The Student Room Group

The Life of Leviathan – Depression, Bullying, Fatigue and Other Obstacles

Scroll to see replies

Original post by Matrix123
Haha wow, I can't wait for these pictures :tongue:

Posted from TSR Mobile


You can see the mattress in the photos of the 1st chapter! I'll see if I can upload some more now :smile:
Original post by Leviathan1741
You can see the mattress in the photos of the 1st chapter! I'll see if I can upload some more now :smile:


Right, I never noticed how low they were! The one on the left certainly gives it away in the second picture - how could I miss that? :tongue: ooh OK :smile:

Posted from TSR Mobile
Original post by Matrix123
Right, I never noticed how low they were! The one on the left certainly gives it away in the second picture - how could I miss that? :tongue: ooh OK :smile:

Posted from TSR Mobile


It is a little hard to see, I have to say! I still can't upload pictures unfortunately, I'll have to try again later :tongue:
Original post by Leviathan1741
It is a little hard to see, I have to say! I still can't upload pictures unfortunately, I'll have to try again later :tongue:


Yeah, oh that's OK. Just let me know when they're uploaded :smile:

Posted from TSR Mobile
@Matrix123

Here are the photos that I couldn't upload earlier! :smile:

The tiny mirror
The unfortunately placed socket
The huge cloud
Original post by Leviathan1741
@Matrix123

Here are the photos that I couldn't upload earlier! :smile:

The tiny mirror
The unfortunately placed socket
The huge cloud


Woahh awesome pictures and I love the names you gave them too! :tongue: That mirror is even smaller than I imagined!

Posted from TSR Mobile
Original post by Matrix123
Woahh awesome pictures and I love the names you gave them too! :tongue: That mirror is even smaller than I imagined!

Posted from TSR Mobile


Haha thanks! I wasn't exaggerating when I said you could only see one eye in it at a time :lol:
Original post by Leviathan1741
Haha thanks! I wasn't exaggerating when I said you could only see one eye in it at a time :lol:


Haha yeah I clearly know that now! :tongue:

Posted from TSR Mobile
Awww I love reading about the Alps :love:

Spoiler

Original post by FrenchUnicorn
Awww I love reading about the Alps :love:

Spoiler



I'm happy to hear that! Yeah, perhaps I just had a bad one? :smile:
Good morning all! Here is the next chapter of the French Alps! :biggrin:

Day 2 Emosson Dam, Col des Montets and Chamonix

My alarm went off at 6.30am the next morning. As I sat up in bed and stretched, I quickly realised that the combination of sitting on the coach for all those hours the previous day, along with walking up several steep hills carrying a heavy rucksack, had already started to take their toll. My back, chest and legs were already feeling achy, and judging by my experience in the Isle of Arran, I knew it was bound to get worse.

Fran, Lisa and I went down to the dining room for breakfast at 7.30. I was relieved to find that the breakfast options were varied, with many different cereals on offer including Weetabix, cornflakes; rice snaps and chocolatey leaf-shaped things (if anyone knows what these are called, please tell me!). I opted for the chocolatey leaf things, and they turned out to be really nice! During breakfast, Alan came into the dining room and explained the itinerary for the day. He told us we were going across the border to Switzerland, to visit the Emosson Dam, so we all needed to take our passports with us. Additionally, we were also going to visit the town of Chamonix, to carry out a till fabric analysis, measure river flow variables, and perform some lichenometry tests.

Once everyone was ready, we walked out of the hotel, through the concrete pipe and down to the main road where the coach was waiting. We then boarded the coach and set off on the first trip of the day. It took a couple of hours to reach Châtelard-Vallorcine hydroelectric power station on the Swiss border, and it had started to rain heavily during the journey. We had to wait for around half an hour before we were allowed to cross the border, but eventually we made it over to Switzerland.

After we left the coach, we walked for about 10 minutes to reach Le Châtelard-Frontière train station. From there, we boarded the funicular railway which took us part of the way up the mountain to a second small train station. When the train arrived, we got onto it and travelled for a further 20 minutes or so until we stopped at a coach park, where we boarded the coach which took us the rest of the way up to the Emosson Dam. We were meant to be taking the mini funicular railway to the top of the mountain; however it was being repaired at the time, so we had to take the coach instead.

When the Emosson Dam finally came into view, it was a truly magnificent sight. The gently curving dam wall stretched off into the distance, with the glistening blue water of the Lac d’Emosson surrounded by snow-topped peaks. We sat down on a grassy bank opposite the wall, where Alan gave us an introduction to the dam and hydroelectric power production.

Then, we made our way down a steep set of steps onto the dam wall itself. Despite the sunshine, it was bitterly cold as we walked steadily to the opposite end of the wall. The wind was funnelled down towards the reservoir by the mountains, and then blew across the water uninterrupted, meaning we felt the full force of it as we trekked along the wall. When we were halfway across, Alan stopped us and asked us to draw a sketch of the reservoir, and also note down all the pros and con of hydroelectric power. Later, when we reached the other end of the dam wall, he then gave us a few facts and figures relating to the dam’s energy production and usage, before leading us back across.

Upon returning to other end of the dam, we climbed back up the steps to the grassy bank, where we waited for the coach to collect us. We then drove back down the mountain to the train station, where we stopped and had lunch. Lunches were provided for us in bags by the hotel. Mine had a ham baguette, an orange, and an apricot sponge cake. I ate the baguette and the cake, but our train arrived before I could eat the orange, so I had to leave it.

When we arrived back at the coach park, Alan said that we could use the loos if we wanted, while we waited for the coach to get the rest of the way back down the mountain. There was a mad rush to use the loos, and as usual, I was one of the last in the queue. When I went in, I noticed, with some concern, that there was a rather large spider on the back of the toilet door. I just hoped it wouldn’t jump on me when I went to leave! Once everyone was back on the coach, we set off for Chamonix. Alan told us that that was where we were going to do some river work, a till fabric analysis, and lichenometry.

It took around half an hour to reach Chamonix. We pulled up in the coach park, where Alan told us to change into our wellington boots. We had to walk for around 20 minutes before we reached our second destination: Col des Montets. Alan asked us to draw a sketch of the Col (a col is gap between two mountains which has been eroded by a glacier), and explained that it was formed through erosion by the Arve glacier. We then walked back the way we came, stopping next to an eroded bank. Alan asked us to carry out a till fabric analysis (an analysis of the material deposited by the glacier), which involved measuring the direction in which the clasts (rock fragments) were pointing, their shape, and their degree of sorting.

After that, Alan took us down to the L’Eau Noire River, where we’d be carrying out a micro-hydro potential assessment, to find out whether it could be feasibly used to generate electricity with a hydroelectric power scheme. Once we’d completed our assessments, we walked back to the coach and changed back into our walking boots.

Our final destination for the day was the cemetery in Chamonix, where we would be doing our lichenometry tests using a species of lichen commonly known as map lichen. Our task was to choose 10 gravestones, find out when each grave was carved and the age of the stone in years, measure the diameter of the large piece of lichen, and work out the average growth rate of the lichen. The whole thing seemed a bit disrespectful to me, but I didn’t have a choice!

When we had finished, we returned to the coach to begin our journey back to the hotel. While we were travelling, Alan pointed out the Bossons Glacier to our left, the steepest valley glacier in the Alps, which I took a photograph of as we passed it.

At dinner, I decided to try a few of the things on offer at the salad bar. I didn’t want a repeat of the cassoulet incident, so I collected a few dishes which I recognised: coleslaw, pasta and tuna salad and regular lettuce and tomato salad. I found the pasta and tuna salad to be particularly nice, and I decided that I would fill up on that every evening for the rest of the week, before having a small portion of whatever the main meal was, just in case I didn’t like it. Luckily though, the main meal turned out to be Spaghetti Bolognese, a dish I knew I liked!

Fran, Lisa and I went to bed at around 10.30pm, we knew we had another long day ahead of us!

The photos:
The Emosson Dam wall as seen from the bank
The Lac d'Emosson
The Bossons glacier

Spoiler

Original post by Leviathan1741
x


Morning! Another amazing post! This sounds a lot more enjoyable than some of your past ones, minus the cold and the wind.

Edit: more great pictures too! The scenery looks great :biggrin:
Posted from TSR Mobile
PRSOM ! all of this reminds me of my own trip to the Alps with my classmates when I was 10 :love:
Original post by Matrix123
Morning! Another amazing post! This sounds a lot more enjoyable than some of your past ones, minus the cold and the wind.

Edit: more great pictures too! The scenery looks great :biggrin:
Posted from TSR Mobile


Thanks Matrix! Yeah, this particular day wasn't too hellish, thankfully! The next chapter is a different story though! :tongue:
Original post by FrenchUnicorn
PRSOM ! all of this reminds me of my own trip to the Alps with my classmates when I was 10 :love:


You went to the Alps too? :biggrin:
Original post by Leviathan1741
You went to the Alps too? :biggrin:


Ouiiii :woo: I went 3 times actually :colondollar: I went to Aix-les-bains, have you heard about it ? Near Le Bourget lake, and I went to Chamonix as well
Le Mont Blanc is just so beautifuuuuul *O* and all that snow :love: :love: :love:
Original post by FrenchUnicorn
Ouiiii :woo: I went 3 times actually :colondollar: I went to Aix-les-bains, have you heard about it ? Near Le Bourget lake, and I went to Chamonix as well
Le Mont Blanc is just so beautifuuuuul *O* and all that snow :love: :love: :love:


I haven't heard of it before, but it looks beautiful! :h:
Original post by Leviathan1741
I haven't heard of it before, but it looks beautiful! :h:


It is :yep:
Did you like your trip :3 ?
Original post by FrenchUnicorn
It is :yep:
Did you like your trip :3 ?


I did! Although I really wish we could've had some more free time to just explore and enjoy the view, we didn't really get to do that :frown:
Original post by Leviathan1741
I did! Although I really wish we could've had some more free time to just explore and enjoy the view, we didn't really get to do that :frown:

Aw that's a shame :cry2: maybe next time :yep:

Quick Reply

Latest