My First 24 Hours In The Mountains!

Just a very quick one today – my schedule for the first few days out here is completely jam-packed and I’ve just nipped away from dinner early to write this post and then I’ll be shooting back downstairs to chat a bit more with the people who I’m going to be working and exploring with over the next 5 months!

So, I arrived at around 4.30 on Friday afternoon (French time – we are an hour ahead here), and quickly hopped into the transfer bus. After a wiggly, 3 hour long drive up into the mountains, including a bit of a nap and listening to Adele’s new album in its entirety twice (I LOVE IT!) we finally arrived in La Tania.

This isn’t actually where I am going to be based for the majority of this crazy adventure, but as we have a lot of plotting and planning to do, and some general sorting out of how the next few months are going to work, and what I’m going to be getting up to, I’m staying in La Tania for a few days of sorting-out and planning time.

On arrival, I was all wrapped up in my ski jacket and snow boots, only to step out of the van to land on concrete. There was NO SNOW! Not a flake! I know it is early in the season but I was expecting something…..but there was literally nothing.

After getting over my initial concern at the lack of anything to ski on (even though I knew there wouldn’t be enough to ski for a few weeks anyway) I settled in to my room and grabbed some dinner.

There is something about travelling that is just completely exhausting, isn’t there?! I had one glass of gorgeous french red wine and that was me, I ended up surviving until about 10.30 and then excusing myself to go off to bed – I was just too tired to stay up and chat! (which for me is REMARKABLE!)

I always sleep well in the mountains. There is just something about the clean air and the altitude that just sedates me to a point where I can pass out almost anywhere if I lie still for long enough!

I woke up early, as we had planned a full day of logistics and planning and so we had decided on breakfast at 8am. My alarm went off at 7am, and, after having a moment where I desperately didn’t want to even open my eyes because I had slept so well, I managed to drag myself out of bed enough to pen the curtains, thinking the daylight would wake me up…..to find a HUGE dump of snow! It had snowed on the night of my arrival. The first proper snowfall of the season. On my first night. Now if that isn’t a sign, I don’t know what is?!?!

So yesterday was full to the brim with planning and sorting things, with a necessary breaks for cupcakes, and then an afternoon rum-hot-chocolate-and-rude-snowman-building coffee break – logistics day wasn’t bad at all!

We finished the day with a bit of wine tasting as a bit of a welcome to france, which was fantastic – I’m such a big fan of french red wine and I think I’ve found a new favourite! Then, a quick dinner and off to bed.

Today is another logistics day – 5 months in the mountains is a long time to plan and sort everything for, so I’m really glad to have this time in La Tania to get my head around how it is all going to work and the kind of adventures ad exploring I’m going to be getting up to!

Anyway, I’ve got to get my backside down for breakfast, I’ve yet to have my tea this morning and I’ll be honest, if I didn’t have spell check, this post would be pretty much unintelligible!

R xx
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Apologies for the stream of thought style of writing in this post – it’s been a busy few days but I wanted to update you guys on what I’m getting up to, even if it did have to be not exactly my finest writing ever! 🙂

If you don’t know about my latest adventure up into the alps, have a read of this….it should explain what is going on! xx