Saturday 29th August: Hot with clear skies all day: 20°C to 31ºC.
Altdorf to Klausen Pass Hotel: 17K: 11.00am to 4.30pm: 4hrs 30 mins - PLUS Bus (10min) Cable Car (30min)
Altdorf is William Tell country
Highlight of the day was walking the high Schachental Hohenweg, 17k at an average height of 1800metres, with very little up and down. Far above the valley surrounded by alps, meadows, cows and dairy farms, the hike is spectacular.
The day begins with an ordinary breakfast - no one has slept much the night before with the constant noise of traffic and revellers outside and 24ºC heat preventing us from shutting the windows until the early hours of the morning. We're out the door before 9am and go hunting for a sports store to replenish our gas bottles but no store sells the iso butane with a screw top lid. Despite lots of help from locals, and an hour wandering around the streets of Altdorf, the only bottles we find are camping gaz. As we leave empty handed from the last store, there's bus at the bus stop with hoards of trekkers getting on and after checking it's destination, we find it's headed to Burglen-Brugg, where we intend to get the cable car up to 1600m at Briel to start our hike. So we climb on board and a few k down the road, we spy the sports store Imholz that we have been searching for as we've found it on the internet and it looked the most likely place for the right screw top bottle with isobutane. We're in luck and 2 bottles later, one each for the boys to carry, we're walking the next 1k up the road to the base of the cable car. It's 31ºC and we're already sweating.
Looking for shade for coffee
Hot dry day under blue skies
30ºC and kids doing a roaring trade selling cordial to hot trekkers - us!
Road through freshly cut meadow
Lunch under a shady tree
Beautiful day in the Alps
Waterfall in the valley
Hotel Klausen in distance
Tea break with 30mins to Hotel
Graham races ahead to hotel first
There's 2 cable cars, and we choose the one to Biel. The tickets are NOT 1/2 price - we each bought a Swiss half fare card for 120CHF to get half fare prices on trains, buses and most cable cars - but not this cable car. There's a change of car half way up, and we arrive at Biel, almost 1000 metres above the valley floor, at 11am. It's still warm at 27ºC as we head off up the road through freshly cut meadows - the farmers in summer seem to be always cutting, flicking (to turn the hay over), or bailing into huge rolls for winter feed.
An hour down the track and it's warm - make that hot - dehydrating weather. The alps are surrounded by a summer haze. There's hundreds of day trekkers out. Most get a cable car to the top, then walk 10k or so to the next cable car that they get down. The balcony walk is just beautiful with constant views down to the valley below, across to the alps on the other side and behind us. But time for a coffee - in the shade! More road to stroll down and we're thirsty again. Some enterprising young kids have set up a drinks stall under an umbrella to catch the thirsty trekkers on this hot day. We stop, and buy a large plastic cup each of fizzy lolly water for CHF2.50 - an expensive cup of cordial - but it's nice and the kids are having fun and so are we so who cares.
Another hour or so and we're looking for a lunch spot and find an assortment of stones and logs under a shady tree. My thermometer instantly drops from 27ºC in the sun to 20ºC in the shade. Amazing! We think that someone had a template for 2hrs 15 minutes because for the past hour we've been looking at signs that tell us its still 2hrs 15 mins to the Klausen Pass. We're all thirsty and after spying our Klausenpass Hohe around the corner further up towards the pass, we think its time for another cup of tea before the last crunch. There's a perfect spot on a seat overlooking a waterfall in the valley and across to the Klausenpass Hohe. Then off again. Graham leads the way, his tongue hanging out for the first beer. The hotel is a very old timber structure, and is crowded with passers by - mostly motorists and motorcyclists, but very few walkers.
Our rooms are on the top floor and we're immediately wary when we spy ear plugs on the duchess in the room - for the traffic? the waterfall, the other guests? We'l tell you in the morning. After a nice shower down the hallway, the boys go down for a beer whilst the girls wash and blog. An hour later we're all downstairs having a warmish beer and a wine with ice. A la carte dinner is wonderful and we select pork with either salad, chips or vegetables. The view over the valley on sunset is magical. We need an early night after the fracas outside last night that kept everyone awake.