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And so, finally, I arrive in Lauterbrunnen, a village hemmed in on all sides by 600m high cliffs, enormous mountains and scores of waterfalls:

It was a bit disappointing arriving here by train… if only – IF ONLY! – I’d pushed on for another 12 days after I stepped foot into Switzerland, I would have been able to arrive here by foot having walked the entire way from Trieste. Regrets, regrets!

Lauterbrunnen is a superb base for day hikes, and if you hike up almost one vertical mile to the foot of the glaciers in the above photo, you can look back on the village at the bottom:

On a hot, clear, sunny day like today this is one of the best places to be in the world. For the rest of the time: when it rains, when it’s foggy or when it snows, be under no illusion: it’s crap!

I’ve been taking lots of photos on the hikes I’ve been doing but I’m not going to post them yet. For a start, most of them are so bad I could probably get a prize exhibit at the Tate Modern. But also, I have a friend coming over for a week and I figured I would hold back the photos incase the weather is bad when she gets here. Then I can amuse myself (and only myself) by saying things like: This is what you could have seen if it wasn’t raining. This is what you could have seen if it wasn’t foggy. This is what you could have seen if it wasnt stormy…!

I am now thinking about the next stage of my trip, which is to cycle from Perth to Sydney. Naomi – yes, I named my bicycle! – will arrive in Australia this week. I’ve been in touch with the shipping company and there’s a chance that they will hold Naomi to ransom! They insist on calling it import duty but to me: it’s a ransom. They hold Her. I pay. They release Her. Call it what you will: but it sounds like a ransom to me! She is less than 1 years old which is why there’s a problem. I figured I would buy Her as close to the departure date as possible so there was less chance of Her being stolen in England and traded for a syringe full of heroin.

Either way, I did expect this, but when they do slap an import duty on Her, it’s going to hurt. A lot.

She is also going to be subject to quarantine. “She might be DIRTY. She might have a DISEASE!” they tell me. “Where has she been? Where has she been ridden? Has she been around a bit?”. How disrespectful!?!

Naomi is a Thorn eXp which means nothing to anyone unless you’re into cycle touring or want to blow a fortune to see if you ARE into cycle touring like myself. When I first visited SJS Cycles down in Bridgwater, I ordered the Sherpa Expedition which was more than adequate for my needs. Then I pondered. Then I mused. I looked for excuses, for justification to buy The Beast That Is The eXp, and I couldn’t find any. So I stopped. And bought it anyway. Engineering is something you tend to equate with Germany, or Switzerland, but not with England. But this bike *IS* engineered. It’s a work of art.

On the grounds that shiny things attract magpies, and realizing that if it was good enough for Madonna it was good enough for me, I went for a black one:

A rather poor picture of Naomi without all the panniers. But still pornographic.

It’s fair to say I’m looking forward to the Australia leg of the trip. I can’t wait to get started! But if it rains a lot, I’m going to be very, very, VERY, gutted!

In Switzerland, all is good here! I might well stay here for another four weeks or so… the accommodation is cheap and the food nearby is good. Oh, yes, it’s GOOD! The Hotel Oberland here does what is perhaps the most arterially-destructive Rosti known to man: the Truckers Rosti. Hash brown. Cheese (lots of it). Minced beef (lots of it). Fried bacon. Oh, YEAH, BABY! Every night that I tuck into this life-shortening menace I promise I will improve my diet tomorrow. But it’s hikers food. It’s darn good. They even do an Oberland Rosti that throws in a fried egg as well for those who definitely NEVER want to save for a pension.

As they knock me out in the hospital in two years, Aged 35, to perform a quadrupal heart bypass, I will have fond memories of the time I spent here.

I’ll be in Lauterbrunnen for a while so updates might be few and far between for some time… tchau!

Yesterday, I woke up with that familiar “I overdone it yesterday on Oberrothorn” feeling. It isn’t sufficient for me to hike up high. I want to do it fast, but without running! So I tend to wake up the next day aching a bit. Regardless, for some reason, I decided to hike up to Gornergrat which at 3089m makes it a 1500m ascent from Zermatt. From Gornergrat you get a lot of views into the valley running alongside Zermatt including it’s glaciers.

On the way up to Gornergrat there’s lots of views of the Matterhorn. Like yesterday, this was a perfect day to be in the Alps:

There is a restaurant on the way up called Riffelberg which has this daft cow outside. And where I had some Apfelstrudel:

On the way up to Gornergrat you pass Riffelsee from where you can look into the valley that runs parallel to Zermatt. It’s full of glaciers, ice and other white nastiness:

Looking back from near Gornergrat you can see the hiking trails running off in all directions. You can also take an expensive train up to and down from Gornergrat if you’re a Hefty. I would rather spend my daily budget on Apfelstrudel:

From the top of Gornergrat you can look right down into the valley and across the the mountains on the other side. On the other side of those mountains is Italy where, I assume, the waymarking becomes “fascinating” again:

The descent from here back down into Zermatt took 3 hours or so via the Grunsee restaurant (Apfelstrudel available). On the way down, I noticed a cable car going up to Hohtalli which is 200m higher than Gornergrat but which I thought was closed:

Look carefully near the bottom left for the cable car… holy sh*t!

This morning I set off to hike up to Schwarzsee which is more or less right infront of the Matterhorn. But after an hour walking along the valley I realized I was too tired for another uber-hike, so I turned back and had a coffee at a restaurant… as I did, I realized there were Marmots running about all over the place! Out came the camera with zoom attached (for the first time on this trip). The sun was strong but here’s a few images anyway:

They live right under the ski lift in the field next to the restaurant so they aren’t afraid of the noise. But regardless of how quiet, and how slowly I approached them, I couldn’t get within 30 feet. When one of them gets scared they let out an ear-piercing shrill and any of the others nearby scarper too.

Although they look like hefty little buggers they are nimble and fast over the alpine terrain. You normally find them much higher up as they scarper away from you on the hiking paths.

Tomorrow is my last day in Zermatt, then I need to decide where to go next… l8r!

[Backposted to 31-August-2009]

Overlooking Zermatt is a 3415m mountain that is ice free and can be hiked without crampons, ice axes or any other technical fancy-schmancy equipment that makes you sound hard. It’s name is Oberrothorn and I just *HAD* to get to the top of it! If anyone knows of a higher place I can get to in the Alps, that is ice free, please let me know!

As I was scoping out the route up to Sunnegg (really, the starting point for the hike) I noticed this at the bottom of a steep looking trail:

THAT SOUNDS LIKE A CHALLENGE TO ME! If I could make it up to Sunnegg in that time it would take me about an hour, much less than the 2.5/3.0 hours to get there using the other two available routes. It was particuliarly appealing because if I did badly at it I wouldn’t have to tell anyone. So, as you can tell, I did well

And so it was that in the morning I set my stop watch and started hiking up this trail. Nothing technical, just steep, and I only did it at my regular walking pace. Compared with a lot of the mountain hiking I’ve done over the last few months this wasn’t taxing at all. In all, it took me 52 minutes to get to Sunnegg which means I am technically Matterhorn fit! I’m not getting any crazy ideas about summitting the Matterhorn though. I found this website showing the Cirque de la Solitude in Corsica which I did a few years ago and even though it was only a Grade 1/2 scramble it well and truly caused my turtles head to come out to play. No more of that for me, thanks!

If you’re in Zermatt and want a quick route up to Sunnegg, this route is steep but a fast and worthy alternative way up. From Sunnegg, apart from being a place where you can get Apfelstrudel, you get your first good view of the Matterhorn:

From Zermatt, via the steep route, to the top of the Oberrothorn took me a mere 3 hours 10 minutes to gain 1800 metres. I was on fire man! Although high, not a lot of distance was covered because it was relentlessly steep throughout. At the top it felt damned good to be fit enough to do this:

Over the edge is one almighty drop!

You also get an excellent view of the Matterhorn and its surrounding mountains and glaciers. From the top of the Matterhorn to the valley at the bottom is almost 3 kilometres of vertical ascent:

On the way up and down to Oberrothorn (you have to take the same route) you get a good view of the surrounding glaciers as well which you can’t see from the Zermatt side:

You can see people on the way up. When I passed them on the way down, not a single one was smiling. Funny that!

On the way down, for some Apfelstrudle, I paid a visit to the Rothorn Paradise which is the cable car station overlooking most of the ascent/descent. You can see the Rothorn Paradise, about 75 minutes walk away, from the top of Oberrothorn on the mountain below:

The descent really seemed to take forever, first down to Blauherd, then Sunnegg and then Zermatt via Winkelmatten (a suburb) where I had some more Apfelstrudel.

I am now in a place that in English we would call “The Carpet”.

But in German, they call it Zer Mat. ZER-MATT! ZERMATT! Geddit?!

*OUTSTANDING* humour, I know!

I was wandering around St Moritz the other day when I saw a train trip advertised that I’d never heard of before called The Glacier Express. It went straight through from St Moritz to Zermatt in 7.5 hours, a place I was going to visit again anyhow. After checking the weather and confirming it was going to be a stunning day today, I signed up: I paid the (ridiculous) 204 Swiss Francs [130 pounds] for the Second Class Ticket + Meal and the deal was done.

I would like to take this opportunity to thank one Mr Gordon Brown, our unelected Prime Minister who heads our democracy, for his policies which, over the last twelve years, have caused a devaluation of Sterling by 30% against the Swiss Franc in recent years. I really enjoy paying one third more for everything here than I have done in the past. It inspires feelings in me that I rarely experience towards another individual.

The trip was scenic, as promised, the weather was stunning, the food was good, and it delivered. It was expensive but it was a one off and probably the most scenic ride I’ve ever done. For more information on the trip (infact, for more information on planning any train trips, anywhere!) check out Seat 61. I’ve used that site for planning trips around Europe, Corsica and for “my big one” from Hong Kong to England a few years ago via Beijing, Moscow and Berlin. It has to be said that that site has remained true to its roots: it’s simple, it’s not cluttered with adverts, and it gets to the point. I like it.

And today I bought my first souvenir. WOOOO! I wanted a mascot to stick on the front of Naomi when I’m cycling across Australia and I figured this was ideal!

Moooooo

It’s worth pointing out that it’s a cow GIRL not a cow BOY. I don’t even want to think of the relentless – and I mean, RELENTLESS – Brokeback Mountain references that would have come my way if I’d bought a cow boy. I’ve decided to call her Moooooo. Not Moo. Not Moooo. But Moooooo with six o’s. Please: respect! Moooooo it is!

Anyway, after seeing The Glacier Express advertised, it got me thinking that despite hiking for nearly 10 weeks I hadn’t really seen any glaciers close up. So that was my mission!

The first hike was up over Fuorcla Surlej, about 1100m above St Moritz. By going over this pass you get into the valley that runs parallel to St Moritz. You can not really see much over the top of the pass until you are standing on it… and when you do, it’s full-on, in-your-face glacial city:

OOOOH!

From Fuorcla Surlej, it’s a two hour hike around to the Coaz Mountain Hut that sits perched on a rocky outcrop. If I didn’t mind the cold, and I didn’t mind the ice, and I didn’t mind the mountain huts, and I didn’t mind paying 7 Pounds for a sandwich, this would be a great place to spend the night. From here, you can undertake any number of glacier crossings or summit attemps on the surrounding icy peaks (suitably equipped and experienced, of course). The setting is stunning:

Left: hut approach. Right: hut view.

Looking back up at the hut on the descent shows how awesome the hut location is. Can you spot it?

After that, I had heard of a place called Diavolezza Hut which is about 45 minutes by train away from St Moritz. It’s a 1000m hike up from the train station to the hut from where you once again have a good view of the rapidly retreating glaciers. On the way into the train station at St Moritz from the Lake, they have an exhibition of photographs of this place from decades ago in black and white. Small, lone figures walking across huge, vast glaciers. People hiking up sheer ice faces with pick axes and basic ropes for security (none of this fancy ice-axe stuff!). It’s mesmerizing. I had to go there!

To get to Diovolezza, I was planning to hike up to Munt Pers (3300m) that is next to it and then descend to the hut. Unfortunately, I completely lost my way. The “panorama map” (a high level, low-detailed map of the area showing the hiking trails that the Tourist Information office gives out for free) neglected to mention that the ascent was, infact, an Alpine ascent where the way markings turn from “red/white” to “blue/white”. Or had I got the wrong trail? The problem is, I’m never quite sure what Alpine means: scrambling? Climbing? Technical equipment required? Glacial crossings? Snowfields? It’s probably written down somewhere. Anyway, given I was hiking on my own, I didn’t want to chance it so I descended 300 glorious metres and then reascended in the other direction to get to the hut.

It was a good day though and higher up it was once again Alpine desert. The last hour in particular reminded me of the Schiltorn ascent (also in Switzerland) including a few easy snowfield crossings but which I still *HATE*. However, it is fair to say that my Lowa Tibet GTX Pro Mountain Boots made kicking into this snow much, much easier than my Raichl GTX’s:

The glacier views from the hut were outstanding but unfortunately my pictures are not. This is embarassingly bad:

Anyone who has gone skiing will have seen far better. But I hate the cold and can’t imagine anything worse than paying good money to put oneself in a freezing environment. Middle Eastern mythology has it wrong. My idea of Hell is cold, not warm!

Now that I’m in Zermatt, I’ll spend four days here in a cheap Hotel with a “complimentary buffet breakfast” as they call it. I beg to differ! It’s not complimentary. It’s in the PRICE. And I intend to get my moneys worth!