Chartreuse Overground – July / August 2011
Over ground in Chartreuse
The
Red Rose Trip coincided with my retirement from paid work and a leisurely drive
down to
The
area has a lot to offer both for walking and caving not forgetting the Via Ferratas visited by some at
Hopefully the following gives a flavour of the two weeks spent in Chartreuse.
The
weather was a mixed bag with a fair number of wet days but adventures were
still to be had. Our first day out took us to The Grotte
de Guiers Mort, bottom entrance to the Dent de Crolles cave system which has 60Km. of mapped caves. The
cavers were recceing for a later trip but we walkers
enjoyed a nice 8k circuit taking in the entrance to the cave, with a carefully
placed walkway approaching the cave entrance thus avoiding wet feet! Mrs
Wilkinson is shown taking advantage of the steps.
A
later visit to Dent de Crolles summit (2062m) gave an
exciting day out with the path taking us through the steep summit cliffs
protected with cables.
Reaching
the summit plateau we passed the entrance to P40 which exits 650m. below at the previously visited Grotte
de Guiers Mort. Wonderful Alpine
flowers up here.
Notable fact of the day: Andy
Hall received a gift of a 3 pack of ladies underwear as he had forgotten his.
Thanks were to Sarah Hall.
After a lovely walk from
where x-rays showed a dislocation and
fracture. Here is Ray conducting his life from the sick bed.
Over the next few days we all
visited Ray at some stage and saw he was very well looked after by the French
nurses with no reports of bad behavior though come to think of it there was a
language barrier…...
As is customary with Sandra W. we
walked most days especially as it was too cold for the pool!
One wet day saw us (Tim, Heather,
Andy H. Sandra and Carol) looking for adventure. We found it by the name of
“The Cirque de Meme, (
The route was vertical forest
interspersed with escarpments some of which had ladders and chains in place.
Some were rusty and came away from the rock in your hand. A good 5 hour circuit
ended at the bar in the valley and the best beer of the trip!
Notable fact of the day: Spot the bottom. I vote for Andy Hall. The rust is highly
visible. On the rock NOT the bottom!
On a rare sunny day we visited Lac Lapin
where I nearly lost an eye to a swan who regarded my chips as fair game. I had
not expected a snatch from my mouth! Thankfully no pictures!
We walked then to Cave Mandrin with wide rock shelter and caves used by the well
known Robin Hood of France (18th century) Louis Mandrin
from whom the cave names are taken. Having been a tax collector he knew the
tricks of the trade and had a number of cave hideaways including these. As can be
seen access is not that easy. The area has also a history of prehistoric use.
Interesting caves and well worth visiting.
Notable fact of the day A request has been received from Ray for Nicotine Gum
instead of grapes.
Notable fact of another day Ray requests different Nicotine Gum and grapes as well.
A visit to the St. Christophe Show Caves close to
The gorge housing the caves was the
route of a Roman road from Lyon to
The Team on the campsite
Next to the last notable fact of the day
Sandra and Mel hosted a party
jointly celebrating their birthdays. This could have been a sober affair as Mel
bought a beer slab which we all tried and looked at one another all thinking
“it is shandy isn’t it?” What’s Mel thinking about?! The day was
saved y Steve Gray who seemed to have endless slabs of REAL beer!
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Toilet seat in the restaurant
One of our walks in the area of
Corbel found us tramping through difficult to navigate forest, at one point
passing workmen digging a huge hole which had the international radiation hazard
symbol well displayed .We wondered if this might be Radon but our French was
definitely not up to a technical discussion and we gave in gracefully and
re-routed.
Final notable fact!
Roy Breakell
did his level best to persuade us of the delights of a local liqueur he had and
offered this around the campsite. The taste was somewhere between petrol and meths and there were few takers.
Thank you anyway
All in all we had a cracking (sorry Ray) 2 weeks with the last night
seeing us having dinner in the restaurant (Trois Biches – think is deer not
bitch!) with the best bog seat I have seen! Some of us here on our last
night ready for the pub!
Carol Makin