I left the campsite early, after escaping someone who seemed to live out their retirements on this campsite and wanted to talk to me about their deceased parent and how while walking, you have time to think about life, the universe and everything. I was not sorry I had a train to catch, though they did tell me that what moved my stove around in the night (I found it fallen over and half out of the tent, definitely not how I left it last night) could have been a fox.
That train took me 10 minutes to the next town, which had a bigger store. I wanted to get some supplies for the next few days of crossing, and couldn't get them at the small store in the town where I camped. I was back in Innertkirchen by 9.50, all stocked up and on schedule to reach Guttannen before 15.00. The weather forecast was clear that it would storm and rain, but not before 15.00, so I wanted to get to the hotel by then.
Today's short hike (just over 3 hours, it took me 4 including breaks) took me into the Aare valley, towards the Grimselpass, following the river. And it felt so good to finally be moving towards my goal again. I was getting pretty tired of all the wandering around, not really making headway. It was very useful for training, but I'm glad it's over. So mountains, here I come! Well, the day after tomorrow. But at least I'm on my way again and it feels good.
First, there wasn't too much climbing, the end (or beginning, depending on your perspective) of the valley is quite flat. Once the path started climbing the slight headache I had got worse, which somewhat lessened my enjoyment. But it wasn't too bad, it didn't hurt badly all the time.
I came to a forest, and as soon enough I was 10m into it, I was plagued by stinging flies again. So I went back out, covered every bit of exposed skin and clothing in insect repellant and tried again. It helped a lot.
After a while of climbing through the fort, I came to the road, and really, all those people are cheaters. The only true way of traveling is on foot, feeling every step, and every bit of altitude gained. I get to the same awesome views but I work for it and that makes it feel like a reward every time.
This climb really felt different from what I've done in the last few days. I was still well below 1000m, but it felt much more like high mountains, it's a different landscape from the lower peaks I've been to so far.
The path mostly followed the river, which is awesome, I kept getting beautiful views of river and running water and small waterfalls and I so love all of those. I came to a part where the riverbed was very wide, though at the moment the river is just a small one, running fast, but not wide. But when the snow melts, all of that must be river. There was a even a sign 'danger zone, cross quickly' where the path ran level with the bottom of the river bed for a while. The flash floods that can happen here must be amazing and awe-inspiring to see. Also, I totally understaand why they have a hydroelectric plant in Innertkirchen (I passed it yesterday).
Views of mountains, snow, glaciers. And I'm going towards all that. I kept wanting to stop to look at things and take pictures, which was pretty inefficient. But I had 5 hours to walk something that should take 3 so I was in no hurry.

And again, like yesterday, like every time I'm in the mountains, I feel like I belong here. This is the landscape I was made for. I'm not made for the Netherlands, with its flat meadows and horizons and tamed forests. I belong in this landscape, with the mountains, the views, the running rivers and waterfalls, the forests that just dominate an entire mountainside, nature that won't let itself be tamed. And like every time I'm in the Alps, I wonder why I live in the Netherlands. And like every time, I know that it's because I don't want to give up the people I know and love there, the scenes I hang around in, the life I have built for myself. But if I ever get the chance to live and work in Switzerland for a few months or a year, I'm going to take it.

I made it to the hotel just after 14.00. The hotel room has a window seat and I've been sitting in it, watching the bad weather get closer. I've done some laundry, hung out my tent so it can dry properly. Around 16.00 I heard the first thunderclap. It's weird to be indoors hut once it started raining it also became pleasant. I took a nap, I'm actually pretty damn tired so the day off tomorrow (40mm of rain is not weather I want to be outside in) is welcome. I can rest and recharge for the 5 days of crossing the mountains after. I am very much looking forward to those days.

A note: you might notice I'm not logging step data, like I used to. That's because the step counts I have are totally unreliable. I have a new activity tracker, a Garmin, which I hoped would be better than my fitbit at counting steps going up and down. But no, if anything it's worse. I've tested it a few times, counting a 100 steps myself; going up, garmin once counted 17, once 0. Going down it counted 40. So there is no point in logging those, unfortunately. I miss it. I will once I get to more level ground.

Geschreven door Jewaontheroad