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Marlowe Tyson Peck

Winter camping on Mont de Bière, December 1994

In December 1994, young Marlowe Peck, then aged 10, began to feel claustrophobic watching cartoons and playing computer games in Gimel, Switzerland, and decided to go camping in the mountains of the Swiss Jura.

With an anticipatory grin, Marlowe sets out from the Pré d'Aubonne, near the Col du Marchairuz, on a chilly 17 December 1994, and invites Dad to come along if he wants to.

As the long shadows of early evening (4:30 p.m.) begin to close in, Marlowe searches about for a good, flattish, soft camping spot, snuggled into the notch between Mont de Bière and Mont-de-Bière-Devant.

Good thing Dad agreed to come along, because he's got all the heavy stuff.

Good spot, Marlowe! Flattish. Sort of soft. A view out over Lake Geneva off in one direction, to the right . . .

and out towards France in the other. Now Marlowe's thinking about dinner!

Wave goodbye to the sun, 17:30 hours, 17 December 1994.

Maybe a little colder than some of us expected, so very cannily, Marlowe commandeers the four-seasons bag, and Dad gets the summer bag from K-Mart.

Time for many of us to go to sleep now. Right, Marlowe? Time to go to sleep now, is it?

Marlowe says "No, I think I'll stay up and read for a while. The light doesn't bother you, does it?"

1. "Marlowe, it's 2 a.m. Give it a rest, will you?"
2. "Okay, Dad. Night-night. What time is breakfast?"

Marlowe packs up camp in the morning -- a fairly cold morning! -- and prepares to head up towards Mont-de-Bière-Devant for a brisk matutinal constitutional, as it were.

And we're off.

Once home, back in Gimel, fortified by hot chocolate, Marlowe resumes computer games on two Macintoshes simultaneously, in a spasm of mental dexterity and hand-eye coordination.

Wisely taking frequent breaks from her Mac computer games. Only, however, to dash across the room for some IBM PC computer games . . .

and then to dash back across to the Macs when one of the games goes "BEEP". Can you think of anything better to do in beautiful downtown Gimel? Besides watching the cows march up and down the high street?

The blue dot is Marlowe's camping place, between Mont de Bière (green) and Mont de Bière Devant (red)

Feedback and suggestions are welcome if positive, resented if negative, . All rights reserved, all wrongs avenged. Posted 4 May 2002, revised 2 July 2008, 28 August 2014.

Marlowe Tyson Peck