Paula's International Award

Paula carried out her third trip for the International Award, this time for the Gold Level (see also posts of July 31st 2013 and June 25th 2012). With 3 friends she planned a 4 day-3 night hike through the Belgian Ardennes, along the Ourthe river and covering some 80 kilometers of a Grand Randonnee trail. They travelled down by train to a village south of Liege, followed by a 20 km hike, arriving at the campsite just before dusk. The next 2 days the schedule was less strenuous, but they still spend 8 hours on foot! The weather was not that great, but luckily it was mostly dry during daytime. The Award organisation provided a supervisor, and on the last day he allowed a shorter walk, and also drove them back to Maastricht, avoiding a slow train ride through the Ardennes. Paula's friends didn't sleep that well, as they forgot to bring a thermal mat, and also suffered from the rain at night (noise on tent!). Despite this the girls had a lot of fun. The last part for Gold Award is a week long stage in a community service organisation, but she will postpone that till after her final exams.

 Camping along the Ourthe

 Charlotte and Lara playing with corn

Paula and Charlotte on top of the world - in the Ardennes 

Survivors: Rachel, Paula, Lara and Charlotte

Summer holidays (part II)

The second part of the holidays started with the arrival of nephews Bart and Max, who flew over by themselves for an outdoors “bootcamp”. Physical activities were planned each day, and we ended up cycling, hiking and climbing a Via Ferrata, and in between taking care of Beau. At the end of week Piet’s sister turned up with the rest of the family and the bootcamp culminated in a bike ride up Alpe d’Huez where Bart (15 years old) beat Piet, Dorien set the female Lambregts record of 1 hour 21 minutes, and also Paula and Max cycled up without stopping. After a picnic we continued to Col de Sarenne, a small back road, but now famous due to the passage of the Tour de France. The week ended at the pizzeria, with the kids making  lots of plans for next year. Not sure if Piet can cope with all this activity again though…
The following week Paula and Dorien negotiated 2 days at Cecile, in the Ardeche, hooking up with some old friends and horses, enjoying rides and playing games, like previous times….unfortunately it is quite far away. Piet’s other sister and family stayed for a few days,  on the way home from the Provence. The earlier pattern was repeated with a hike and bike ride, only less strenuous this time (but still managed to get 6 people on top of Col d’Ornon).
The last few days were spend relaxing, working in the garden, cleaning inside and outside the house, and riding Beau. As always the holidays have flown past. This year we unfortunately didn’t manage to have an overnight stay in a mountain hut, but we managed to have day trips to a few of them. After Beau’s colic scare we didn’t want to leave him in someone else’s care, and towards the end we simply ran out of time. The drive back was very smooth, and everybody is back to normal again: the girls to school, Piet to the office, Beau at his stable and Mary managing the whole zoo around that!

Dorien in the Via Ferrata near Mizoen


A short rest in St. Christophe, on the way to La Berarde


Cycling back from La Berarde


Refuge des Sources, high above Villard Notre Dame


Bart taking a shower near Villard Notre Dame


Max taking a rest during a hike to Refuge des Sources


Max riding on Beau


Piet, Marc and Nel at Lac Lauvitel


Just like the Tour de France: Bart and Piet climbing Alpe d'Huez


At the finish: Bart and Piet

All the finishers on Alpe d'Huez: Bart, Dorien, Max, Paula and Piet 

 

Refuge de la Lavey

Dorien picking raspberries

 And the finishers on Col d'Ornon: Carla, Sam, Romy, Dorien, Piet and Paula