It is almost exactly 12 years since I was last here. This is only a weeks trip but should be good ‘un. The dates of the trip are 20-27 July 2006.

20/07/06

Today was the first day of the trip.It was always going to be a hard days travelling. Strangely I woke up about half an hour too early – 5:30. Felt pretty bad – beer from the night before and the fact that I was bleeding close to the weight limit made me think that I was going to have a long day. I left the house at about 6:30 after saying goodbye to sparkle. Tube to Liverpool St and then a train direct to Stansted.

The Usual queues unfortunately – continued to feel pretty rough. Travelling on my own was a pain, pack weighed in at 19Kg  and the hand luggage was checked by the security guys for 10Kg weight. This was a first. Flight was fine and the bus to Grenoble was easy too though it left the airport 10 mins too late. This had a knock on effect, I missed the 2pm to La Berade – which meant waiting till 4:30 then changing at Bourg D’oisans. Shopped in Bourg: a little food couple Bouteille du Vin and a few Gaz cyclinders. I adandoned my temporary travelling partner here too, a nice lady fron Dubai visiting her brother. Very useful as we looked after each others luggage in Grenoble routiere.

When I made the camp a nice chap helped me with the duffel – couldn’t speak to him but he just picked it up and helped anyway.

At the camp I met Jess Viv and Ruth. Andy had seen the bus & had headed into La Berade, Rosie was washing . They’d saved some cous cous for me which was great – I’d not eaten anything but a bagel in the airport. It was a hot disgusting day. Finally hit the sack about 22:30 and slept through to 8:30. Didn’ hear Ruth leaving.