A Long Trip

If one could travel from Saas Grund to Bournemouth by air the journey would take a little over an hour and a half. Alas, there is no such service and, instead, the journey took 14 hours. How come?

Well, the party of 5 (Phil, me, Dot, Beck and Max) left Phil's chalet at 9.45 to catch the bus down to Visp. the waiting and the journey itself took up the first 45 minutes. The we had a wait of about 40 minutes before catching the IC train down to Geneva airport - a direct link. That journey was very pleasant crossing the upper Rhone valley amidst great scenery before hitting Lake Geneva and all the interesting towns alongside it - including Lausanne and Montreux. We waited perhaps 2.5 hours at the airport for our easyJet flight to Gatwick, which lasted another 1.5 hours.

At Gatwick the easyJet terminal is at the outer fringes of the airport and entails long walks to get to immigration and customs. There the official gave me a long hard look before letting me in - a far cry from the days of a cheery 'welcome home', which I used to get. Then we had to find out how to get to the main terminal with the train station attached, and that necessitated using a modern shuttle train now common at so many global airports. However, the UK version had all sorts of problems that have to be fixed. We were told, for example, not to board a newly arrived train despite it opening its doors and taking us fitfully to the main terminal.

There we had to buy tickets, not easy to do from the back of a long queue. We also had to decide on a route, not easy in rush hour; and we had to be in the same place at the same time, not easy to do when Beck went off to look for a book fot Phil and appeared to get lost. After a lot of huffing and puffing we had tickets for our selected route, which could have been easy. However, (a) signal failure on a grand scale made most Southern trains late ... sometimes very late; (b) the rush hour meant they were crowded ... and several of us had to stand for long distances; (c) not much connected because the trains were out of sequence; and (d) the cross country route selected might have been cheaper, but involved a lot of changes / train splits. We changed trains at Three Bridges, Havant and Southampton - sometimes lugging masses of luggage between platforms sometimes without lifts - and our train split at Horsham.

Finally, about 9.30 or so in the evening, we reached Bournemouth and managed to find an old London cab that could take 5 people and their luggage all the way to Poole and Camford Cliffs. We arrived more or less intact, but very tired and a little fractious in Max's case at Phil's apartment at about 10.15pm UK time (or 11.15 Saas Grund time). And so to bed. There must be an easier way!

AS

Adventure Park

During our final day in Saas Grund, we stayed local, but not inactive. In fact, it was just the opposite. We headed for Saas Fee nearby and had a morning round of mini-golf, which was won by Beck, whose score included two holes in one. I also had a hole in one and Max even managed to have two holes in two! He did very well.

In the afternoon we sussed out the local adventure park and Beck, I and Max signed up for the action. Phil became the official photographer, and you will be seeing his pictures. Basically, we had a 20 minute brief in English about how to attach our safety harnesses to the various ropes and wires adorning the tall trees we were about to climb and swing between.

Then it was into action, with me in the lead, Max in the middle and Beck behind. We therefore had control of his actions and ability to insure that he was safely attached to the circuit - just as well as Max is action oriented and not always aware of his safety. The following pictures show some of the action.

We got around safely and with increasing speed and Max quickly got the hang of things, as did I. In fact, Max and Beck went around a second time while I took an early bus back to Saas Grund to meet up with Dot.

AS

Brig & Visp

Going to Interlaken in the previous post we saw an interesting sight at Visp station - a train of flat cars carrying a large number of trucks through the Simplon tunnel en route to Italy. Such trains remove a lot of slow traffic from the roads and speed up their journey to destination. (pictured)

After visiting Lauterbrunnen and the falls, we returned to Brig, which is close to Visp up the Rhone valley. It's an attractive town, with architecture more Italianate than traditional Swiss images. It is close to hot springs and the rumour is that Julius Ceasar visited the place several times. Today it looks prosperous and relaxed as the pictures show, and our visit was a relaxing occasion. After walking around for an hour, we sat down at a 'pub' to have a quiet ale ... except for Max who was ruled out of that.

The last rwo pictures show a wedding reception in the castle and Max playing with his Nintendo game, not in a sulk! And the previous one shows a rock band playing in the main square.

AS

Trummelbach Falls

Last Saturday morning we took a gamble to realise a dream. For years I have wanted to get to the top of the Jungfraujoch, and we were running out of time on this trip. However, we needed fine weather to justify the expensive tickets - 200 SF each! So we went to Interlaken by bus (down to Visp) and railway via Spietz on Lake Thun. But, by the time we reached Interlaken, the weather was closing in with low cloud and rain.

Having made the journey, which was interesting in its own right, we looked around for alternative attractionis at lower altitudes. Jungfraujoch is c. 3100m asl, whereas Interlaken is only about 700-800m. We chose to visit the Trummelbach Falls, which (a) deliver a vast amount of water to Lakes Brienz and Thun; and (b) plunge down inside a mountain! So we brought a train ticket for Lauterbrunnen and took a bus up a very steep sided, but broad, valley to the base of the falls. Several spectacular falls drop down the picturesque valley sides, as shown here.

The falls themselves lived entirely up their billing. Water levels had been swelled by the recent rain, together with meltwater from glaciers coming from the Eiger, Monch and Jungfrau peaks above. And the warm summer had ensured theh further contraction of those glaciers. We travelled up alift inside the valley sides to the level of the 5th of the 10 separate falls. We then walked up passed numerous illuminated gaps in the rock as we walked both up and down, always accompanied by a tremendous roar. The falls had long ago smotthed the channel walls through which they flowed, but hadn't managed to avoid the dramatic contortions as they twisted directions. The remaining two pictures show something of the falls, but do not do them justice.

AS

Aletsch Glacier

On Thursday, we went through the Goms - a beautiful stretch of the upper Rhone valley - past meadows and forests and high mountains. At Fiesch, we alighted (all 5 of us) to go up the mountainside to Eggishorn (at about 2950m). There we gazed down on the famous Aletsch Glacier, which is - at 23 km in legth - the longest in the Alps. It is also World Heritage Listed and truly spectacular, especially as it rises in the Jungfrau region with its series of famous peaks - Jungfrau (Virgin), Eiger (Ogre) and Monch (Monk). I attach a picture of the glacier looking towards those peaks. I appear in the foreground sitting on the edge of a precepice. Those three peaks are barely visible in the background. By the way, it wasn't warm despite my dress!

Tomorrow we're off to the Jungfrau - riding one of the great railway lins in the world as it rise something like 2500 m in 15 km - quite a journey. await the posting of this early next week.

AS

A Long Scooter Ride

Wednesday was a quieter day and we spent the morning shopping or in the local playground. After lunch, Beck and I took Max to Saas Fee (1800m) by bus and we found a scooter ride down from a nearby mountain peak. So we went up in the gondola car to about 2400m and hired 3 scooters and helmets for the c. 600m descent to Saas Fee down steep gravel roads through the local forests. The journey was about 6km long, so we went down about 100m every km. The route was quite steep and we (Max especially) had to be careful at the corners because we could have an accident if we turned too fast on the loose gravel.


Max was pleased to get to Saas Fee without coming off the scooter or having an accident. It was great fun for him! Becksaid that his age was 7 years so that he could have his own scooter. It was a tough journey and his hands and legs were tired with all the standing, rough surface and breaking that he had to do!

AS

Off for a Bath

Leuckerbad is one of those quintessential spas loved by Europeans and is located in a gorgeous setting north of the Rhone valley in the Bernese Oberland. We went there yesterday to take the waters and for Max (and me) to have fun on th waterslides.

The attached photos show the upper Rhone Valley, the steep climb up to Leuckerbad from Leuck, the baths / thermal springs, the cliff face of the southern Bernese Oberland, and a view down the valley towards Leuck. Once again, the weather was brilliant, the scenery stunning, the transport efficient (as with most things Swiss) and the occasion entertaining.

AS

29 Peaks > 4000m

We took one of the ultimate train trips in the world the other day, including a ride on the fabled Glacier Express from Visp to Zermatt and rack and pinion journey up to Gornergrat in the mountains above. At the top we were able to see 29 peaks > 4000m, inlcuding the second and third highest in the Alps (Dufourspitze - aka Monte Rosa - on the Italian border; and the Dom) and the Matterhorn, which lived up to its substantial reputation.

The pictures attached show the Glacier Express en route to Zermatt; the town of Zermatt - crawling with tourists from all over the world and best avoided at this time of year; the Matterhorn; the Dufourspitze; Castor and Pollux - twin peaks nearby; and the backside of the Dom - best viewed from Saas Grund. See my previous post about that.

AS

Kreutzboden Again

While Max was enjoying the adventure playground, and incidentally ignoring the beautiful views, Dot, Rebecca and Phil headed off to open air Mass. The main attraction was not so much the service as the yodelling group imported from Bern. In fact, it was a yodelling mass and it attracted quite a crowd. The pictures show the general scene and the yodellers at in impromptu performance outside of the Kreutzboden restaurant.

All around, there were cattle on the high pastures, while down below in the valley hay-making was in full swing and, amazingly, the fields were being watered despite heavy rain on the Saturday evening. At first site, this looks stupid, but I suppose they have to bring on the hay dramatically in the short summer months. All these activities were taking place against an impressive backdrop. Mount Allalin (4010m) and the Dom (4550m). The latter is the third highest peak in the Alps and is almost 3000m above the floor of the Saas valley below. The first picture shows Allalin and the next two the high pastures and Dom respectively.

This place is certainly inspiring.

AS

Introducing Max to Switzerland

It's lovely being on holiday in one of the most beautiful places on earth. It's even better when being in the company of one's family: Dot, Rebecca and Max. And the latter has had a wonderful time for the mostpart. A couple of days ago he found himself at an altitude of 3600m at Mittelallalin throwing snow (ice?) balls at us> The ersatz snow was culled from the lingering remans of last winter's falls, though they are fast thawing even at this exalted level. This is testified to by the raging torrents of water flowng down the mountain sides. He also enjoyed the massively long gondola rides up the mountain from Saas Fee (1800m), the steep railway journey at the end, and the ice grotto (built into the nearby glacier).

The first picture shows part of the sbowball fight. The follwing day was altogether better weather - crystal clear and sunny. This time we ascended to Kreutzboden on the other side of the Saas Valley. This was half way to summit of the nearby peaks at over 3500m. There Max found a great adventure playground and first tried his luck on a climbing wall. As far as I know he's never been climbing before and I stood horrified as he rushed, successfully, up the face (shown in the picture). The three-storey climbing frame came next, followed by the flying fox and encounters, sometimes fraught, with a herd of cows grazing the summer pastures. They looked mean and had large horns; and on several occasions Max looked apprehensive! Still, these events receded into the background when he made friends with a little boy exactly his age. Better still, he could speak English well as he came from Singapore. Beck exchanged email addresses with his parents. All told Max had a wonderful but tiring day.

Today was equally inspiring weather-wise and we headed off to see the Matterhorn - the first time Phillip has seen it cloud-free. More about this comes in  a later BLOG report. Meanwhile, Max has been scoring presents, such as purse to hold his accumulating Sfr and cents. I might need him to bail us out financially as this is an expensive spot!

Switzerland

I'm now in Switzerland for 10 days and will make several posts over the next few days. It's lovely weather here, gorgeous scenery, and lots of company because I have Dot, my brother Phillip, daughter Rebecca and 6 year old Max staying with me. The latter is just overwhelmed by this place - who wouldn't be throwing snowballs at 3600m?

AS

Chilly

After two years with little or no sun-spot activity, the world's weather has gone wild. For example, Europe, the Americas, Asia and Australia have all had massive floods. In Australia's case, Lake Eyre has flooded for the second year running and the red centre is now awash in breeding birds including, amazingly, sea-gulls. And, last winter, much of Europe had heavy snowfalls and very cold weather.

Well, Australia is following that trend and we're having the coldest winter in a long time. Yesterday morning Armidale awoke to a temperature of -11 C! The day before it was -8C, although it was a mere -5C this morning. And the days are getting cooler. The last two days saw maxima of only about 10C compared with the average of 13C. And today we will be lucky to see 8C as high cloud is now blotting out the sun.

All this has been driven by a massive high pressure system whose upper levels apparently originated over Antarctica / Southern Ocean, so the air is very dry. The growing cloud is ironically tropical air in a jet stream, but I doubt it will drop any rain. Were precipitation to occur, it would almost certainly be as snow!

AS