Wednesday 19th August:Cool morning, overcast, sunny spots. Afternoon misty rain and cold. 12°C to 5°C.
Gstaad to Lenk: 17K: 9.45am to 4.45pm: 7hrs plus 20 mins cable car Leiterli to Lenk
Accommodation: Hotel Waldrans
Morning rain on first morning
Highlight was walking up the Turbach valley through green golf-course-like meadows intermingled with Swiss chalets. Next best thing was getting out of the mud at the top of the Trutlisberg pass and catching the last cable car down into the Lenk valley.
Breakfast at the Post-Hotel Rossli was absolutely magnificent. A full Swiss breakfast with an array of cheeses, meats, youghurts, burcher meusli, hot teas and coffees, and hot fresh bread. We all left the table feeling like stuffed pigs. Ian and I walked down to the local Coop, enjoying the pretty village of Gstaad, host to many famous tennis championships, obvious by the life size bill-boards of renowned tennis stars both past and present. Some cheese, butter, bread, lettuce, mayonnaise and chocolate later, and we're back at the hotel divvying up our haul between the 4 of us to carry for lunch.
Start of walk from Posthotel Rossli
A day on the green
Someone has to take the morning coffee photo
Trutlisburg Pass at 2038m
Lunch in the pooey mud at the Trutlisberg pass
View from the Bietelberg Express cable car to Lenk
Sunlight below the mist
Finally arrive at Lenk
It's 9am when we leave, but there’s a slight hiccup. One of Ian's telescopic trekking poles was jammed and 45 minutes later after stomping and twisting with a pair of pliers from the hotel, we're on our way.
It's 10º C and misty as we walk steeply up the valley towards Tarbach for about 4k. The Alpine Pass Route (APR) is supposed to be indicated by the No 1 symbol on signs, but the first one we see is about 2hrs into the walk. Misty rain sets in. Time to don rain gear and have a coffee break near a wood pile. The track is just a farmer’s road and continues up through pretty green pastures until we cross several cow fences. The cows weren't the problem. It's what they did to the track that created a pooey muddy mess that we tried to step around until deciding it was futile. Two other hikers walking towards us with rain pants and shoes covered in muddy goo gave us an indication of what lay ahead.
The temperature dropped to 6ºC as we climbed the muddy track and at 2.45pm, we reach the Trutlisberg Pass at 2038m, a climb of 1,000m up from Gstaad. There's no picnic spot so lunch is had standing in the mud, with a hunk of bread and a slab of cheese. It was not the right place for a sit-down picnic with our nicities from the Coop this morning. There's no time to dawdle. It's either a 3hr steep 900 metre descent into Lenk, or a 1hr flat walk to the Leiteril Cable car which we elect to do.
Another 2hrs of fast trekking across more muddy tracks, with occasional limestone for relief, and we reach the cable car just in the nick of time at 4.45pm - we're the last ones on as it's due to stop at 5pm. Amazingly, after only 5 minutes of descent, we drop out of the mist into the sunny valley below, change cable cars at Stoss and arrive in Lenk to a much warmer sunny afternoon. Taking cable cars on steep downhill sections was my concession for getting to hike again this year in Europe, when it was supposed to be a cycling trip. I was quietly pleased with today's decision after our first long day in the mud.
My pre-prepared mini maps of each town indicating the location of our hotel and local Coop supermarket came in very handy and soon we're shopping for dinner which we've already decided will be the lunch we didn't have time for, plus smoked salmon, more fresh bread with a few beers and a bottle of Syrah (local Swiss shiraz). Next stop is our Hotel Waldrand and we're given rooms about 100 metres apart despite our request on booking.com for rooms side by side. We've found this often happens with booking.com - sometimes you're treated as normal guests, other times you're treated as third rate cheapskates who have booked a discount room rate and deserve the worst room in the hotel.
After an hour of washing off mud from clothes and rain gear, then showering, it's time to eat. Our rooms are too small for a feast, so we take all our bits and pieces of food and drinks into the kids playroom and set up our dinner on a small table. We're all tired and stuffed as we go to bed at 9pm without even writing a word of blog. No doubt I'll be awake early and can do it then