Further on the long walk

photo: Henry Shere

PRELIMINARY STATISTICS, slightly revised:

Elevation change: 51,300 meters, roughly, or about 167,000 feet, which is about five and three-quarters Mt. Everests. But this is pretty rough, and could range up to 20% off either way. The average is 1,500 meters/day (4,760 feet/day) (Mt. St. Helena is 4,344 feet, 1,323 meters)

Distance: roughly 725 kilometers, or 450 miles. Averages: 21 km (13.6 miles) per day; 3 km (1.875 miles) per hour (rests included)

Time: about 245 hours on the trail (rests included) in 35 days of walking; five rest days.
Average: 7 hours/day; but some days were twelve hours long.

Weight lost: about 12 pounds.

Other oddity: One shoelace stretched two inches in length over the other (unless the other shrank two inches for some reason).

I'm writing about the trip, but doing it day by day, perhaps with a photo book in mind, like the one I did last year of our Dutch walk (The Lingepad). But it's tough writing; notes are scattered among a number of places; photo times are problematic; etc., etc.

Eating every one of those days

A TENTATIVE LISTING of the meals (chiefly dinners) eaten during our Long Walk, June 20-July 28, and the week or so following while on vacation in Nice and the Netherlands; and then, to bring us up to date, the last few days here at home:

June 19 Amsterdam dinner at Marius: vitello tonnato, duck breast with vegetables, fruit and ice cream
June 20 Creusaz hotel l’Alpage: trout, pommes frites, salad
21 Dent d'Oche refuge: soup, grey beef, chocolate pudding
22 Chalet de Bise restaurant: soup, biot (Savoie sausage) and polenta
23 La Chapelle d'Abondance hotel: guinea fowl
24 La Chapelle d'Abondance tartaflette
25 Bassachaux refuge: chicken soup, tartaflette, tarte à myrtilles
26 Mines d'Or gite: gazpacho, poulet Basquaise
27 Samoëns restaurant: tartaflette
28 Samoëns restaurant: salad, lamb, crème brulée
29 Chalet d'Anterne refuge: nettle soup, pork loin, mashed potatoes
30 Chamonix restaurant: salade Niçoise
July 1 Chamonix restaurant: grilled lamb chops, peppers, tomato
2 les Contamines restaurant: bad unmemorable “Italian” food
3 Croix de Bonhomme refuge: soup, polenta Bolognese
4 la Balme refuge: spare ribs Coca-cola
5 Landry hotel: paté, boeuf Bourgignon
6 Col du Palet refuge: soup, biot and polenta
7 Val d'Isère restaurant: biot and polenta
8 Bonneval gite: stuffed zucchini, steak
9 Lanlesbourg hotel: Savoyard dalad, blancs de volaille
10 Bramans hotel: rabbit
11 Modane hotel: pork loin, crudités
12 Susa, Bardonecchia lunch: Canitna del Ponte, Susa: what? restaurant, Bardonecchia: gnocchi
13 Thabor refuge: lasagne
14 Plampinet gite: jambon melon, tartiflette
15 Briançon hotel: Caprese, boeuf brochette, salad
16 Villar-San. Pancrace gite crudités, chicken, rice, cheeses
17 La Chalp refuge: "Niçoise" salad, chicken, potatoes Dauphinois
18 Ceillac refuge: soup, poulet Basquaise, cheese, salad, strudel
19 Fouillouse refjuge: soup, chicken, mixed vegetables, salad, linzertart
20 Larche hotel: quiche, salad, chicken tagine, cheese, fruit
21 St. Dalmas hotel: Maigret de canard, cote de porc
22 Roya refuge: potato-pea soup, boeuf daube with pasta
23 Vacherie de Roure thick vegetable soup, ham with pineapple, risotto with eggplant, cheese, flan
24 St. Dalmas en Valbore restaurant:cheese feuilleté, colin, white rice with pistou, salad
25 Utelle apartment-residence: rissoles, salmon steak, crème caramel
26 Nice restaurant: Salade Niçoise
27 la Gaude party: grilled steak, salad, cheese. Dinner, restaurant: fish soup
28 Nice restaurant: lunch: socca. Dinner, restaurant: fish soup, salad
29 Nice: lunch, Menton, what? dinner, Nice restaurant: assiette Niçoise, Salade Niçoise, socca.
30 Nice lunch, San Remo: sandwiches. Dinner chez McKee: chicken curry.
31 lunch, l"Orée du Port: fish soup, moules. Dinner, Rendezvous des Amis, Nice: artichoke terrine, chicken fricasee in pastis with rouille, prune clafoutis.
Aug. 1 lunch, Restaurant As, Amsterdam: Steak tartare; dinner, restaurant in Apeldoorn: broth, freshwater fish, complex dessert.
2 lunch Hoge Veluwe: pannekoek. Dinner chez Elfring, Apeldoorn: what?
3 dinner chez Elfring, Voorburg: lasagne
4 dinner, Piccola Italia, Middelburg: insalata, spaghetti carbonara
5 dinner, hotel 't Schouwse Hof, Aalsmeer: beef bouillon, slibtong, salad, vegetables, potatoes, ice cream and berries
6 dinner in airplane: chicken with rice
7 dinner at home: Salade Niçoise
8 dinner at home: Salade Niçoise
9 wedding dinner: pulled pork, rice, beans
10 lunch at home: cheese and salad
11 dinner at home: sole, lima beans, salad
12 dinner at home: grilled steak, lamb chops, salad
13: lunch: half a pan bagnat. Dinner, Café Chez Panisse: figs with mint and arugula in crème fraîche, duck confit with figs.
14: lunch, Willi’s Wine Bar, Santa Rosa: roast marrow bones.

Oh: and in this period I lost about ten pounds!