Sunday 25 August 2013
Ben, more excited than a Ben in an outdoor equipment shop, woke up before the alarm. We made our sleepy way out of the tent dressed in many layers (12 degrees is cold when you have lived through a 30+ degree summer in China!) and brewed ourselves a lovely steaming mug of coffee and hot chocolate with a shot of honey for an extra kick.
880 grams of awesomeness – Telemark 2 (Carbon) by Nordisk
As we sipped away and prepared for breakfast and the dawn, the man who lives in the cabin called out a ‘Hello’ and then set off to tend the horses that had kept some of our party awake during the night.
After finishing his early morning task, he walked past us so I took the opportunity to ask him if we could pop into the cabin to procure some more water. (The cabin wasn’t officially open yet). He answered in the affirmative and so I dashed up the hill to fill our bottles hoping to finish before the sun appeared over the ridge. Too late, I had missed it! Although on my return Ben had finished preparing our breakfast of muesli, coconut milk and honey. Yum, yum.
Scott was also awake now and so the morning quickly disappeared as both he and Ben furiously boiled water, fried bacon and fed the waking children as one by one they emerged from their sleeping bags.
Unfortunately, because of the amount of their bags to be taken down the mountain and to coincide our reluctant departure with the arrival of the mountain workers, we all had to be back at the chair lift by 8am. Despite our regrets about leaving our campsite, our heads full of the joys of a night under stars and canvas at 2000 metres made the return ride even more enjoyable than the upbound one.
As we waited for the coach journey home, we sat in the sunshine, cooked some noodles and had a pleasant chat with Jon Xu, the Hotel’s International Division Manager, about ideas to encourage summer visitors.
Noon soon arrived and we were herded back onto the coach to start our eventful journey home full of blown tires, a seemingly endless traffic jam, an impromptu stop for lamb kebabs and an argument about the route home!
However, we had an amazing weekend with a terrific group of adults and children and are now set to meet them again for the return trip during the ski season. Camping will be out of the question that time as temperatures on the summit reach minus 40 Celsius!
The Bentlejen Journey 