July 23 and 24

July 23:
 We have a long day ahead of us.  My feet are in pain, the food is gross, but I will survive.

As most days, we started our hike by going up.  I found the perfect photo op - full group perfect shadows!  Unfortunately, this group is not like last year's group... they don't cooperate well when it comes to photo ops... oh well... their loss!  I think the photo still looks good... they just won't be able to find themselves as easily as if they would've have listened and struck a pose.

We made it to a sheep herder's field.  She was there with her sheep and 2 herding dogs.  It was a perfect place for a break!  We watch the dogs as they worked hard following all the orders that were given to them!  Spectacular to see!

It was really hot today.  It was frustrating- we were going up and we could see the refuge where we were headed for our next break.  It looked really close then all of a sudden it disappeared and wasn't close anymore!  The mountains play tricks on your brain!  Every corner you think "this has to be the last corner" and nope, there is always another corner, another hill. 

The terrain was very rocky today -like a playground!  Reminded me of when I was a child playing in the rapids -crossing the river without touching the water.

 There were a few spots with snow.  I sat in a snow bank to cool off, and later found another snow bank and made a snow angel, in the Alps! 

Coming back down we had to cross a large snow patch.  It was quite slippery -looks like everyone enjoyed this bit.  Not long after, maybe 5 minutes or so, we stopped at a little stream to try and get some relief from the suffocating heat (weatherman's terms today!).  We put our hats and shirts in streams whenever we see them.  This time, Rémi went in for a dip.   Brrr - that didn't last long!   We sat in the grass and had lunch.  When it was time to put our socks and boots back on, Rémi noticed blood dripping from his foot.  Great... He cut his big toe on a rock when he was in the stream.  The water is so cold that he never felt it.  We bandaged him up as best we could (it's a pretty deep gash) and off went.  We will have to make sure this doesn't get infected.

Shortly after, we got to our campground for the night.

July 24th - is a rest day.  We took the shuttle to the little village at the bottom of the hill.  We had lunch, and found a pharmacy.  The pharmacist was very helpful and set us up with compeed and tape for Rémi's toes and my blisters. 

We rested as the most difficult days of the trek are coming up!