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squiz Member  Member#: 602 Location: Herefordshire Registered: 22-03-2004 Diary Entries: 8 |
7th March 2019 Hiking - Walking: Circuit of Lac de Vallon Wind Direction: Wind Stength: Surf / Sea State: Air Temperature: Sea Temperature: Weather: heavy rain, sleety snow with sunny periods late afternoon. Max Speed: Distance Covered: 2.32 miles (Nautical Miles - unless stated otherwise) Thursday 7th March – Snow shoe **** Circuit of Lac de Vallon, La Chevrerie in France + sightseeing travel – heavy rain, sleety snow with sunny periods late afternoon. 1 hours 45 minutes out, 2.32 miles covered. Good night in our out of the way spot at Le Chautets behind the little ski resort of Bernex and it seemed to rain all night. Easy start, lay-in reading, rain eased so Mag did her exercises outside and had a wander up the rushing river – her favourite. She said the pine trees had a coating of snow high up so the rain down here had been snow up there. With only a couple of days left before we have to start making our way home, we were not sure what to do with the weather not looking great:( In the end I decided to head over to one of our favourites the little resort of La Chevrerie a beautiful spot for both skiing and snow shoeing so if the weather improves at least we have some options for some last minute fun in the mountains! Leaving Bernex in heavy rain we get in a bit of a muddle but soon find the way, the scenery is just lovely, windy mountain roads with copper leaf trees and snow-covered pines high up with loads of traditional wooden chalets. We came out on the main Morzine road so turned right to go to the supermarket for a few bits. You are definitely in Brit country here and the shop was busy with chalet staff stocking up to please a load of moaning wet skiers returning from a very miserable day on the slopes! Only 20 Euros spent mainly on our first rotisserie Chicken a bargain at 7.95 euros – the cheapest one we have seen - we have seen them for double that! Then its back down the impressive gorge road making a small detour up to the resort that links to La Chevrerie past the stunning Roc de Enfer, St-Jean-d’Aulps where several very wet slalom skiers were heading back to their sponsored vans looking very cheesed off! It was several km. to our turn off towards Bellevaux before coming to the dead-end road to La Chevrerie, then as we climbed higher the rain turned to sleety snow and the poor old van only just made it on the icy slush up past the wood yard to get our first glimpse of the beautiful frozen Lac de Vallon. I drove to the ski lift right at the end - we have parked here several times including one very noisy New Year’s Eve! Due to the poor weather the carpark was nearly empty but the piste down did look good! Then it was back to park up for the night right by the Lac with the little fairy-tale chapel of St. Bruno across the water. To be honest it did look different, the small steeple has either been covered in copper or the old one has been cleaned because it looks a bit shiny and harsh! Still we parked up on firm ground so even if it snows, we can get off and I snapped away with the camera as the sun came out and we are surrounded by rocky peaks covered in snow covered pines just amazing. Time for us to enjoy our still warm chicken and then we were going to snow shoe around the Lac but it started to rain then snow. So, Mag sorted pics on the computer – picking her favourites from my many for a more manageable file, while I read. Then at about four it cleared so we quickly wrapped up, got the snow shoes on and set off around the Lac. A walk we have done several times but very enjoyable none the less. You have to cross a couple of little bridges piled high with snow to get up to the chapel. It was some of the hardest snow to walk in we have ever come across and we kept sinking in at least a foot! I walked down to the waters edge and got a nice shot of our van parked across the Lac before meeting Mag back at the stone trough with its swan neck water spout before following the path around the Lac. The best section is at the far end where the narrow path goes close to the water, well ice I mean. I tried walking on the ice at one point and to discover it was not very thick and ended up with a wet foot - made Mag laugh! Then back along the new path at the side of the road (you used to have to walk on the road) with the snow shoes coming off as we ran out of the white stuff. Back at the van it was time for yummy nut loaf and jam with a cuppa. There was a humped off heron on a post in the lac, how it survives up here is beyond us and there were several birds of prey circling above probably an eagle of some sort? Could be our coldest night of the holiday today with light snow forecast for tomorrow so can’t make any plans until the morning, nothing new there then!!! Photo Gallery Here |
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