Geoff Jones

Inveterate dabbler in business, travel, gadgets & life

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A long days walk..

After doing my warming up exercises for the GR20 at the weekend with Sally. I thought it might be interesting to have another look at my GR5 walk last year.

Day 7 was one of my longer days. I left the excellent Chalet de Nant Borrant (1460m) at 07.45. By 10.43 I was atop Col de la Croix-du-Bonhomme (2483m). I negotiated the very narrow path on Crete des Gittes and arrived at Refuge du Plan de la Laie (1815m) which was going to my finish at 12.28.

Since it was a pleasant day and still so early, I thought, I would do the next day as well. The thunder clouds were forming as I arrived pretty exhausted, after all the bouldering, on the Col de Bresson (2469m) at 16.37.

I raced down the other side to arrive luckily at the Chalet de la Balme (2009m) at 17.10, just before the storm broke. A lucky escape.

Total ascent was 2193m and descent 1683m in a 23.4km route. according to memory map.

Here is the route plotted in google earth:-

     
     

Silva Pedometer / Step counter Instruction Setup

For those that are like me and can never find instruction manuals. Here is the setup sheet for the Silva Step Counter (56012) , Pedometer (56013) and Pedometer Plus (56014). Click on the image to get the full size.

I’m now on my third one. The internal pendulum seems to only last a million steps, which for me is about a years walking or a stroll down The Camino from SJPP to Santiago de Compostella.

Other than that they are very reliable and good value. Important usage information :-

  • Always attach to your belt with a lanyard (latest models have a small hole to thread a cord through).
  • If they get wet, the displays stops working. However, they still count OK – just put near a radiator and the display will start up again.

Happy walking – they are surprisingly accurate when compared to a GPS typically to better than 1%


Bloggers Brunched

I managed to present my little talk at the Motor Industry Public Affairs Association. About 28 folks there split 50/50 so no sex bias in PR. It was well received although I don’t think many of those present were totally convinced! Heather had set up the meeting well, initially in a horseshoe format then dividing up into 3 breakout groups. I was amazed at just how blinkered corporate types are. It really hit home to me all that De Bono stuff about thinking outside of the box. I began to think that PR stands for press relations rather than public relations. For most of the people present its all about controlling the message.

However, one person who was totally convinced is my childhood hero, Paddy Hopkirk who was in my breakout group. Amazing happy friendly fellow who was telling me a story about his old friend Bob Lutz who was considered very mad for daring to ask common people at autoshows what they thought of his cars. Oh for those that don’t know Bob is General Motors Vice Chairman and was one of the first CEO’s to blog!

Here is Paddy taking a mini for a spin…

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