovering!

Pyrenean hike

We choose to leave the van for one night and headed for an adventure in the Pyrenees. We loaded our packs with food, clothing, and a sleeping bag and trekked off into the wilderness. The Pyrenees are particularly beautiful at this time of year, with the many wild flowers blooming and most peaks still capped with the winters snow. Another advantage of hiking in May is it is still very quiet – we saw only a handful of people. One disadvantage is that the snow is still lingering on the Cols and we had to do some creative side-stepping to avoid the deep, wet snow.

When passing one lake we met two French guys, they were particularly friendly and offered us an aperitif! We don’t normally drink on a hike, but thought it rude to decline! We joined them and they poured a generous helping of Pastise and took a ‘Sigg’ bottle to add some water. A red liquid poured into the Pastise and the French guy looked particularly embarrassed. He’d mistaken his bottles and poured red wine into the Pastise. We hurriedly tossed the mixture aside and we were soon drinking Pastise with water. We chatted in broken ‘Franglais’ for half and hour and continued our hike.

We arrived at the refuge early afternoon and made ourselves at home in the great (free) ‘winter’ room. The ‘winter’ room consisted of three rooms: one for storing shoes and packs; one for cooking; and a bedroom with room for twelve on bunks equipped with mattresses and blankets. In the summer the refuges are fully open and serve food and drink and have many more rooms available (this isn’t free!). We were joined by two other German guys. They were friendly, but one of them snored loudly!

We left early (8.30am) the next morning to avoid the impending afternoon storms. The hike back went smoothly, but we didn’t meet any friendly French guys, but we did meet a marmot!