Day 15 to 16: Downtime

We were over two weeks through the trip and we certainly felt it in our bodies. The minimal rest days and three nights camping were catching up with us. (Okay, fine, Saturday night’s party was fun and kept us up until 2am). It was also time to say goodbye to Team North Face – all the athletes and helpful people who made Miel and I feel so welcome.

To top it off, James parted ways with us before doing the 7-hour drive from Lauterbrunnen back to Connaux, so it wasn’t exactly our favorite part of the trip.

TNF Athletes and Staff

Photo op with our new friends from UK.
They're already planning their visit to the PH!

Goodbye hugs!

But the journey went on, as we take the highs with the lows. Caro did a tag team with Miel behind the wheel, while I stayed awake for them both as the talker (to keep them awake) and navigator (credit to Waze and the car’s GPS). We had a quiet dinner along the road before hitting home past 10pm.

The next day, Caro drove to Montpelier (one hour away) for a radio talk show, while Miel and I stayed home to recover. It was a chill day, just taking it easy and doing clean-up. I wrote on this blog, Miel probably played COC ;) We did laundry of all the stuff we used during the festival, and re-packed all the tents and sleeping bags that we left out to dry the night before.

There was something that perked us up, however: Preparing a Filipino meal for Caroline.

This involved us having to drive out to the nearest grocery using their camper van that was low on gas (so we mustn't get lost and run out of fuel), and searching for the right meat cuts and condiments. It sounds simplee enough, I know. But try zeroing in on an adobo’s ingredients when you’re surrounded by a hundred varieties of cheese, wine, and Lindt chocolates, and you’ll find it takes quite an amount of discipline!

Completing our checklist of ingredients wasn’t all that straightforward, either, with bay leaves costing much more than expected, and cane vinegar non-existent on the shelf. There were multiple brands and flavors of balsamic vinegar, there was apple cider vinegar, and rainbow colors of wine vinegar, but no cane! I also tried to buy a different brand of soy sauce than what was in Caro’s cupboard (only to find out later that it still tasted like Kikkoman).

Sosyal! Naka-bote yung itong dahon :D

aka Kikkoman

Closest-looking thing to cane vinegar in Carrefour.
Everything else was of a darker shade!

Fast forward to three hours later, back at the house, the scent of vinegar floated its way to the uppers floors from the kitchen, and Miel started to worry. He tasted the adobo and found it too sour for his taste. He opened all the windows to let out the smell. Meanwhile, I added some water to lessen the acidity, and crossed my fingers that the adjustments will work out well.

When Caro arrived, we decided to have a bottle of red with our Filipino fare of adobo, chopped tomatoes, scrambled egg and rice. Voila! The dish was a hit. Caro enjoyed it, even if for me, it had a distinct, tangy aftertaste not present in our adobos. It turned out, the vinegar we used was made of wine, and sniffing its bottle alone, one can already tell how much sharper the acidity bites.

Caro doesn’t seem to mind, though, as she helped herself to an extra serving. Miel and I were satisfied too. We migrated our conversations into the living room, lit the fireplace, and opened another bottle of wine.

Adobo with a French twist!

Before we knew it, it was way past our bed time. Bonne nuit!