Totally Frenched Out

From the blogger formerly known as Samdebretagne

Wednesday, August 15, 2012

The hills are alive...

Back in June, my SIL sent us an email asking if we would be interested in doing a two-day hike with them in the mountains.....with a donkey. I'm always up for some nice scenery and figured if nothing else, the donkey would make good blogging fodder, so I said "Count us in!".  

**Note to self...next time your hiking aficionado in-laws tell you it is an "easy" hike, don't believe them.  

So off we went on a beautiful Saturday morning to meet Romeo, our donkey for the weekend:
He looks about as excited as I did....

The scenery really was beautiful, but I have to admit, hiking those mountains was one of the most difficult things I have ever done.  I'm no Olympic athlete, but I do work out on a regular basis, though you wouldn't have known it from how much I struggled.  That last stretch was about an hour of climbing the longest and steepest hill I have ever seen, and it took every last ounce of strength I had to make it to the top.
In fact on the way back the next morning, I actually thought we were going the wrong way at first because I didn't recognize the trail. That's how exhausted I was - I had zero recollection of the last twenty minutes of the hike.

This was our home for the night though - it was a bit rustic, but had everything we needed included a hot shower, grassy area for Romeo and a lot of wine for me:
What I found so interesting though about the weekend is that normally I am up for a challenge and then get a great feeling of satisfaction from completing it, but I definitely did not feel that rush here. I just felt exhausted and got very little enjoyment out of the whole thing.  Most of the time, I was just thinking "Just a few more steps. Around the next corner will be the end" (I must have repeated that to myself about 500 times).

But we did see some absolutely amazing things, including a lot of cows. With bells.

It made for several Sound of Music moments:

Needless to say, I have discovered that mountain hiking is not for me. Especially when I discovered that you could take the télésièges up to the top and then hike around on relatively flat land to see the same views. And probably enjoy them more since I wouldn't have to be looking at my feet all the time in order to avoid tripping over roots and rocks.....Oh well, live and learn, right? 

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7 Comments:

Blogger Anon said...

Beautiful.
More cow bell (couldn't resist) ;-)
Linda

August 15, 2012 at 2:24 PM  
Blogger Diary of Why said...

A few years back I did a five day hike of Mont Blanc with a bunch of high schoolers...and it was seriously the hardest thing I've ever done. You're right, it's hard to enjoy it when every moment is agony (filled with a chorus of teenage whining in the background). It was definitely beautiful, which I did manage to notice every once in a while, in between my body screaming in pain. :)

You made it! Yay!

August 15, 2012 at 3:22 PM  
Blogger Canedolia said...

And how did it go with the donkey? My friend did one of these treks because he thought the donkey might help his 5-year-old son, but in fact the donkey was more trouble than the children!

August 15, 2012 at 4:22 PM  
Blogger Ksam said...

Omg Rachel, five days? I would have died! (or curled up in a ball and gone to my happy place).

And Canedolia, the donkey was okay - I was a little disappointed because he basically had no personality. He wasn't stubborn or friendly or anything - he was just a plain old donkey. I mean, we had to push him a little bit in the beginning, but otherwise he just plodded along, wanting to eat grass whenever he could and that was about it.

August 15, 2012 at 5:14 PM  
Blogger Lisa C. said...

Love the video. So "hills are alive".
At first, I thought you may have added the bell sounds for effect, but no, they were real! So fun!

I'm glad you are having fun on your vacation! I have been enjoying some behind the scene shots via K's fb page. ; )

Enjoy the end of your summer! xo.

August 16, 2012 at 2:53 AM  
Blogger Animesh said...

This is so awesome!

Next time, I will be happy to take your spot and join my bro for some mountain hiking :).

cheers,
-A

August 16, 2012 at 11:04 AM  
Blogger Anne said...

I really sympathise re hiking! Jonathan is currently on day 11 of a 15 day hike through Corsica .. one of the toughest physical challenges he's ever set himself but he's really loving it. I could never do it!

August 19, 2012 at 11:06 PM  

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