Glacial Inspiration

10 Sep 2008. Take the postal bus from Kippel to Fafleralp.

This is the end of the road - only walkers, cows and marmots beyond this point! Truly astonishing landscape, every glacial feature you ever learned about. Grundsee - crystal clear water over turquoise sediment, Guggisee - the opposite - like a caramel milkshake!

Roaring rivers with dippers looking for their lunch; alpine flowers; tadpoles and tiny frogs; precipitous hillsides reminiscent of the "Last of the Mohicans"; nervous deer; very shy marmots.

At 2000m, the crowning glory is Langgletscher - a living wall of ice - rocks balanced like "penny falls" 100 ft above you - don't get too close! Twin tunnels have somehow bored though the glacier, spewing murky freezing water into the valley below. All around is the debris of thousands of years of freeze/thaw and forces beyond our imagination.

This was a real experience - UNESCO recognise it as such, and the whole area is highly protected - its a very special environment.

Last bus home, a welcome shower and a good meal by the tent before broken sleep under a clear, freezing sky and the tolling bell of Kippel!