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Haute Route - Day 3

At night, there was the constant noise of cowbells and we discovered that every time someone went to the bathroom building, a light would switch on and shine directly on our tent. We still slept relatively well. After breakfast and packing our gear, we continued climbing. There was a mountain hut on the top of the ridge, which also marked the border with Switzerland. It took another 1.5 hours to get there, but the views were beautiful. We took a long break to enjoy some homemade blackberry pie and lemonade. 

After the hut, we started a long descent while continuously being passed by trail runners. In the afternoon, we reached the bottom of the valley, where my parents had been waiting. We had a long break and discussed where to camp. Up to then, we had seen surprisingly few suitable spots to pitch our tent, which surprised me, as Koen and I had had little difficulty with this on the AV1. 

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As the day before had been a tough start, and I liked the idea of spending the evening with my parents, we decided to stay together at a nearby campsite. It was only a few kilometers away, but also 200 m higher. To get some rest, Diane decided to drive up with my parents, while I ran uphill trying to beat them to the top. I arrived only a few minutes after them. The campsite was beautiful, and we even had a warm shower. We went to dinner at a nearby restaurant and had a beer before getting ready to sleep. 

Throughout the afternoon, we saw dozens of Tour de Mont Blanc runners pass and crowds cheering them on. At this point, the runners were so spread out that it took over 24 hours for them all to pass. Unfortunately, that meant that people shouted, rang cowbells, blasted music, and cheered everyone on throughout the night. Needless to say, we did not sleep much, although it was impressive to see the athletes.

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