Mountain bridges and Swiss chocolate

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Our campsite is in a national park area so today we thought we would go explore it a bit. Some strenuous walking brought us up the hill to the Bhutanese bridge. This suspension bridge is reminiscent of the type of bridges you see in the Himalayas, just a couple of stretched wires and a timber deck looping across an enormous gaping chasm. There is even a Buddhist shrine at one end and prayer flags tied along the sides of the bridge. It is quite an impressive view and the bridge moves considerably while you walk across. On the other side is a forest area with some little timber huts, not much bigger than kennels, built by people for shelter during winter. Covered in snow they would be quite cosy and windproof, just big enough to lay out in your sleeping bag.

We had lunch on a grassy spot and thought we would have it all to ourselves for a minute but then a large group of shirtless, noisy young blokes came across the bridge and sat down nearby. They were being led by an older couple and they spread out a decent lunch for their group before all standing in a circle, arms linked and singing a chant-type song. I guess the Buddhist link stretches further than just the bridge!

After lunch we came back down the mountain and headed into the nearest town, Sierre for a look around. Em was asleep in the car by the time we got there so we picked a road that headed upward and went for a drive. We got all the way up to the highest road access, winding our way through tiny villages and farmland. At the top (halfway up the mountain) is a ski town and the base station for a ski lift, all closed at this time of year. We were most amazed by the three enormous hotel high rise towers at the top, the only access being by the same narrow and very winding road we had just driven up. As we saw later, these kinds of things are all built with the aid of helicopters around here. They just hang a chain under a chopper and fly whatever they need up there – timber, cement, everything!

Em awoke when we stopped at the top to appreciate the view (but didn’t appreciate the view much!) so we drove back down to Sierre for some afternoon tea. We couldn’t come to Switzerland without going to a Swiss chocolate shop! Em had a huge chocolate icecream snowman and we all shared a little. Afterwards, we returned to the campsite and went to the playground to run off a bit of the sugar before dinner!

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