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A&K Adventure 2019A&K Adventure 2019
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A&K Adventure 2019

July - September 2019
A 86-day adventure by Anthony and Katey Read more
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  • TravelerA&K Adventure 2019
    Day 21

    D21 - TMB La Fouly to Refugio Bonatti

    July 25, 2019 in Italy ⋅ ⛅ 24 °C

    TOP 3 Highlights:

    1. Marmots - well perhaps not plural, but we did spot a single marmot running away into its burrow.

    2. Col de Ferrat - a highlight, literally. This was on just day 2, a huge pass of 2537m above sea level, then dropping us drastically (and dramatically) into the depths of the next valley. The wild flowers had me in fits of excitement, particularly when I found the vivid blue Gentians, a prized characteristic of the Swiss Alps!

    3. Freezing River Water - the most rejuvenating thing one can do in the middle of the day, soak the weary feet in the icy spring water. Don’t mind the cows sitting up stream on the banks keeping their cool...

    It was a long day...    Read more

  • TravelerA&K Adventure 2019
    Day 22

    D22 - TMB Refugio Bonatti to Courmayeur

    July 26, 2019 in Italy ⋅ ⛅ 23 °C

    TOP 3 Highlights:

    1. Second breakfast - A lovely English couple that we got to know last night (who are unfortunately walking TMB anti-clockwise) said that there was a good coffee stop midway to our destination today. So we enjoyed fresh coffee and cake (it was advertised as chocolate but that’s debatable, delicious nonetheless) at Refugio Bertone, 1989m elevation, with our new chatty friend Mike, from south-east England.

    2. Hardcore Helicopter Happenings - As we were finishing at morning tea, the helicopter that delivers goods/picks up other items from more remote Refugio’s landed just behind us. The driver dropped off his box of eggs (and a group of electricians for the Refugio) in about 30 seconds and then nose dived back down the valley, leaving a whirlwind in his place. It was so freaking cool, I wish I (Kate) was a helicopter driver.

    3. Rain watching - As we’re writing this we are sitting quite happily on our little balcony at our hotel for the night. We’re feeling so blessed as it gives us a brilliant view of the Aosta Valley which is surrounded by these mountainous giants. Anyway, for the last hour the clouds have closed in and storms are predicted....so we’re waiting patiently and getting some sketching done while overdosing on salted peanuts. Fingers crossed it’s over by 7pm though, as we’ve got a booking for pizza in town.    Read more

  • TravelerA&K Adventure 2019
    Day 25

    D25 - TMB Les Houches

    July 29, 2019 in France ⋅ ⛅ 17 °C

    TOP Highlights from the past three days:

    1. Stepping off the bus in Chamonix - After a terror of a night in Courmayeur, I (Anthony) was not at all myself having received what we can only describe as a very toxic dose of food poisoning. Kate was also unwell so we made a quick decision to cancel the following two days of walking - quick yet difficult and disappointing decision. These two days were forecast to be, and subsequently were, very wet. When the rain comes down here in the alps, it buckets. So really, it’s a double win that we became so unwell! Right?

    2. Public benches and lemon water - Given we survived the short bus trip through the Mont Blanc tunnel without puking, it was an absolute pain when we found we had to wait 3 hours for check-in to our respite accomodation. However, things turned around when I slept resting on Kate’s comfy thigh lying on a public bench in the middle of town (and didn’t even wake to a small boy apparently poking my shoe). Then, when finding fresh lemon water in the hotel lobby, I instantly felt it was the right place to be!

    3. Watching a French kids movie - Even with our limited French language skills, we were able to enjoy the highlights, lowlights, scary, sad and happy bits of Sammy 2. Adorable, it’s like a French ‘Finding Nemo’, but with slightly sinister moments.
    Particularly liked the song that went ‘let’s quit the BS and depressing stuff...’ Something for everyone!

    4. Monopoly Deal card game - This was one thing we deliberated over when doing our final pack in Orsières, and it turned out to be a bit of a life saver for us biding time. It truly is the game of champions! Who wants to play?!

    5. Chamonix - Having the opportunity for us to stop and slow down in a famous and somewhat charming resort town, with a raging river that cuts its way through the centre. I don’t think I’ve ever seen so many people with ‘all the gear and no idea’ - at least I’m not carrying new crampons, helmet and an ice axe.

    6. Getting our glow on - As we sit here at our final last minute booking that has saved us, in a little hotel aptly named Le Saint Antoine, we watch the glorious Alpen Glow. A classic alpine sunset, which alights the glacial capped peaks that surround the Mont Blanc massif, taunting us with the colour resembling a peach Melba. Ironically, this was the desert house special that despite our improvement, our bellies would not allow.    Read more

  • TravelerA&K Adventure 2019
    1
    Day 26

    D26 - TMB Les Houches to Le Brevent

    July 30, 2019 in France ⋅ ☀️ 20 °C

    TOP 3 Highlights:

    1. Back on your bike - As today was essentially our first day climbing real elevation since being sick, we were pretty determined to make it to our destination. We agreed to lighten the load as we were returning to Les Houches, so we only took food, water and essentials in my (Katey) smaller pack, and at 7.30am we stashed all our remaining things in the spare cupboard downstairs and set off at speedy pace. We both noticed that it took us a bit longer to find our rhythm but it’s hard to find complaint on a beautiful morning in the French alps. Les Houches is at 1008m elevation and our goal was to reach the cable car station at Le Brevent at 2525m. Ouch. Despite the seemingly never ending ascent, we really enjoyed the hike up and down, and even fitted in some time to go rogue off the beaten track....we may have scared a few sheep.

    2. Coffee at high heights - We stopped for a mid morning cawfee at Refuge Bellachat, and quite happily took our time as the view panned across the Mont Blanc massif. The fact that there were two little pug dogs running around the deck didn’t hurt either! It’s so nice to see so many people bringing their dogs along for the adventure - whether it be for the day or several.

    3. ‘Ring my beeeeelllll’ - on our way up, we reached Statue du Christ-Roi (Christ the King) at precisely 8.00am. We took our steps towards the beast, when all of a sudden there was a deafening sound of church bells. Further investigation saw that it was in fact one bell, taller than both of us, inside a structure nearby. It was an unexpected and moving moment that made us pause and give thanks for our health and continuation of our ‘tour’.
    The statue is a 25m concrete statue erected above the town of Les Houches in 1933-4 by the locals.    Read more

  • TravelerA&K Adventure 2019
    Day 27

    D27 - TMB Le Brevent to Auberge LaBoerne

    July 31, 2019 in France ⋅ ⛅ 20 °C

    TOP 3 Highlights:

    1. Waterfall - About halfway through our hike today, and just when the sun was starting to smart a wee bit, we stumbled across a waterfall. Even better, it was a waterfall that we could walk up to, sit near and soak our weary feet!

    2. Wildlife - heading out from Le Brevent we were quickly greeted by a chamois in the distant skyline, spotted by the keen-eyed Kate. Even more exciting was that in a matter of minutes it was on the path not too far in front. For the following hour we saw many chamois running up and down what seem impossible routes, nose diving towards rocky deaths but recovering every time at the last minute. They’d watch us intently, with no doubt others peering down upon us from rocky ledges above the trail. Later in the day, I stopped in a spot that a few other walkers ahead of us had and peered upwards to some rock climbers high on a massive slab. I panned down and at the bottom of the face in a patchy meadow lay a huge horned Ibex lapping up the afternoon sun. He was at much lower altitude than I would ever have imagined. He looked pretty relaxed, using his curved horns to scratch his back, lucky guy.

    3. Weak knees - the last section of today’s hike saw us clambering down Via Ferrata style steel ladders and pins bolted into the rock faces. Always keeping three points of attachment, we slowly lowered ourselves down steep faces with drops of up to 20m. Scary (fun) stuff!

    *Bonus* - the very French style freshly made apricot tart and delicious coffee on arrival at Auburge La Boerne went down way too quickly, seeing as we’d missed out on lunch! So quickly, in fact, that a photo opportunity was missed. We made a new friend in the form of a Border Collie, one eye brown and one blue, totally up for pats and crumbs.    Read more

  • TravelerA&K Adventure 2019
    1
    Day 28

    D28 - TMB Auberge LaBoerne to Auberge MB

    August 1, 2019 in Switzerland ⋅ ⛅ 24 °C

    TOP 3 Highlights:

    1. L'Aiguillette des Posettes - We knew that today was going to go up, down, up, down, but we never anticipated how much we would love today’s walk. L’Aiguillette des Posettes was the second peak that we have summited by foot on this trip, and as promised by some friendly Americans we met at La Boerne, the views were fantastic. To make it even better, there was a mountainside full of wild blueberries to keep our energy levels up along the way!

    2. Lost - after Col du Balme, we followed the sign towards a trail and began along it. After traversing a very dicey snow patch that would have sent us flying 40m down the side of the mountain had we slipped, I noted to Kate that we hadn’t seen many TMBers for some time. We carried on, also noting an alternative route with some hikers on it below us. After an hour or two of lovely walking just above the tree line with distant views down the valley towards or destination, we started curving our way around the mountain in the opposite direction. We stopped, checked the maps, and realised we’d been on the wrong trail for hours. We backtracked to the last junction we’d seen and headed down an overgrown and underused zig zag track that hugged a very sharp spine. After not too long, we pushed through waist deep grass to connect up with our intended route. What a lovely detour...

    3. Fondue - we passed up on an opportunity for Raclette at the beginning of our hike and so tonight when we were presented with the choice of pork/rice or a massive bowl of melted cheese and bits to dip in it, we said yes.
    ...
    It was entertaining, but one communal vat of bubbling cheese for a table of 6 people to be ladled over boiled potatoes was not what we were expecting. Let the cheese sweats begin.

    *Bonus* - Turns out there is a bloke staying here that has been carrying his bagpipes around TMB and during dessert we all got a quick performance! The Scottish couple we had been chatting to beside us were loving it- so would you Mum. Anthony covered his ears...

    Oh, and today Kate’s stick broke. Sad moment.

    Happy Swiss National Day!    Read more

  • TravelerA&K Adventure 2019
    1
    Day 29

    D29 - TMB Auberge Mont Blanc to Orsieres

    August 2, 2019 in Switzerland ⋅ ⛅ 15 °C

    TOP 3 Highlights:

    1. Food - Every day food makes some kind of feature in our adventures, and today was no different. On arrival to our highest point of the day at Chalet Bovine, the rain had started falling, and we were greeted with a closed sign. I stood there in disbelief and minutes later a young bloke appeared, removed the sign and we were in store for our well needed hot coffee accompanied by a warming piece of fresh apple pie.
    Once we had reached our little Hotel Terminus in Orsières, we had a late lunch. A chicken burger featuring this tasty Jack Daniel’s sauce, local crispy bacon and hand cut chips. Kate had a Veggie burger which was amped up with shredded seaweed. She insisted that it was the best veggie burger she’d eaten in ages, as weird as it sounded!
    This evenings meal featured a local tasting plate of cured meat accompanied by a salad heirloom tomatoes and burrata. Best to just check the photo for this one.

    2. Misty Mornings - We left with haste this morning, after hearing the news of predicted thunderstorms in the region. Needless to say, after a few hours of hiking upwards and spotting our first views of Martigny down in the valley cast by moody skies, the rain began to fall. Luckily, the thunderstorms never eventuated, and the rain turned the forest a lush glossy green, giving rise to humidity and clouds moving in as thick mist around us. The change in weather provided great contrast to the record breaking heat experienced only a week prior.

    3. Finishing! - Our arrival to Champex Lac late this morning, to the spot next to the lake that we were dropped at just 10 days ago, marks the end of our TMB. While we missed the southern tip of the trail, every day provided new scenery (and plant life!) and views that photos just won’t do justice. We will definitely be back!    Read more

  • TravelerA&K Adventure 2019
    2
    Day 31

    D31 Italy - Bologna

    August 4, 2019 in Italy ⋅ 🌙 25 °C

    Two days ago, as we left Orsières with heavy hearts, we travelled past vineyard upon vineyard scattered across the low planes of the mountains. These vines are young, with the Swiss appellation system established only in the 1980s, and at the time only selling domestically. It’s only been in recent years that the Swiss have opened their wine market to international trade, putting delicious light flavoured varietal wines into the word - such as our new favourite red, Gamay.

    We spent 5 hours in Sion before crossing the border on train into Italy. Sion is a small, very old (aren’t they all?) town featuring a few mini castle ruins atop surrounding mounts. We hiked up to the top of one of these, after our internal navigation seemingly felt inclined to head against gravity one last time.
    We spent quite some time packing up a box of our unneeded stuff to send back home. This in itself was an ordeal as we needed to head to the local supermarket Migros and communicate our needs for a large box (which the post office couldn’t provide).

    After a day of travelling, we arrived in our first Italian destination - Bologna! We jumped off what I’d call the wrong side of the tracks, only because the old town sits on the other side. We walked to what turned out to be perfectly comfortable hostel accomodation - a large shared room with separate beds, a desk area to play Monopoly Deal, and a mini fridge for our precious cargo of cheap Swiss chocolate.

    We received a dinner recommendation which was perfect old world Bolognese style food, including the puffiest lightest little pillows of gnocchi with a ragu sauce that I’ve ever eaten. And Kate ate some delicious pan fried pasta, which in itself was a surprise after thinking it was just the veggies that would be fried. A bottle of local Sangiovese superiore and two hours of washing our filthy hiking clothes, we lay our weary heads down for the night.

    For our one day in Bologna, we did what we do best - walk. We walked a total of about 20km around town, first by navigating the length of one of the world’s longest Porticos, leading up (yep, another hill) to Santuario della Madonna di San Luca. The portico consisting of 666 arches, was built in 1674-1793. We wandered the pastel orange, pink, brown and peach coloured buildings, connected by porticos of polished beauty. We have one stunning portico back home that I can think of - Melbourne’s GPO. Bologna has thousands that make up the very pretty city.

    Once we had reached the main square of Bologna, we wandered around and discovered the collection of buildings that made up the old University. A cheap ticket each bought us access to view a beautiful old lecture hall, lined with books for a variety of subjects such as botany, geology, anatomy and zoology. The main attraction was the old anatomy theatre (Anatomical Theatre of the Archiginnasio) where they would have done dissections on corpses for groups of medical students to learn various body systems. It was pretty eerie as the marble bench lay in the centre in the ornate wooden room, surrounded by a small stadium of noisy creaking benches for viewing purposes. The walls and ceiling were incredible as wooden carvings of naked people were distributed in various positions, interspersed with old scripture.

    For lunch we squeezed into some seats at a local cafe and ate a sample board of Bolognese cured meats from the region (think Parma ham). We also sampled some aged Parmesan reggiano drizzled with local Balsamic Vinegar from Modena. This was accompanied by local bread infused with ham, cheese and anchovies.

    Later in the afternoon, Kate had booked us into accessing one of Bolognas last standing high rise buildings (Torre degli Asinelli) - a brick stack popping its head 97.2m above Bologna’s skyline. It was 498 steps up a worn wooden staircase, bolted somehow to the internal walls of the stack, and kept in place by very little additional reinforcing. Needless to say, it was invigorating but did not feel at all safe. Every hour, they let about 50 people in to walk up and down the one-way staircase, after taking in the surrounding vistas. Thousands must walk the stairs every year I kept telling myself, not sure if this was to console my sentiments of the dodginess of it all, or make me think how used the staircase was - just one crack, that’s all it would have taken!

    After our heat busting climb up the stack we went for more gelato - this time I ordered a style named after the town, a coffee flavoured scoop with a pistachio chocolate paste swirled through it. Yum...it beat the plain pistachio and the cheesecake varieties I also tried.    Read more

  • TravelerA&K Adventure 2019
    Day 32

    D32 Italy - Firenze

    August 5, 2019 in Italy ⋅ 🌙 24 °C

    After a slower 2 hour train ride, compared to the speedy (299km/hr) train we were on to Bologna, we arrived in Firenze. I have fond memories of the city from years ago and am excited to be here with Kate to experience it again.

    We spent the day wandering the pretty streets, visiting little paper shops, checking out Walters Silver shop that I bought a ring at in 2005, passing the cow stench leather stalls and witnessing a sexual assault where two feral young guys pinched this American girl on the butt. Luckily, she was assertive enough to go after them, grab them and scream in their faces until they apologised. Go her! She got a round of applause from the spectators.

    The majority of our afternoon was spent exploring the centre of Firenze, and sussing out what we want to do over the next couple of days. While we were waiting in line for the Ticket Office at the Santa Maria del Fiore Cathedral to find out if we could get tickets to climb the Duomo Dome, Ant noticed that some availabilities had opened up for tomorrow - a minute later and we had secured 2 spots! Lucky, otherwise there wasn’t anything until Thursday arvo, and we’ll be in Rome by then!

    Lunch, coffee and gelato stops were all delicious (choc-orange gelato has our hearts), but the first prize has to be awarded to dinner tonight. Due to a fair amount of places being closed on a Monday night, our original plan folded and we ended up seated at a trattoria not far from our BnB. The place had cured meats hanging up, bottles upon bottles of wine of all shapes and sizes stacked everywhere; it just had a fantastic character of its own.
    We deliberated on what to order....and ended up spoiling ourselves with bistecca di Fiorentina. Google it and try not to drool all over your keyboard... It was the best piece of red meat we’ve had in a long time, and the pan fried potatoes and Chianti were a perfect accompaniment. Lucky ducks.

    Now we’re aiding digestion of said meaty goodness by scrapbooking and planning out our day tomorrow. Night all!    Read more

  • TravelerA&K Adventure 2019
    1
    Day 33

    D33 Italy - Firenze

    August 6, 2019 in Italy ⋅ ☀️ 30 °C

    With the knowledge that we have two full days of exploration to do here, we were able to relax a bit and not worry about being time strict. And yet, by the time we got into bed tonight, we were exhausted! Florence is so easy to get around by foot, in fact it seems very little people catch public transport in the centre, that your day fills up quickly, even if you’re retracing your steps.

    We started our day with a lovely breakfast prepared by our host Silvia, and then set off for Santa Maria del Fiore. We wanted to beat the crowds and the heat by getting to the bell tower early. We beat the crowds at least. 414 steps later and we had our first beautiful panoramic view of Firenze, including the cathedral next door which we would climb later in the afternoon. The terracotta glow of roofs here mimic those of Bologna, so its a good thing there are plenty of monuments in photos for us to distinguish which is which!

    Anthony was in need of some new shorts, more specifically shorts that don’t have a hole in the pocket and bum. We looked in a couple of sporting stores, but to no avail. Only in a sports store in Italy will you find Columbia next to George Armani! Later this afternoon we made a new line for North Face where he found some really smart looking shorts, fingers crossed they don’t get too roughed up in our travels!

    A daily predicament is trying to find a coffee shop with a toilet so we don’t have to pay for a public loo (on average you will pay 1€ per “session”). Walking down one of many hundred alleyways, we found a large industrial-chic cafe with a florist in the back, and lots of non-dairy coffee options. I was fooled to think we hadn’t fallen into a vortex, transporting us back to Fitzroy! More importantly, it had a loo. I really enjoyed my coffee but Anthony was undecided about his Ciocaccino that the waitress had recommended. You can’t win them all!

    Mercato Centrale, which is the Queen Vic of Firenze but with a huge food court and a little more va-va-voom, called our names for an early round one of lunch. We loved wandering through and eyeing off the crazy butchers dividing up the ginormous T-bones with cleavers, the little old ladies spraying their fruits and vegetables with mist, piles of Limoncello, and all the Willy Wonka-esque pasta carefully placed to make displays pop. We found a pasta store that was selling plates of fresh pasta with your choice of sauce, and if the growing queue indicated anything, that was our pick! Half an hour later we were sitting outside on a dirty step admiring our ravioli al limone with a sauce of pomodori con olive. We are in love, and definitely going back tomorrow for more!
    Round two of lunch took us back to Rosalia, a funky salad spot near the main square, which was both convenient and well priced. Plus we get a huge bowl of greens in (yes mums, we’re getting our serves of veggies in!), which is perfect on a hot day. We shared a Mexican salad, so imagine lots of lettuce with beans, corn, onion, tomato, pineapple, avocado dressing and tortilla chips!

    We returned to Santa Maria to visit the Baptistry, which closes for a few hours in the middle of the day for religious purposes. Unfortunately it too is undergoing maintenance so some of the interior was covered but what we could see was beautifully decorated, and many people sitting down on the benches provided were obviously entranced.

    By a small miracle Ant secured us tickets to climb the Duomo at 3.30 so at 3.00 we lined up and got comfy. All of this queuing makes for great people watching, it’s not too tedious!
    The construction of the cathedral itself, named after Santa Maria del Fiore, began in the 13th century Alforno Di Cambio, and the dome that towers over the gothic style building wasn’t added until the 15th century, designed by Filippo Brunelleschi. Apparently it was made without the aid of scaffolding! Another 463 steps took us up through the inside of the ornately painted dome, which on closer inspection is really quite dark and twisted. From my interpretation, it represented the many levels of humanity, and the afterlife, as the painted figures ranged from the perverse and violent down the bottom to Christ Jesus who sat on his throne higher up surrounded by many followers. It was quite steep closer to the top, but the view made it all worth it! In fact, we probably overstayed our welcome by staying up there for so long but if no one is telling you to go, why leave? We could see right over the city towards the Tuscan countryside, including the Piazza Michael di Angelo which we will walk to tomorrow.

    We walked home to rest our weary feet before dinner, but not before sharing another gelato. It’s like a daily Yakult, I swear.
    Dinner was at a sweet restaurant nearby, and again we ate well. We shared a plate of a variety of pecorino cheeses from the region, accompanied with berry jam, honey and bread. For first course, Ant enjoyed spaghetti with an incredible sauce of bacon, tomatoes, Chianti wine and a healthy serving of olive oil. As I only wanted one course, I ordered the tagliatelle with scampi and tomatoes. Dad, you’d be proud! I tore into those huge scampi and made sure there was no meat left in the shells. Luckily I had Ant who was on hand to mop me up afterwards! For second course, Ant ordered grilled chicken with rocket plus a caprese salad. The salad unfortunately did not live up to his expectations as the tomatoes weren’t completely bursting with ripeness, but the grilled chicken was lovely.

    We finished the night off by watching the sun set as we sat on a bridge over the river. Oh, and Anthony got another gelato.    Read more

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