Relaxing in Swiss Val Ferret

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After yesterday's massive effort, we definitely needed a rest. In a trek, a rest doesn't mean lying on your back to get sun tanned; rather it means a nice and easy walk. This is exactly what we had today. We started with a short descent to the town of Champex with its fine lake. We stocked up with fresh bread and fruit, so we spent maybe half an hour feeding the ducks with yesterday' bread. In the beginning the ducks were pretty far from us, so I went to bring them, leading them with little pieces of bread. It was really funny. (Ron and Dana named the picture “Anat Akka” after the wild geese leader in Selma Lagerlof’s Nils Holgersson). The walk up the valley was partially in the woods and partially between green fields and little villages. This meant some different views, different from the high mountains, snow and glaciers. For example, we saw a garden full of garden dwarfs... Great! (The Belgian “free the garden dwarfs” underground would have a lot of work here). We reached our destination at La Fouly already by 14:30, giving us enough time for laundry, Internet (where I uploaded the posts of the first days), and some very good rest. Dinner was very good, and for a change we were not too tired to drink some wine. Tomorrow we leave Switzerland for Italy, we are already waiting for the ice cream :-)

One of the thoughts that filled my mind today was "why?". I'm sure some of you wander too. It's an especially valid question in a day like today, when we were not far from the road at any given time. The answer is 'time'. If I had passed this valley driving up the road, I would have appreciated the view for a moment and move on. I wouldn't have inhaled it. I wouldn't have seen the garden dwarfs. I wouldn't have seen the upper valley with the shape of a menorah. I wouldn't have seen the little pieces of a glacier in altitude of 1400m that probably avalanched down here. I wouldn't have relaxed the entire afternoon knowing I totally deserve that. It would have been so different. I happen to like it this way.

(P.S. I’m adding this now when I upload the post. As I wrote before, all the posts were written during the trek on my pocket PC, and I upload them as they are. Even for me it becomes interesting to read this from the comfort of my home, reminds me of the intense feelings of the trek. Notice that I added pictures to the previous posts that were uploaded while in La Fouly).

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Photos

A surprising piece of glacier
Really surprsing in the temperature around us. It's probably remnants of an avalanche. And it's real ice.. it's cold and nice