Tochi's Hut

Motivated by BlueOrca’s photos and my recent acquisition of a McLaren-Mercedes MP4-23 #22 1:18 diecast model ($$$), I finally sat down to finish up Monaco.

Monaco’s only geocache is Top of Monaco, although it is technically not within her borders. Situated near a paragliding platform at the top of a hill in France, you get a spectacular view overlooking the city-state. When I saw this cache listing, I knew we had to do it. BlueOrca had acquired the GPS track logs from GeoBear, another geocacher who had recently completed the hike up to the cache. From the track log, the hike didn’t seem too bad - about an 8km hike with a 600m change in elevation.

We bus-hopped from Jardin Exotique (#2 / #4) and eventually arrived at Saint Roman. The first part of the hike was stairs through some residential neighbourhoods - lots and lots of stairs. We had also passed into France and I didn’t even notice. A lot of stray cats were also scurrying along the drainage and walls, which made BlueOrca really happy. Once out of the residential neighbourhoods, the hike turned into dirt paths leading up to different road tiers running across the side of the hill.

The hike turned out to be longer than I expected. Despite setting off at a pretty good pace, every time I studied my GPSr, our progress was a lot slower than I’d expected. It was so demoralizing that I got fed up and put my GPSr away.

Initially, I thought some parts of GeoBear’s hike log were pretty stupid. For example, in one instance, instead of turning left, he made three right turns and did a mini loop. It was not until we got to that section that I realized we had to go through a tunnel, make three right turns in order to reach the trail leading over top of the tunnel. Ugh. GeoBear’s track logs were totally accurate – no shortcutting for us.

It started getting dark as we neared the summit. We ran into a local French resident, who was bewildered that we were scaling this thing at night. We assured him that we had brought flashlights and we’d be okay. :) BlueOrca raced on ahead, while I managed to steal Segamatic’s Canon gear at some point; I don’t know if he’ll let the same happen again with his 5D2 and TS collection. I left a tripod and some secret stone markers at the forks to guide those who followed.

BlueOrca found the geocache quickly enough and we got onto the paragliding platform for some photos. Actually, I didn’t realize the pad was used for paragliding at the time. The green artificial turf resembled the tee off at a driving range. It would have been cool to bring a golf club and get a picture of myself launching a golf ball towards the Monaco backdrop.

I spent some time setting up my tripod to take some night shots. (I’m not sure why I didn’t borrow Amos’s tripod). It was quite windy up at the top (imagine Bay Bridge caliber winds), and my tripod was unfortunately <Too Weak!>. With the slanted slope, I was worried my tripod would topple and pull a RC238. Stupid me also FORGOT to bring my external flash. I’d brought it on the trip just for this one occasion and I left it in Nice.

Ironically enough, I was being rushed to finish taking the photos quickly, so we won’t miss the train back to Nice. This didn’t help me at all as I did not properly set up and check my shots. I did not even get a chance to take a single photo of Cap-Martin. What a wasted opportunity. :(

We soon began our descent. Some geocachers are pretty hardcore in that they go night hiking without bringing a flashlight. We ended up sharing a single headlamp between the three of us. The sky and city lights just kept on getting better and better as we headed down. I manage to drop back a few times to take some photos, before catching up with the group. At least I got one photo that I’m happy with -  Click Me To View Larger. :)

I had mentioned in previous posts that I had misplaced our 2L bottle of water somewhere in Monaco - teaches you a lesson about leaving important things with me. :( Anyway, the only water that we had left was whatever I had in my Nalgene, which wasn’t a lot. Feeling partly guilty and seeing that the others needed the water more than I did, I sacrificed my precious water supply for the greater good.

Segamatic knees started to hurt on the way down, so we eased the pace and took more breaks in between. We were also very hungry and had finished our water supply a long time ago. In a yet-another-stupid-thing of the night, I offered Segamatic a granola bar. He accepted the bait and we each took half. Lesson learned. Granola bars are NOT to be consumed when you are thirsty. It just sucks the remaining saliva from your mouth and tastes totally horrible. I cannot think of anything more disgusting that I’ve eaten in my life. Sorry Sega!

We had no idea what time the last train to Nice was leaving, though I was hoping that there will be late ones, given the Grand Prix. It soon became apparent that we were not going to make it back into Monaco by midnight. Segamatic was in quite a bit of pain from the hike; I was trying every trick in my bag to offer some motivation.

It is really tough to know what to say in such situations. We were only about halfway down the mountain. We talked about catching a taxi back to Monaco. In the end, I suggested we hike down to the next major street and look for a taxi there. I really hated myself for saying this at the time, because I knew that we had no chance at catching a cab. I guess it's my "Jack Bauer" decision - to resort to deception for something this serious, since there were no other alternatives. The lie did its trick and Segamatic willed himself to make the heroic hike to the street.

Once there, we sat around waiting for a taxi. After a while, as I had dearly hoped would happen, Segamatic realized the futile nature of our situation and we resumed our hike. I tried to distract the conversation to other topics (BUNNER and LLAMASERY) to make Segamatic feel better. Retracing the path we took to come up, we finally got back to Saint Roman.

We waited at the bus stop for a bit, hoping to catch a bus and/or flag down some taxis. Found out after a while that buses do not run this late on Sundays. Our taxi strategy failed just as spectacularly. The one taxi that had stopped refused to give us a lift when he found out we were going the train station (5-10 min drive). Bastard.

The city was eerily quiet, as we hardly saw anyone on the streets. I thought that was really unusual given the Grand Prix festivities this weekend. It was as if the hordes that amassed earlier in the day just disappeared into thin air. I mistook an elevator sign for WC. I didn’t even realize until we took the elevator and couldn’t find the washrooms.   Not that I had much urge, as my body consumed most of my available fluids.

Our quest to catch the last train was superseded by our quest for water. We stopped in a few condos begging for water. Everyone suggested we head to the casino - lots of water there. I wonder if the casino will let us in, dressed and smelling as we were. We finally found a hotel clerk who offered a 500ml bottle for 3 Euros. We drained that bottle pretty quickly. :|

By the time we made our way to the train station and took the long escalator down to the terminal, guards were already clearing people out of the station. The last train to Nice had left at 11:50pm. We were several hours late. :( We begged them to allow us to grab some water from the vending machines before being escorted off the premises.

The first train runs at 6am, so I strongly considered finding a place to just chill for a few hours in Monaco. BlueOrca was adamant about taking a taxi back and Segamatic seemed a bit zoned out from the ordeal still. I couldn't really ask a girl to sleep out in the streets, so it was better that we tried to get back to our hostel in Nice. BlueOrca flagged down a really fancy Mercedes-Benz taxi. The drivers were now very willing to give us a ride… pfft. 130 Euros definitely buys service.

BlueOrca and Segamatic were passed out in the back. I tried mightily hard to stay awake, just in case the taxi driver decided to take us to some other Nice. This experience totally reminded me of trying not to doze off during a boring lecture after a few all-nighters (a nearly impossible task)! The highway from Monaco to Nice was really beautiful - four well-paved, well-lit lanes each way, passing through some really nice scenery. I didn't get a chance to admire the sights on the train ride into Monaco earlier. Once I saw the exit for Nice, my mind succumbed to my body urgings and I dozed off. When I woke up again, we were already back at Nice's train station. This ride may very well go down as the most luxurious international taxi trip I will ever take. :)

We had quite a Monaco experience and got to see some unique aspects of this city-state. I’d have to return one day to check out the more typical Monaco sights and definitely drive or get a ride through the Fairmont tunnel.

Monaco – 5/5.