The Pug had to go

Hi everyone from Leamington Spa. I couldn’t resist sharing a few more photos of  the gorgeous bouquetins and marmots from a few weeks ago. I had two more days of walking and shooting with Canon after the previous post but before leaving Méribel.

One of my favourite walks in Spring is up and above the Lac de Tueda area. There are a few families of marmots in the area who gradually start to wake up and begin sniffing around. This Spring it was trickier to access the higher areas because of the amount of snow still on the ground. Good fun all the same, even though the marmots probably couldn’t quite figure out what the hell I was doing floundering around. Down at the level of the lake, getting around was much easier.

I also nursed the Pug (my Peugeot car) to one final visit into the Vanoise National Parc. The stiff clutch, slightly leaky undercarriage, mis-firing engine, confusing speedo, erratic sensor warnings and various other challenges were ignored. I had a cracking location that I wanted to visit one last time.

According to my (French) wildlife book, bouquetins are rare creatures. However in the Vanoise National Parc they are of course protected, but also in fact monitored very closely. They are fascinating animals to watch.

For such large animals they have amazing balance, especially if they spotted tasty looking leaves. I read in the book that they were great climbers as well, I couldn’t believe that for one moment, and dismissed this fact due to my possible dodgy translation.

Tell you what though, they were pretty impressive. Perhaps I should have more confidence with my French? Sadly there was no delaying the inevitable that Pug, Canon and I had to leave Méribel. It was a long uncomfortable drive back. Pug had decided to deny me air con again. The CD player had gone on strike in sympathy. Plus driving along the auto route was an interesting experience with a mis-firing engine at 80 mph, for a full 680 miles in France and a further 220 miles in England.

My patience was tested to the maximum, to the point where the Pug had to go. Within a week of getting back to Leamington Spa, Harriet and I said goodbye to the Pug, and said hello to a replacement car we’ve called ‘The Silver Bullet’.

This year I plan to update the blog more frequently than previous summers, so please stay tuned. Plus I will be updating my other skiing blog regularly on www.mh2ski.co.uk . I’m even going to get Mike, the other half of mh2,  to contribute the odd post over the summer. Not that I’ve told him yet !?! Next week I’ll post another article on the mh2 blog and talk about what I’ve been up to since returning. You will also find a few more photos of marmots and bouquetins. Don’t forget you can read more scintillating scribbling on my other blog, see www.hemsleyphotography.co.uk, I’ve posted loads already.

Martin

P.S. I have this theory that makes Harriet roll her eyes. For those who don’t know me that well, I really struggle in the heat - not that I bang on about it much. So over the years I’ve invented a new ground breaking theory that helps me deal with it. I’ve decided that the UK has just three heat waves each summer. Last week was the first, which means we’ve only two heat waves left this summer, how brilliant is that?