Alpine Hiking Adventure Day 19 - Rest Day In Les Houches

Aaah, a rest day. We felt so pleased this morning that we made the decision yesterday to stay 2 nights in our room in Les Houches and so could wake up knowing we didn't have to relocate ourselves. Plus, with the Tour de Mont Blanc in our legs since the last one and an especially mammoth hike yesterday to take advantage of the good weather we really needed a day off, both physically and mentally. This rest day, just like our other rest over a week ago near Les Contamines, really has been an important part of our longer thru-hiking adventure in terms of sustainability.

So what have we been up to? Well, in addition to washing clothes and eating lots of organic food from the organic supermarket just along the road, swimming in the pool and sitting in the sauna (hooray!) we've also been planning the hike ahead. Our intention for a few days and since joining the TMB has been to walk along the Walkers Haute Route which extends from Chamonix to Zermatt. We've already done much of the first 3 stages in reverse. We also bought the Cicerone ebook guide a few days ago yet going over the stages did get a bit apprehensive. Some were shorter than many of our days so far, but others were pretty strenuous. However, it wasn't so much the length of the days that we noticed but rather the wild nature of the terrain and high altitude for long periods. Esther was already getting concerned about her fatigue being more than just tiredness with her ME and didn't feel she was recovering as well as in the first week and I was still worrying about irrigating in the wild.

The TMB is a fantastic route and very accessible with a lot of refuges, campings, stores etc at convenient points and balanced with sections of unspoiled nature. It has been magnificent. Yet somehow the Haute Route felt a little more remote and a more serious undertaking. There are still refuges etc and maybe it was a little walk fatigue clouding our image of what lay ahead, but we definitely both felt nervous.

Yet it looked incredibly beautiful and we really wanted to go back to Switzerland. After taking a while to digest the stages and plan out an itinerary to suit us we felt a lot better with the days ahead and that it could be manageable for us and we at least wanted to give it a try.

And then just when we thought we knew what lay ahead tomorrow we got an email that might just change everything. A big decision needs sleeping on now!