Finding our Feet
It wasn’t until I wrote some notes that I realised we have actually been quite busy - so I will TRY not to go on too much…
On Jan 1st we drove to a nearby hotel to park outside and borrow a little internet, then to the Carrefour car park to park for the night and see if we could get any internet there. No we couldn’t.
The Propex heating that we replaced at some time and expense last month is mostly working when the oven is also on (but we do have a carbon monoxide detector now and apparently there isn’t an excess of it. yet). But on Friday night it stopped working and we realised the gas bottle had run out. Foolishly during our hunt for a windscreen wiper arm we had forgotten to fill up gas on the way to Morzine and no petrol station in town has LPG. Fortunately there is some in the second bottle so ok for now.
Simon changed the bottle then it stopped again - low voltage. When I checked the battery in the morning it read 12.83 volts. It seems it’s not holding charge too well and is behaving rather erratically. Maybe we need a new one. We went to bed.
Next day the gas hob started going out while it was alight. It seems the little bit of gas we have left from the UK is perhaps too butane-rich for the low temperatures. We deliberately didn’t fill totally in the UK knowing there would be a better propane mix over here. Shame we forgot to get any!
After a bit of generating and waterproofing of clothes, boots and gloves we hit the mountain. The rain turned into quite a bit of snow last night so coverage is much better already (and the town is white and icy). Returning to Avoriaz was excitingly familiar - the Chappelle snow park has more to offer now with street-style rails, but no red jumps. The Arare (’big boys’) snow park just wasn’t there and we realised later it no longer exists. Instead there is a boarder cross and a new park right next to our favourite run with lots of onto piste jumps. We’ll check that out later.
Before we were ready to finish we got stuck at a broken-down lift. As it was 15 minutes before it closed they sent everyone on down the mountain (apart from the poor people stuck ON it! brrrrr) so our day finished early and we had to get the bus back into town.
We have been looking out for the inhabitants of another British Mercedes Sprinter conversion we have seen and luckily bumped into them tonight. Vicky and Phil both kitesurf (Phil teaches), met in Tarifa (where we spent a couple of months in 2008) and are also here for the season in their van.
Unfortunately as we were chatting we were accosted by the Municipal Police giving us some disappointing information. We were told that we are only permitted to park for 24 hours. One officer suggested the motorhome area at Les Gets, about 7 miles away, but the other kindly pointed out we can move around a bit. So it looks like a different spot every day in rotation - a bit annoying but not disastrous.
To conclude…! Pot noodles for dinner as it only involved boiling a bit of water while watching the flame didn’t go out. Then fetched water from the spring, waxed both of our boards, fitted the carpet and decided we had better drive to Thonon-les-Bains tomorrow to fill up the gas - it’s not the closest for LPG but less hairy roads than the drive to Cluses. Phew. Time for bed!
