Thursday 27th August: Very Warm with clear skies all day: 18°C to 25ºC.
Tannalp to Engelberg: 10K: 9.10am to 1.10pm: 4hrs, Plus 3hrs of cable cars to the Titlis and Engelberg
Sunrise from Berggasthaus Tannalp
Views to Wetterhorn from Tannalp
Leaving Berggasthaus Tannalp
Wetterhorn
Jenny strides out with steel legs
Milk cans hauled to dairy at top
Lake Englestensee
Morning Coffee at Jochpass 2200m
Looking down on Lake Trubsee
Lunch with Titlis in background
Looking down at Engelberg
Crowded cable car to the Titlis
25ºC at the top of the Titlis
Panrama 1
Panorama 2
Panorama 3
Panorama 4
Panorama 5
STUNNINGLY SPECTACULAR DAY - sounds like a repeat of yesterday and it was. Warm weather for most of the day, almost hot at 25ºC. After a 4hr walk, we spent the afternoon up and down in cable cars, reaching the Titlis at 3020m, with an amazing panorama over the alps on a gloriously warm day.
Another splendis Swiss Breakfast at the Berggasthaus Tannalp. The usual cereals, meats an cheeses with hot fresh breads and tea or real coffee. It's a glorious morning and our first step outside tells us it's already 18ºC - very warm considering we're at about 2000 metres. The alps are glorious, the weather warm, and we've decided that it's such a magical day that we'll take a cable car to the Titlis and see the panorama of the alps on this magnificent day.
At 9.10am, we leave and hike the 100 metre winding descent to Engstlenalp, a beautiful village with an old Victorian hotel set beside the Engstlenalp Lake in a small wooded area beside meadows with fly covered cows. It's good dairying country and we pass a trolley laden with empty milk cans ready to be hauled on a cable to the top of the mountain where the cows are milked at the dairy. It's only a 2hr hike, and a 400 metre ascent out of Engstlenalp to Joch Pass at 2220 metres where we have coffee besdie the chairlift station ferryring people from Engstlenalp on one side and Truebsee on the other.
A 400 metre steep descent to Trubsee Lake and it's time for lunch. Hiking revolves around breakfast, morning tea, lunch. afternoon tea, beer and nuts time then dinner. It's is not possible to lose weight even with a 7 hour difficult walk each day.We're looking for shade on the warm day but there's none, so we opts to have lunch by the lake with the ducks at a picnic table. There's a fast running steam coming down from the mountains into the lake and our water is warm in our bottles, but with cows up stream, its only good for washing plates and feet - not drinking.
A sort stroll around the lake and we're at the Trubsee - Titlis cable car station where we but tickets to go up to Klein Titlis (3028m) in the world's first revolving cable car, then down all the way to Engelberg, a drop of more than 2000 metres. The cable car is jammed pack with mostly Asians as we swing upwards to the Titlis. We have our jumpers and warm weather gear handy, but on exiting the car, it's a coolish but not cold 18ºC and in teh sun, even warmer despite the 3000m altitude. There's a platform walk from which we enjoy the Panorama of the Alps of the Bernese Oberland with views from Left to right of the Sustenhorn (3504m) Finsteraahorn ((4274m) Jungfrau (4158m), Monch (4099m) Eiger (3970m), Mittlehorn (3704m) Welterhorn (3701) and Wildhorn (3248m), amount dozens of other peaks. To the other side is the Rhone Valley, with lesser peaks in the distance.
After admiring the panorama for an hour, we decide to have a beer in the seated area whilst still enjoying the view, but it has just closed, so a Jetboil cup of tea is net best. Just enough time to have my photo taken with images of Indian Bollywood movie stars - clearly catering to the Indian clientele who dominate the numbers at the Titlis.
It takes an hour to descend to Engelberg (at 1002m) with several changes from a rotating cable car to fixed cable car to gondola. It's a warm 25ºC in the valley. Using my rough google maps plan we head off looking for the Familel and Jugendherbege Berggasthaus. It's no where to be seen until we ask a guy digging in his garden where this address is, showing him my notes, and he points to the house 20 metres from us. We didn't recognise it because it was the local youth hostel. No matter, we've stayed in them before and they usually suit us perfectly. But this one doesn't open until 5pm and it's now 4.30, so we have time for a trip back up town to the Coop to buy a picnic dinner.
We arrive back, and the hostel is open. Our double rooms are very basic but clean and have their own shower (but the toilet is up the corridor). No time for any unpacking as we head back downstairs to have a beer and nuts while the beer from the Coop is still cold. It's still a warm 25ºC and we're thirsty. four beers later and we're upstairs having a shower and sorting backpacks before heading back to our picnic table for a feast of salad and salmon, our staple picnic fare, with a bottle of 19CHF Swiss Syrah, which isn't as nice as our 14CHF Syrah, we'd had a fe days before.
Bed time after another fabulous day in the mountains
Panorama 6
Panorama 7
On top of the world
Being seen with Indian Bollywood stars