Speed Skiing - You'd have to be nuts!!

1/ A nutty Speed Skier - check out the calf foils!!

Speed Skiing - you'd have to be nuts wouldn't you? Graeme and I, have never in our lives seen such a crazy endeavour....well hang on a minute, now we come to think about it, bungy jumping and zorbing in NZ is not that sane either? But here, in the Alps, going as fast as you possibly can ie., pointing your skis directly down a 1km steep slope without turning once, doesn't seem that sane to us.

But we were fascinated to watch these guys. Professionally sponsored with all the latest technology and aerodynamic equipment, these guys and gals took their sport very seriously.

2/ Check out the length of those skis!

The current speed record for men is 251.4km/hr and for women 242.59 km/hr. Yes folks, I am correctly quoting those numbers! That's faster than terminal velocity when you freefall normally (193km/hr). Imagine what a slip and fall would feel like at that kind of speed. Apparently, their worst injury is burns from abrasion with the snow. The mind boggles!! Here's some fab professional footage of both those world records. Here's our own spectacular footage on the day!!

3/ Trying to catch these speedy guys on film was just about impossible!

4/ Needless to say, the wax salesman was doing a roaring trade today!!

OMG - Verbier!

1/ Not even at the top yet! View to Mont Gele - 3023m

I know I said the same when we first visited Chamonix. But I will have to repeat the exclamation. Today we visited Verbier! OMG! It's one of the most amazing resorts we've seen in Europe so far. To be fair, we didn't make it to the 3 valleys, in France, but this resort was impressive. I can't remember the stats but I think there is about 400 - 500km of groomed trails across 4 valleys. The infrastructure is amazing. Brand new lifts, gondolas and telepheriques everywhere. You can smell the money in this town. It is definitely a home to the rich and famous. I mean to say, we passed Richard Branson on the chairlift this morning!! Apparantly he has a little shack here!

2/ Huge infrastructure - 150 person telepheriques!

But the attribute that most excited us was the vast area of backcountry that appears to be available from the resort. While it's glaciated at over 3000m, the terrain looks to be a lot more mellow than the Chamonix backcountry which generally requires serious mountaineering and climbing skills.

There are also a number of "intineraires hors piste" that are promoted by the resort. Well sign -posted, they are generally accessible with only a short tour from the lifts.

3/ At the summit. Mont Fort 3330m! Behind - Verbier backcountry. yum!!

In the last week of their season, Verbier was definitely in wind down mode. Only about a 1/4 of the mountain was open, so we managed to ski just about all the lifts. At 3000m it was still firm packed powder, while lower down it was Australian powder - ie., slush. We didn't mind. The sun was out for most of the morning with the heat cumulous cloud only building in the afternoon.

We spent a great deal of our time on the sides of the runs gazing at all the amazing off-piste available! In fact, we spent a lot of time with our mouths open, gaping in astonishment. Having met John Falkiner, the ex-pat Aussie who guides here, we couldn't help but think he has chosen the most perfect place to be a mountain guide. Verbier's terrain, its height, the infrastructure and the wealthy clientele must equate to good business for him.

Today, there is also a FIS World Speed Skiing Championship race. Having never seen anything quite like this, we were fascinated and spent a good part of the early morning watching these madmen hurtle down the slope. More about this with pictures in a separate post!

4/ The Speed Skiing Course from the top of Mont Fort!

What a shame we didn't get to Verbier earlier in the season. We had free tickets, but somehow time ran out? Relaxing with a glass of wine & enjoying a most delicious mountain lunch, we began making a list of all the things we "wished we'd done". That's Pandora's Box for you! Once you've had a taste of what Europe Alps have to offer - you want more!!

Oh well at least we've made it to Verbier today! Aren't we lucky?

The Final Push - And at last, we see the Sun!!

Finally, we see the sun for the final push home! Hooray!!! It's been seriously bad weather for five of the six days we've been travelling to and from Slovakia. We've had difficult driving conditions and long days.

Unfortunately the original route that we wished to take through Switzerland via Andermatt was closed due to heavy snow. Leaving our salubrious accommodation in Chur, we were forced to back-track north via Interlaken. Not such a bad detour given the incredible scenery shown today in all its glory with the bright sunshine.

We have both been to Interlaken before, but of course the memory has dulled. However, Graeme is sure that we parked our car very near the hotel that he and his good friend Ralph, stayed in nearly 30 years ago. He remembers that it was near the clock tower and canal, with a restaurant underneath it. He can't wait to get home to check his photos with the one we took today.

1/ Graeme outside the hotel he thinks he stayed in 30 years ago!!

After a quick coffee in Interlaken our plan was to head south and cross into the Chamonix Valley via Vallorcine. That was the plan.....but unfortunately at this very moment, everyone became directionally challenged and we spent quite a deal of time "pfaffing around" on the shores of the lake trying to find the correct turn-off. When I say everyone, I also include Penny (the GPS). There must have been recent road-works or changes to the road system since she was programmed. She was positively unhelpful, telling us to turn left when the road signs clearly indicated that we should go right! Add to this confusion, the excitement of me behind the wheel and you have a class "A" storm "a brewin!!". Fortunately Graeme realised this and kindly suggested that he take over the driving again!! I enthusiastically relinquished the wheel and for good measure I used the "Off button" to silence the now downright annoying Penny. No more relying on technology - it was back to the faithful road atlas for us!!

As luck would have it, we ended up in a beautiful hanging valley brimming with the deep snow of the past days. Driving past Kandersteg at the end of the valley we found ourselves stopped at traffic lights. We assumed that there was a one-way tunnel ahead. Imagine our surprise when the lights changed and our car was loaded onto a train!! Cool!

The Swiss must be some of the best roading engineers in the world. Their twisting mountain roads all seem to need tunnels, viaducts and terracing. This car-train ferry system from Kandersteg to Goppenstein under an otherwise impenetrable mountain range was nothing short of astonishing! What a shame my Mum & Dad never travelled to Europe. My Dad would have just loved travelling through Switzerland to see all these engineering marvels!!

2/ The snowbound Kandersteg

3/ The amazing "car-train" under the mountain

And finally, we arrive at Martigny, our last stop in Switzerland before heading over the Col de la Forclaz (1527m) and Col des Montets (1461m) into the Chamonix Valley. The home stretch!! And familiar territory at last.

Observation - Europe is BIG!

This road trip has seen me seriously readjust my memories of "how big" Europe truly is. I think my memories of European travel have been distorted by train travel. Travelling on night trains meant that I was asleep for much of the journey and had no real understanding of the vastness passing below me.

Growing up in Australia, and living in NZ, I had an arrogant belief that we, antipodeans, were surely the champions of long distance travel. Sure, us Aussies & Kiwis do some long stints behind the wheel, but the roads are uncrowded, we are travelling fairly slowly and the levels of concentration required are nowhere near what you need to travel at 140km/hr + on a crowded, snowy autobahn with signage all in a foreign language! Our meetings with our Dutchie on the first day of the school holidays and a young Latvian who was going to be driving for 19 hours through the night from Slovakia has seen me change my opinion!

Yeeha!! We're back safe and sound in our little 48m2 in Araches!!

Boredom, Tedium and Long Distance European Travel

1/ Sleet & Snow- standard driving weather for the Oxleys!!

Does anyone else find long distance car travel incredibly tedious? Two hours after leaving Vienna this morning, I am already squirming in my seat. Then I’m looking for something to eat, not because I’m hungry but because I’m bored. Chewing gum is usually the cure ..either that or I may as well as add a kg per 100 km to my waistline. A couple more miles down the road and I’m attempting to play Vortex on the Ipod incredibly badly. While I blame the bumpy road for my poor reflexes, if I’m honest, I have to admit that my reactions are terrible and no matter how much I practice I am never going to be good at computer games. Next, I torture Graeme with pleas to play “I spy” in French, or even worse I beg to put the Michel Thomas Learn French on the radio. At this point, Graeme usually pulls into a roadside café for coffee and cake!

2/ An interesting Austrian roadsign!

The weather is typically horrendous. Driving wet snow, grey skies and really poor visibility. The good news is that Tuesday has proven to be a good day to travel. Very little traffic and relatively few trucks meant that driving was fairly straightforward today. Well that was until our route through the mountains to Innsbruk were closed due to heavy snow.

3/ People walking on the footpaths in southern Austria. The snow is so deep, they are walking in "snow trenches"!!

Trust us to choose a route that was closed!! There has been some serious snow right through Europe over the last week and we are looking forward to getting back amongst it in France!! But today, our enforced detour added about 2 hours to our driving as we had to re-programme an indignant Penelope (the “GPS”).

With no firm plans where to spend the night, we have ended up in Chur, NE Switzerland just over the border from Austria. Graeme is convinced we asked the lady at the information centre to book us a small bed & breakfast, but we have ended up staying in an incredibly bizarre 40 room hotel cum sports complex. It’s clean and quiet but it has all the charisma of an army barracks. Sniffing the air, I swear I could smell the liniment from the last tennis team who stayed here.

The hotel is focused on sporting activities and the restaurant overlooks the 5 indoor tennis courts. Luckily the food in the hotel restaurant was edible and while dining, we were entertained by a women’s double match being played out on the court below our window. The women were of a similar age and I was reminded strongly of Wanaka summer tennis battles with Daphne, Sally and Anna. I’m looking forward to getting a racquet back in my hand when I get home, even if it will be the middle of winter.

We really had only one mission tonight, dinner and sleep. I can’t wait to get back to our little flat in Araches. Fingers crossed for at least clear weather for driving tomorrow. We passed right through the beautiful Tyrolian valley today and didn’t see a thing except the tail lights of the car in front!