Once we finally got to our destination, it was all systems to go… into this rather ‘cleverly designed’ kitchen, where this week we were cooking for 50 (I think next week they’re cooking for 80, so I got off lightly)… I’ve not cooked on a winter trip before, just camp cooking (which is always bung it all in a big pot and ladle it out!)…, so I felt this qualified as an extreme sport… and meantime from the windows I could see some beautiful snow!

We did the pizzas early – 16 in total – took quite some time (even once we’d found enough trays!) – great upper arm exercise… and some of that flour did make its way into the pizza….

Just one of the small cooking pots – with John – who loves getting out to ski and often works in an outdoor sports centre too… and really knows how to use “the flavourings” in the kitchen:

It’s important to know the opening times, especially when you might need onions for 50…

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Thought I’d add a few more…

Christmas Dinner is almost ready, and hoping that Stephen (green t-shirt) is going to write us some info on bouldering – he’s also a snowboard instructor, so maybe we can get some more info out…

Ben asked me to save some of my Chocolate Torte for him – so I saved him an EXTREMELY large piece – which he didn’t quite finish! Ben had done about 5 days of skiing by the end of two weeks and was doing pretty well…

We like to make cake’s for our guest’s birthdays … and Louis was 7, so John pulled together this design based on a red run down the ‘Eiger’ – Louis loved it!

At the end of the week, everything gets deep cleaned… wondering if Tim was taking cleaning the oven a little too far – that’s a little extreme…

And when all the cleaning is done, we sit down with a breakfast of sausage, bacon, scrambled egg & pancakes.. nice!

On December 18th, Bex thought she was heading for the ski haven of Lauterbrunnen in Switzerland, to enjoy some fab snow, and enjoy cooking for 50 over Christmas week, but the journey itself turned out to be very extreme – and when later in the week, Jamiroquai’s ‘Travelling Without Moving‘ came out of iTunes shuffle – that should have been our anthem!

Even getting to Oak Hall’s base in Otford was hairy – this was the car park at Clacket Lane Services. Well, one of my aims is to get onto one of those driving days where they teach you to control the car in dangerous conditions… could definitely have done with that on Friday!

Well, the coach clock is telling the right time – about this time we should have been through the Eurotunnel, but as they seemed to be having some issues (and as we later discovered, many people spent the night trapped in the tunnel without light/food/heat, so was glad wasn’t in there), we decided to head for Dover… Shortly after we thought we’d made a wrong move as we joined a VERY long queue…

The lorry is heading back the wrong way to join Operation Stack (never knew what that was before)… this was an amusing moment, around 9am, Ed Farries, our ski instructor, had slept very well – pulled up his eyemask – and woo-hoo, we’re still in Dover!

12 noon, moved around 2 miles! Why, oh why, didn’t we get the skis out of the trailer and try riding down the rails… maybe it would have been the presence of the Police… to whom we were offering hot coffee and chocolate biscuits as we passed by. Made a change for them from the people yelling at them!

2pm, we’ve moved a little further, and the kids are being amused by Hannah Montana! We finally got on the ferry 5pm, and arrived in Lauterbrunnen around 7.30am, which meant those guests who felt able after 2 nights on the coach were able to ski-up and out… most got out by 10.30am, leaving us free to start cooking…

Really – if we’re talking extreme – that was it… my friend flew back from New Zealand in the same time as it took us to get from Otford to Lauterbrunnen!

Tags: Extreme, Skiing, Travelling

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