Understandably apprehensive about trying to take the van through those same roads again, the next morning we drove up the hill to the second authorised overnight space which was the car park for the Val Veny ski gondola. We parked in as safe a place as we could choose knowing that we would be away overnight. After two excellent cappucini at the nearby restaurant (and use of the excellent 'facilities'), we set off with our mountain and overnight kit shortly after 10am. The route across roads and the torrent of raging, milky meltwater cost us a little time and effort but we were soon climbing the (much wider) road that we had unsuccessfully tried to find the previous night. It was not the most exciting of routes through Notre Dame de Guerison where there was a most interesting water trough witha mirror above it with a full rear view of Mont Blanc. See the picture and note the soap dish and towel hook! What we hadn't realised was that there was a bus service up and down that we could have used but we held this information for future reference. M1 had tweaked his right calf muscle and struggled a bit but he would always have been behind M2 who is a strong walker. In fact, M1's position seemed always to be between 10 and 110m behind but he got there in the end. After climbing solidly, the valley flattened out and there were many day trippers and families enjoying the shaded areas for their picnics and games. Further on, there was a control post as the authorities only allow up to 500 cars on the mountain at any one time as a safety measure. We made good time though and were soon through Visaille which was two hours from the Rifugio but not yet time for lunch. We pressed on and stopped to eat at the bridge near the Lac de Combal - shoes off and a cool down of the feet and face in the cold mountain stream. By this stage, the track was of hardcore rather than the tarmac but there were plenty of people about - some more responsive than others to our cheery 'buongiorno'. Most galling was to see a couple pushing a baby carriage and another with a child on a plastic push-along tricycle! These, coupled with sightings of some overweight trippers persuaded we hard-working walkers that they had obviously been delivered to 2000m by car or wagon just for the day. At this stage, the majestic scenery was fully revealed. There was a massive moraine field below the Glacier du Miage which told eloquently of the once great scale of the glacier but now significantly reduced by global warming. Up the valley, we could see the glacial curvature of the Col de la Seigne and make out the Rifugio, our destination, at 2195m. We chose the steeper approach to Elisabetta which we reached shortly after 3.00pm to a warm welcome from Christiana, the manager, and two large, very cold beers as our reward. The Rifugio, which can accommodatre up to 77, was well arranged and organised. We were required to bunk with a delightful French couple, Jerome and Carine, both teachers from Bourg en Bresse. We could practice our French while they practiced their English. It was slightly unstable metal framed bunk beds for us that night but paper sheets were provided and warm blankets. Ablutions were clean and welcome but thin on the ground but the views up and down the valley made up for that. Organisationally, it was much like being back at school. The bell rang for supper promptly at 7.00pm with Christiana having devised a seating plan according to the languages spoken. As we found out ther were English (and a Scotsman!), French, Australian, German, American, Japanese and Israeli visitors along with a troop of teenage French scouts who slept in tents outside on precarious looking pitches. They were very smart in red tee shirts and the traditional scout bush hat. How clever of them to have kept that tradition! M1 was photographed in one but, sadly, not on his camera. Our fellow dinner guests were an ascerbic Australian couple (she more so than he), both medics, who spoke in hierogliphs and were doing the guded Tour Mont Blanc (TMB). They drank no wine and left the table before 8.30pm to get ready for their breakfast ordered for 6.30am beaacaust they are used to getting up at 4.30am back in Queensland. The other couple, Terry and Margaret, were much more likeable. Both retired civil servants living in the Tyne Valley, they were very keen walkers also doing the TMB but independently. We liked them very much and developed a respect for them both when we learned that Margaret had a very rare blood condition such that she couldn't walk to the shops a year beforehand. Terry, very slight and spare, carried all their gear and they had irrepressible enthusiasm and good humour. With no other options available, we were in our bunks by 9.30pm trying to work out how we could get up in the night (as you do!) without disturbing the other occupants too much.
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