We’re well past halfway point of year 2 of the challenges
and despite the setbacks and slow progress I’m still very much enjoying trying
to complete them. As regular readers of the blog will know I do like to go back
and repeat some of the activities I’ve particularly enjoyed – baking being the
most obvious case.
Another of the challenges I’ve been enjoying has been
travelling to new countries (with the exception of Romania late last year –
I’ve never blogged about it as it would turn into a bit of an angry rant about
the Romanian Geological Society and one member of it particularly). I’m very
lucky in that my work gets me travelling quite a lot and one of my recent trips
was sufficiently full of out of the comfort zone incidents that it is worth
blogging about.
The trip in question was to Nice and the Park National
Geologique around Digne les Bains in France. Ah! You may be thinking, surley
you’ve been to France before! Well, yes, I have been there a few times in the
last 3 years, several times with work for short visits to Paris and two of the
nicest, most relaxing holidays I’ve ever had with the Wilmott family in Boise.
Another trip to France doesn’t then obviously fit with out of the comfort zone
theme of this blog. However, on this particular trip everything that could go
wrong did go wrong and hence my mis-quote from Heraclitus in the title.
In May I was asked to assist with an MSc Engineering Geology
field trip to southern France. This should have been wonderful – a week of
tramping through the mountains looking at rocks, what could be more fun? Well
it started with forgetting my drivers licence and catching the plane by the
skin of my teeth then arriving in Nice to find they had no record of my
reservation at the hotel – but this was just a warm-up for what was to come.
A couple of shots of some of the glorious weather and scenery we had (when things weren't going wrong!)
The following day I had to drive my car load of students (6)
into the centre of Nice to get them their dinner. Southern French drivers have
a “relaxed” attitude towards the rules of the road and the safety other road users/pedestrians/pets but
thankfully, with less than half a dozen near misses, I made it to the town centre and
squeezed the Ford Galaxy into a multi storey carpark. We had a lovely meal in
Nice and then it was time to head back to the hotel – sadly this involved
having an argument with a French parking attendant – who finished our animated discussion
with “entente cordiale fini – dead, dead!” accompanied by making throat slitting
gestures (I did get the car out though!).
The following days continued in the same spirit – too many
incidents to mention, but the highlights were…………..
·
Driving along many many narrow roads with 300
foot drops and no safety barriers (and having to hang the back end of the
people carrier off the edge of a cliff Italian Job style whilst doing a 3 point
turn.
·
Losing a wheel on the hire car due a collision
with, ironically enough, a landslide.
·
A 100km taxi ride to Gap to pick up a new hire
car (see above) with a suicidal French taxi driver.
·
Getting lost in Monaco and accidentally doing a
la of the Grand Prix circuit (it was in full GP set-up with painted curbs and
everything J
·
One student leaving a ruc-sack by the side of
the road, subsequently stolen with passport and purse in it.
·
One student getting sprained ankle on side of
mountain and another being stung by a madussa jelly fish.
·
Leaving two students behind in Nice as they weren’t
let on the flight home (see stolen passport above – it’s ok they’re home now
though).
·
Another student being accused of shoplifting at
Nice airport (he was innocent and released in time to catch the plane).
One of the students attempted to write a list of what had
happened half way through the week (see
photo). Thankfully we all made it home ok in the end despite all the incidents
it was still a good trip away – some wonderful scenery and a fantastic visit to
Monaco at the end – driving on the Mediterranean coast in the chaos started
stressful as hell but became v enjoyable in the end – and that is what being
out of the comfort zone is all about J.
Matt's list of everything that had happened by day 5
Monaco
Team China - two of them had to stay behind in Paris for 2 weeks due to the lost passport (at Newcastle Uni's expense)
This little dog stole one of the lecturers shoes!
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