Not Quite in Andorra
24/09/18 – 26/09/18 We woke up on the top of the Col de Pailheres in thick fog, we could barely see anything; a bit of a concern as we wanted… Read more »
Category: Walking
Lammergeiers from the Pic de Tarbesou
22/09/18 – 23/09/18 True to our expectations we ached when we woke up. Our calf muscles were tight, thighs were sore and getting out of our raised bed was a… Read more »
A Couple of Days in the Orlu Valley
20/09/18 – 21/09/18 We headed back downhill from the 3-Ax ski area to Ax-les-Thermes and parked in the same daytime parking spot as we did a couple of days ago…. Read more »
Stretching our Legs
19/08/18 We feel refreshed after a good night’s sleep and wake to find that the skies are blue and any signs of the previous night’s thunder and rain have been… Read more »
Just Before We Go
10/09/18 -12/09/18 It has been such a busy summer. Three months we have been back and yet I don’t know where the time has gone. It’s been wonderful to catch… Read more »
Two Descend on Dorset
08/08/18 – 14/08/18 Enid Blyton, author of the Famous Five books (amongst many others), was a great lover of the Dorset countryside, particularly the Isle of Purbeck and it’s main… Read more »
Getting Around near Beadnell
23/07/18 – 27/07/18 I have always been a fan of public transport. I didn’t learn to drive until I was in my late twenties, and that was more out of… Read more »
Gran Paradiso Part 3: Our Final Valley
11/06/18 – 12/06/18 At the bottom of the Valsavarenche, just above the village of Introd which proudly proclaims it is a ‘Friend of Popes’, another valley splits off. This is… Read more »
Gran Paradiso Part 2: Ibex on the Slopes of the Big One
07/06/18 – 10/06/18 These blog posts may get a bit samey…visit a valley in the Aosta region, cycle a bit, walk a bit, see some marmots etc etc. if they… Read more »
Gran Paradiso Part 1: Cogne and Lillaz
03/06/18 – 06/06/18 South of the Aosta Valley is an offshoot of the Alps, Italy’s first national park. It is named after its highest peak – Gran Paradiso – the… Read more »
An Avalanche in the Aosta Valley
While we were in Cervinia we sat and watched as the spring sun thawed the snow and created avalanches. The sound as the snow starts to move is awesome in… Read more »
Matterhorn and Marmots in Cervinia
31/05/18 – 02/06/18 Breuil-Cervinia sits at the head of the Valtournenche. It’s a resort town, mostly purpose built to support the skiing industry, and we were quite shocked to see… Read more »
Valle d’Aosta. Perfect Peace in Torgnon
28/05/18 – 30/05/18 We had finally arrived in the Valle d’Aosta, the most westerly of Italy’s alpine regions which has borders with Switzerland and France. In fact French is an… Read more »
The Mountain with a Hole
24/05/18 Monte Forato had caught my eye while we were driving south through Italy and we’d immediately put it on our to-do list. There was too much snow on the… Read more »
Avoiding the Zona Rossi of the Sibillini
19/05/18 – 20/05/18 In search of a sosta we left the beautiful Piano Grande (I keep wanting to call it the Grand Piano, but that’s something else entirely), driving the… Read more »
Monte Vettore and the Piano Grande
17/05/18 – 18/05/18 We were continuing our homeward journey northwards and the next stop would be the Sibillini national park. This area was hard hit by multiple earthquakes in 2016… Read more »
A Final Jaunt in the Gran Sasso
14/05/18 – 15/05/18 Yesterday we had walked up to Prati di Tivo, today we drove up. The large car park which had been full of ‘macchine’ was now nearly empty… Read more »
Classics and Chamois
12/05/18 – 13/05/18 As we travelled around the ridge of the Gran Sasso we started to see more evidence of earthquake damage, this was to become a feature of the… Read more »
Preparing for the Giro d’Italia at Campo Imperatore
11/05/18 Although we’d deliberately decided to stay lower down the mountains, the lure of the snowy heights proved too much and we decided we had to go up to Campo… Read more »
In the Shadow of the Gran Sasso at Fonte Cerreto
09/05/18 – 10/05/18 We made our way from L’Aquila up through the foothills of the Gran Sasso national park, climbing up on the major road (A24) that chugged almost imperceptibly… Read more »