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squiz
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Member#: 6644 Location: Registered: 27-05-2007 Diary Entries: 3071
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14th March 2014
Hiking - Walking: Semnoz Wind Direction: Wind Stength: Surf / Sea State: Air Temperature: Sea Temperature: Weather: sunny Max Speed: Distance Covered:
Friday 14th March ***** walk at Semnoz. Sunny
Still in a very sunny Semnoz we walked the 6km circular walk called the
circuit des 3 lacs (all the lakes were covered in snow so you couldn’t
actually see where they were). The circuit closely follows the cross
country courses which go for 50km in this resort! The walking piste is
extremely popular with people in just walking boots like us or with snow
shoes (racquettes). We added to the distance by doing a detour to the top
of the Cret de l’Aigle. Bizarrely at the top we saw a ginger cat on a
lead! The owner was worried about its paws getting cold so put it down on
the very top of the Cret on the grass and rocks, then sat with it on her
lap for ages while she chatted to another French lady. When she left she
had the cat draped round her neck! We had our lunch here and read our
books for a while. It was a great 3 hour + walk, very beautiful and a good
piste for most of the way – but it is hard work walking in snow
especially when you can sink in up to your knees when you leave the piste!
We passed the Refuge du Semnoz and went to look down at the view over the
edge but there is so much haze it is virtually impossible to see anything
down in either valley today. Later after a long rest at the van we walked
again up to the cross and tables of orientation at the top of the Cret du
Chatillon. On our way up we stopped to chat to a piste person who said
that the haze was due to pollution:( Because there hasn’t been any wind
for a long time it just gets thicker every day! You could hardly even see
Mont Blanc this evening but the sun was very bright up on the plateau where
we are. How sad that the pollution from all the towns and cities in the
valleys is ruining the atmosphere and beauty up here too:( We decided to
stay here again tonight because it just got too late and too tiring to
think about moving on!!
Saturday 15th March – travelling. Cloudy
We packed up and left our 3 night spot at Semnoz and headed back towards
Annecy. Not the way we really wanted to go but didn’t think we stood a
hope of finding a shop the way we were headed and had spied a Lidl down by
the lake. We stopped on the way down the very windy road where there are
several different sorts of deer in large(ish) fenced in areas. There was a
handy tap so we filled up the tanks including our new fold up water
container from the £1 shop – needless to say it sprung a small leak
before the morning was out! The Lidl was huge and we were able to stock up
well. Headed for the same spot on the lake as the other day but the smog
and cloud was so bad you couldn’t really see the view as well:( Headed
up into the mountains again on a different road and joined the road we
needed just below Semnoz. Beautiful alpine scenery again but not so sunny
today. We arrived at another small ski resort called Margeriaz which is
twinned with another just down the hill called Aillon le Jeune. You cant
ski from one to the other but they link them by bus. We had a wander
around to see what the place was like and went for a short walk up into the
woods on the racquette path. Found the perfect place to stop in the lower
car park but unfortunately a bit spoilt by the fact that there is a huge
husky kennels at the end of the road and they were barking quite a lot in
the early evening. Not too bad for us because we had the cd on but are
hoping they don’t keep us awake! Thought about moving but think you
could probably still hear them up on the other car park. We think we will
walk tomorrow and ski on Monday because the place will probably be deserted
as the schools half term is over. It was quite busy today when we got
here.
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