My Beautiful Mountains...
Landed back in sunny/rainy/sunny (repeat ad infinitum) England on Saturday. Cats have been released from kitty prison, the laundry is done, the rosti is in the cupboard and I need a new pair of walking boots because I've literally worn through the soles on my old ones. Had a wonderful holiday but I think we might need a holiday to recover from it...
Oh we walked for bloody miles! I really do mean miles, probably 140+ over the two weeks. A mix of weather was mostly kind to us, with some days cloudless and hitting 33c (91f) which was a bit too warm for hiking up hill (not saying we didn't do it, just that it was a bit warm!) We hiked in deserted valleys, surprising chamois and marmots and a newt who was swimming happily at 2400m, saw glacial lakes still frosty and snow-covered. We watched rainbow lights dance over the summit snow on the Eiger, got close enough to the North Face to be able to track the classic 1938 route up it and saw thousands of flowers thriving in the most inhospitable of places. Cat got licked by an overly friendly cow. I could barely take a picture for laughing. Ate cheese and chocolate and salami, pasta and pizza, ice cream and pastries and still managed to lose weight (hiking at altitude will do that to you!) The chalet we rented had a better view than I could ever have dreamed of and I sat on its balcony and wrote pages and pages of a new story.
On the last night we made a deal to go back there in the winter one year because life is too short and I want to see the mountains in the snow. I might have cried a little on the way home (fear of flying 30%, sadness at leaving all that behind 70%) It's nice to be back in my own bed with my own pillow, back with the cats and my tiny new garden froglets but I think a little bit of my heart will always be sitting on that balcony watching the sun setting over the Eiger...
Oh we walked for bloody miles! I really do mean miles, probably 140+ over the two weeks. A mix of weather was mostly kind to us, with some days cloudless and hitting 33c (91f) which was a bit too warm for hiking up hill (not saying we didn't do it, just that it was a bit warm!) We hiked in deserted valleys, surprising chamois and marmots and a newt who was swimming happily at 2400m, saw glacial lakes still frosty and snow-covered. We watched rainbow lights dance over the summit snow on the Eiger, got close enough to the North Face to be able to track the classic 1938 route up it and saw thousands of flowers thriving in the most inhospitable of places. Cat got licked by an overly friendly cow. I could barely take a picture for laughing. Ate cheese and chocolate and salami, pasta and pizza, ice cream and pastries and still managed to lose weight (hiking at altitude will do that to you!) The chalet we rented had a better view than I could ever have dreamed of and I sat on its balcony and wrote pages and pages of a new story.
On the last night we made a deal to go back there in the winter one year because life is too short and I want to see the mountains in the snow. I might have cried a little on the way home (fear of flying 30%, sadness at leaving all that behind 70%) It's nice to be back in my own bed with my own pillow, back with the cats and my tiny new garden froglets but I think a little bit of my heart will always be sitting on that balcony watching the sun setting over the Eiger...