Most Inspirational Moment
It's hard to say but probably making it to the top of the highest pass of the tour and crossing into Italy, where we stopped at a refuge for the best cup of drinking chocolate ever and while I was sat outside enjoying my drink and admiring the spectacular views I received a phone call from my son to say he was getting married. That was a bit of a moment!
Thoughts on Group Leader
Fantastic!!! It's not an easy job to manage a large group of people of widely different backgrounds, ages, and fitness levels over a two week 175km hike when you're with them from dawn till dusk but Adrian did it with ease and a smile. His energy and enthusiasm was unlimited and he also had a lot of patience, which I'm sure helps. He also went the extra mile to make sure everyone had the best trip possible, and I was blown away when he offered to give up his day off to take us back up the mountain above Chamonix on our last day (to a bit of the trail we'd missed the day before because of the heavy rain) so we could end the holiday on a high both literally and metaphorically. This is one of the best holidays I've ever been on and a big part of that was Adrain.
Advice for Potential Travellers
The number one bit of advice is - Get fit before you go, the fitter you are the more you'll enjoy it. As it is challenging, the distances themselves aren't that bad, it's not that technical, the paths are mostly good and there's very little scrambling but it's the elevation gains and the descents that really take it out of you.
The second bit of advice is - Make sure your waterproofs are up to scratch, which includes bags and boots. We were lucky, we only had one day of rain but when it comes on the trail there's no place to hide, and after just three hours of heavy rain all of our rucksacks were soaked even though they all had covers. With that in mind I'd recommend dry bags for your stuff inside your rucksacks and waterproof document holders your paperwork because the last thing you want is for your passport or your insurance documents to get drenched.
Also think about taking a power bank, it's not absolutely necessary but a few of the rooms I stayed in only had one power socket, and when you're sharing with two or three people that can make charging your electronics a challenge.
Finally, if you're into barefoot/minimalist footwear (like I am) try and find some with a little more padding. I've been a big fan of this type of footwear for years, I don't hike in anything else, and in the Peak District where I live I don't have any problems they work great. But after the first day of the Tour I was having second thoughts about my Vivobarefoot hiking boots as most of the path down to Montroc is like a stoney beach and you feel it. Fortunately after the first day things improved but there are a lot of rocky paths on this trip and if you are into minimalist footwear it might be an idea to bring along a pair of trail runners that you can switch to when the going gets tough.
