Swiss Alps

Well, we thought the Austrian Alps were spectacular, but that was before we moved westward into Switzerland. Now, oh my goodness gracious, we have even bigger, steeper, snowier and even more dramatic mountains!

The Swiss Alps are fantastic. Georgie, with her amazing navigatrix skills has directed Ebenezer into even more twisty and turny and unbelievably spectacular roads, with tunnels and switch-backs and incredible precipices and really narrow sections that get the heart thumping. Talk about FUN!

Whilst sucking on real Swiss chocolate we drove up amongst the glaciers and misty mountain tops. We drove so high that the chips, muesli and dried fruit packets inflated to almost bursting with the low pressure. As we write this we are three kilometres above sea level and looking out over unbelievably deep and gorgeous valleys. There are glaciers above and below us that occasionally peek out of the clouds and shine silver white in the slowly setting sunlight.

At lunch time on the first day, even though we were perched well above the snowline, the temperatures were high enough to sit outside on camp chairs with nowt but Tshirts protecting our torsos whilst we ate our sandwiches. Quite remarkable really. It is no wonder the waterfalls below the snow and ice were roaring to such an extent, considering those very warm conditions. I must say it was not unpleasant for a couple of soft Aussies from the tropics.

The next day, Rod’s early morning walk above the tree line was an absolute delight, despite the biting cold. He realised just how the lack of oxygen at high altitudes can affect the metabolism when trying to scramble up steep spongy soggy escarpments with loose lichen and moss coated rocks to extreme heights. It kinda makes you dizzy and gurgles the guts a bit. Nevertheless the enormous views and the weird and wonderful wild flowers made it all worthwhile. Those high altitude wild flowers had some very unusual forms, and they were all madly taking advantage of the lack of snow cover to go through the whole reproductive cycle as quickly as they could. Everything was out and blooming all at once. Quite a delight really.

The twisty mountain roads through the Alps are a motorcyclist’s heaven, and there were plenty of wonderful bikes out there taking advantage of it. Once again, this pleased Rod no end, but, there were numerous jealous sighs emitted by him as gorgeous classy cycles roared past, hanging low around the tight corners and powering then braking hard along the short straights. He misses his Ducati…

As we drove up and over one tall steep narrow and winding mountain pass, the very same one that was used in James Bond’s ‘Goldfinger’ for a car chase, the sky turned an ominous dark blue-grey. This added even more to the fantastic views, creating a wonderfully dramatic quality to the already breath-taking scenery. Then the lightning and thunder began, prompting us to feel a little worried for the super healthy bicyclists rolling down the road. And then big drops splattered on the windscreen, water mixed with snow! We were driving through sleet! We slowed down even more than before as the sleet turned to hail, until we found a suitable place to pull off and set up camp for the night.

The next early morning walk of Rod’s had him following an ancient trail around the ice-caked mountain and through age-old tunnels carved into the rock. He became very excited when he spotted a large rodent-like creature scurrying up the hillside. We think it was an alpine marmot. Later, Georgie spotted one too.

We now have a new favourite place on the planet.