Tour of Mont Blanc, Days 1 and 2

The Mont Blanc Massif is the tallest mountain range in western Europe. Mont Blanc itself towers over Europe at 4808m. The Tour of Mont Blanc (TMB) is traditionally done as an anti-clockwise circuit starting in Les Houches in the French Alps. The classic guide to the walk published by Cicerone breaks the walk up into 11 stages, but since of the stages are short I made a plan to do the walk in 9 stages. I ended up doing it in 7.

Day 1

My TMB started with an overnight train from Paris (Austerlitz) to St Germain Les Bains and then a local train to Les Houches, which is a tiny town when compared to Chamonix. After getting some food and trail snacks at the local Carrefour I made a reservation at Gite Michel Fagot for my return 9 days from now and stored my bag there. At the tourist office I made a reservation for tonight at Camping Pontet, which is about a 40 min walk past Les Contamines. So far so good...until I got to where the signpost opposite the Hotel Slalom was. The sign was pointing down towards the river instead of up into the mountains. This totally confused me and it wasn't until a lovely elderly woman helped me out that I found my way. From here the path ambled upwards, providing a fine view of the town and valley below.

The highlight of the day was coming across two young businessmen running a snack bar from their front yard. They got really excited and rang a bell each time someone walked by. After stopping for an expensive coffee next to the rack rail station I carried on to the Hotel Bellevue to admire the views. It was at this point that I made the decision to take the variante via Refuge Miages. In hindsight, this was not a good idea. While the views were great, the extra 2-3 hours of walking on my first day took a toll on my body, particularly my feet. A nasty blister formed on the back of my left heel and one was starting to form on the back of my right heel. Refuge Miages would have been a great place to spend the night but I made do with having a simple but very tasty slice of blueberry pie before carrying on to Les Contamines, where I picked up some groceries, and onward to Camping Pontet. If I had known that the campsite had dinner for sale I wouldn't have bothered to cook my own since there was a EUR 2 fee for using the kitchen. Although I found a EUR 10 note on the road near the campsite :) The foam beds in the dortoir were for some reason too short for the bedframe but my body was so racked it didn't matter.

Day 2

Breakfast was available for EUR 6 but I had food already so I just got a coffee for EUR 1.4. At around 08:10 I started walking, but this time with a simple bandage on the left heel blister. The track started out fairly flat then started getting steep before opening up onto a small plateau of farmland. Before reaching the farmland the pain from the blister was becoming unbearable so I stopped to have a look. Blood had soaked through the bandage. This time I applied a gauze pad and medical tape to hold it in place but less than an hour later the pain was still present if not worse. Before starting the ascent to Col du Bonhomme I tried wearing 2 pairs of socks on each foot. The first few steps were actually more painful than before but the extra cushioning took hold and made each step slightly less painful. For the rest of the day I was moving about as fast as a senior citizen with bad knee, an oxygen tank, and a cane. I'm pretty sure it looked like I was limping. There was a small shelter atop the Col where I tried to have lunch but it was so cold up there I only had half my sandwich and sprinted out. I also tried drinking a bit of wine up there but that didn't warm me up either. On the bright side, it was so cold that I couldn't feel the pain from the blisters anymore. It got even colder and ominous as I made my way to Col des Fours (2665m). The path wasn't that steep but it felt longer than it really was because of the blisters. On the other side of the col the sun was out and shining and the path winded its way down through alpine country, abandoned farms, and finally down a 4x4 road to the Les Ville des Glaciers and then a gentle ascent to Refuge des Mottets. It was here that I found out about some special blister prevention stuff called Compeed and where I met John who was nice enough to give me 2 pieces of it. It's like a second skin which goes over areas where blisters would form. des Mottets provided a beautiful and atmospheric view over the valley and was a great place to stay the night.

Europe By Rail

Paris

The easiest way to travel around Europe is by train. You can easily go from city centre to city centre without the hassle of airport security checks and the like. Possibly the biggest dilemma one faces when going via rail is whether to get a railpass or buy point to point tickets. In my experience so far, point to point is far cheaper than the railpass if you buy well in advance. However, whilst the tickets are cheaper, you lose the flexibility to change them. On the other hand, if you shell out the extra money for a railpass, you have much more flexibility but the price per ticket that you're paying can in some cases be significantly higher than point to point. On top of that, some countries add on a railpass surcharge, may require reservations, and sometimes have quotas for railpass users. Unfortunately, you'll have to really think about which one works best for you. For more information on this and train travel in just about any part of the world the amazing website www.seat61.com has got all you need. I used this site extensively to do my European train research.

Sydney to Byron Bay

After taking care of a few last minute errands in Sydney like going to the bank and buying an esky, we set off north up the east coast. I've never owned a GPS device before so it was quite handy to have one to direct us how to get out of Sydney. Even as the city gave way to suburbs to farmland I still didn't feel like I had left Sydney yet. Maybe it's because I had literally just left my home for the last 12 months or because I still don't feel like a traveller yet, but regardless I still felt like I was at home.

The weather over the last few days has been less than ideal. On the way to Port Macquarie the weather alternated from cloudy with a few streaks of sunshine to torrential downpours. All of which doesn't make for comfortable driving when you're still getting re-acquainted with driving a manual transmission. The car is still full of red outback dirt from the previous owners but thankfully the odour has gone away. Port Macquarie itself is more posh than I imagined. There are international standard hotels and residences all around the waterfront. We parked up by the town beach, made use of the public barbie area to cook dinner, and then settled in for the night in the carpark. It's rather nice to fall asleep to the sound of waves crashing in the distance the smell of sea blowing in through the crack in the car window. And the rap music from the campervan parked next to us. '

After a morning surf and quick brekkie we headed up to Coffs Harbour to get new tyres and a general checkup done on the car. Since that took a few hours we explored the town a bit and decided to spend the night there. The beach just north of the jetty beach has an excellent surf break so I gave it a go. Almost was able to stand up on the new board (7' shortie) but in the end was unsuccessful. We found a commonly used area for overnighting on the south side of the jetty beach and spent night there, again listening to the sea. 

In the morning we woke up to see loads of cars pulling near us to look out at the sea. The night before there were loads of cars out there too, including a fire engine that was shining its search light at the rough surf. We couldn't figure out why but soon a local shouted out to us to have a look at the dolphins. There was an entire pod of dolphins not far off catching a few waves and playing. That was a wonderful thing to wake up to. 

It started raining again not long after so we took off for Byron, taking the coastal road via Ballina. Unfortunately a good chunk of it was being worked on but we still managed to get some nice views in. We made quick stops at Crescent Head and Lennox Head on the way up. Crescent Head has an amazing surf break but you've got to walk over some very slippery rocks to get to it. And it's not for beginners so I passed on getting in. Lennox Head has a beautiful long beach that is lined by very upmarket housing. It was raining all day so we didn't spend much time at either of them. 

The Great Aussie Road Trip

I resigned. My last day of work was on 14 March, 2012. Since then I've moved onto the air bed in the common room aka "the pit" and packed away all my belongings. In a 1970s second-hand suitcase which cost me a whole 8 aussie dollars I've deftly packed away about 21.5kg worth of footwear and clothes. The most important thing to remember when packing clothing is to roll everything up tightly to conserve space, not even my suit jacket was spared. In another bag are some odds and ends which I'll sort out before I leave Australia. Everything else is in a 25 litre daypack and a 74 litre backpack. Considering that I've been living here for a little over a year, that's not a lot of stuff.

Tomorrow Fintan and I will be driving up the east coast of Australia. We picked up a 1994 Toyota Camry off some French backpackers who very recently completed their travels. The car is in good shape but it looks like we'll need to replace the front tyres pretty soon as well as clean it out. One guy has been living in it for a couple of weeks now and even though he said he was showering daily the odour in the car doesn't reflect that... The Camry is a manual transmission so driving it today was pretty nerve racking since I haven't driven a manual since last Jan/Feb when I learned how. Considering the rain, darkness, and big city traffic I was surprised that I got back in one piece and only stalled two times. It's been a few hours but my heart rate is still above normal.

The plan is to drive from Sydney to Perth via the top end (appx 11000km) in about 8.5 weeks. I'm hoping to surf in Byron Bay, sail the Whitsundays, go off road on Fraser Island, dive or snorkel the Great Barrier Reef, see an outback sunset, bushwalk in Kakadu, swim with whale sharks at Ningaloo Reef, not get punched by a wild kangaroo, and not get bitten by a shark or croc. I'm sure there's plenty more to see and do but because of time and money we won't be able get to everything. We may not even get to Perth. Anyone ever seen the film Wolf Creek?

Cremorne Reserve, North Sydney

I finally got my road bike sent over to Sydney and went for a ride over the Harbour Bridge on Sunday. I didn't have any destination in mind but after looking at google maps for a while it seemed like the southern tip of Cremorne Reserve would have provide a great view of the harbour. What I didn't know was that the road leading there was full of hills. Wycombe Road is a massive hill and I had to stop a few times to rest my legs. After not riding for a year I really felt the burn! After a sweaty ride and a short stroll from the ferry landing to the tip, I found what I came for :

For those who aren't keen on climbing hills on a bicycle, Cremorne Reserve can be reached by ferry and bus. There's a children's playground, plenty of grassy areas, park benches, and a short nature walk through the reserve. 

My Australian Broadband Saga

When I told my mate Ariel back home that it took me 23 days to get my broadband connected her response was "where the f*ck are you? the jungle?". In terms of telecommunications, I may as well be in the jungle. I got free high speed internet in the middle of the Thai jungle; you'd be hard pressed to find free high speed in Sydney.

The main reason why it took so long to get hooked up is because of Telstra. They have a monopoly on all physical lines and has done a great job overcharging Australians as well as stunting the advancement of telecom technology in the country. As as result of this, the telecom situation in Australia is horrible. My provider TPG put in an order to Telstra to setup my phone line on 12 April, the day I ordered my broadband service. Telstra didn't respond till 18 April to inform TPG that the installation would be done on 28 April. There are two things that really bother me about the initial order:
1) It took Telstra 6 days to respond
2) TPG is perfectly fine with that fact that it takes Telstra 6 days to respond to an order

When I called to inquire why it was taking so long TPG had the audacity to tell me to call Telstra and find out what the hold up was. Hello! I'm not Telstra's customer, I'm yours!!! To this day, TPG has yet to respond to my written inquiry which I lodged back in April. TPG is not the only provider at fault here. It's like Telstra has them all in headlock that no provider can break free of. Everyone's scared of challenging Telstra. It's pathetic.

Finally Telstra did their bit and despite TPG's verbal guarantee that we would be connected on 28 April, we were NOT connected. What followed after this was me negotiating with TPG to get us connected. Seriously, I had to negotiate with them to get them to complete the installation job that they had already billed us for back on 12 April. I don't understand why no provider will take ownership and simply say "you do business with us and we'll guarantee that we'll connect you". It's such a simple concept that would easily make your business look more attractive and yet no one will do it. In Hong Kong it takes 1 day to get connected. In Bangkok it takes about 10 days. Sydney, 23 days.

While most travelers won't have to go through this ordeal, those with working holiday visas be aware if you get your own flat!

Vivid Light Show, Sydney