Make or Break

At least it was a beautiful day and we were surrounded by the precise panorama that my deepest wildest dreams are made of. Up + down + up + down the valley we went, with increasingly more disheartened drearily worried faces that developed through the day, as the fourth + fifth + sixth opinions rolled in on Cheeques; it was over.

The last ditch attempt was a fourth visit to the local garage (rammed full of fancy suits + slicked hair; Chamonix's finest car salesmen), wilting with worry + fatigue in the hot afternoon sun. A kind and patient mechanic, who couldn't speak a word of English miraculously understood our dilemma, took a look at our wonky sorry part that had blown out of the engine hood those few nights ago and returned a few minutes later with a quick fix solution. He ordered us 5litres of 'mates rates 1040 oil' and wished us good afternoon. Our gratitude, as I seem to remember, almost had us falling to our knees + bowing with thanks.

So tomorrow, the fate of Cheeques would be decided, but for now the only thing for us to do was ride and try to find a smile; after all, look where we are-we may be here for some time yet..