Bivi

It is always important that a parent teaches a child the import things in life.

To that end, Papa decided Ella needed to know the fundamentals of spending a night in a bivi. The ideal training occasion presented itself one cold afternoon in the attic at Sandgrube where we were sorting out our belongings. Ella had just fed. After a quick root around I found an old leather suitcase - emblazoned with an array of travel stickers ranging from Africa to the Middle East - and my high mountain sleeping bag (-30 degrees centigrade). It made a perfect nest for Ella. Because she was not showing any signs of sleeping and clearly wanted to observe what was ongoing I attempted to prop the suitcase up so that she had a better view out. She seemed happy enough so I left her.

A few moments later I heard muffled cries from the sleeping bag inside the suitcase. What Papa had failed to consider was the lack of friction between Ella and the fabric of the sleeping bag - gravity, movement or a combination of both had caused Ella to slide into the dark depths of her nest. Re-established on a level platform Ella soon settled to deep sleep.

Training over, it was now time to get into nature. It was late afternoon by the time we reached the Jura and started to walk. It was a cold and wet day with the snowline a couple of hundred metres higher in altitude than us. We realised we would be climbing into the snow and the dark in order to reach our objective - Chalet La Flore. It was a great hike - Castor's first real experience of snow - and we arrived to an extremely warm welcome at the chalet. Ella instantly became the youngest member of the club.

As each hour passed more and more people left until eventually we had the chalet to ourselves. We ascended to the sleeping area which was mountain hut-style, i.e. mattresses laid side by side. Ella was fed and prepared for bed by Mama while Papa prepared her bivi - Mama's duvet jacket turned inside out with the sleeves pulled inside and the zip done up and, as a little extra treat, a hot water bottle just to make sure it was cosy. In actual fact the chalet was perfectly warm despite the outside temperature. Once Ella had settled, with no possibility of her sliding anywhere this time, we descended to the kitchen to prepare dinner.

It was, the perfect way to celebrate Papa's 40th!