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Published: March 31st 2013
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Today is the day….I finally get to walk on the glacier! I am at the designated place at 8.30am and we are kitted out with socks, shoes, trousers, jackets, a bag, hat and gloves! We then walk over to the heli-pad and quash together as four of us head up, for our 5minute flight to the glacier.
On the glacier, we put on our crampons – which were in the bag we were given, and head off, following our guide. It takes a tentative step or two to feel comfortable, walking with big metal cages on your feet, but I soon get the hang of it, and stride over the ice.
You can tell we follow one of the set routes through the glacier, but I guess it has to be, guides can’t just go exploring with groups of tourists on unknown sections in case they fall in a crevasse or such like. At least with several routes, and being early in the morning, it doesn’t feel too touristy, and our guide actually has to cut steps with an ice pick, so we can follow.
We spend around 3 hours, walking on the glacier, heading into caves, looking
in crevasses and admiring the beautiful sparkling deep blue colours. The deeper the hue of blue means the less air is present in the ice and the more compact it is – therefore it absorbs less light that falls on it, reflecting more of the blue in the light spectrum – giving it the darker blue colour.
The glacier, like all the others round the world is shrinking at quite an alarming rate, with 40m of snow falling and settling a year to maintain its current size, and a good 5 – 7 years of snow fall at this level for any net growth to occur.
We are back in the town by 1pm, and I use up some left over lettuce and some tuna to enjoy a very yummy lunch which I washed down with water collected from the glacier – beautiful! After I head to the Tatare tunnels – built to transport water to wash the gold mined in the area and then to Callery Gorge. I then jog the route back, as the walk is a tad boring.
My tour on the glacier also gives me free entry into the glacier hot pools here.
I decided to check it out, not expecting much, but it was glorious. Part of a spa, there are three open air pools, open at 40 degrees, one at 38 and one at 36 degrees. I spend about an hour and a half sitting in the pool really relaxing. I didn’t realise quite how much I need it, my leg muscles were so relaxed that I could barely walk when I got out!
After a bit of organising the next few days of transport and hostels, I decide to make this a treat day, and head out for dinner, to make a change from the standard vegetables and pasta. Needless to say after a nice meal and very relaxed, I sleep so well!
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