After a fab stay on lake Orta we headed via the supermarket to replenish supplies into Switzerland. Uncharted territory for both of us really - I did come through Switzerland many years ago but Dr Fred has never been before.
The mountains are majestically amazing With snow on top and glaciers. The roads are very good, I suppose they have to be, there aren't many of them - and there are a lot of lorries.
We climbed higher and higher, through some amazing spectacular scenery and eventually parked up by the giant Eagle on the Simplon Pass. Its just glorious up here... crisp cooler air - still 26 ° but no humidity.
We climbed to look at the eagle statue .. sat there watching a helicopter almost land as workers jumped ... then it disappeared over the mountain only to come back 10 mins later with more workers jumping out. It felt faintly thrilling like being 4 yrs old and getting excited to see a digger🤣🤣🤣 .. tbh there were loads of helicopters all over the place...
Mid afternoon and only 20° total bliss and we got quite energised at the thought of using the duvets for sleep that night.
In the morning Dr Fred planned and executed a walk up a mountain top just over the road...the Hubschhoron..
3192m - starting at the pass which is 2006m... it would have been unthinkable for him to be in the Alps and not reach some kind of summit.
I sorted the wine out.. eveytime we go in a supermarket I buy wine but we havent really been drinking much - I keep stashing it around the van... I needed to take stock and organise it. To be fair there was less than I thought... must bear this in mind next time I,min the supermarket..
We dont have data allowance for Switzerland - its not part of the EU so I had bought an add on which meant Dr Fred had to take my phone up the mountain just in case... fortunatley he didnt need it. I resorted to reading a real book a revisit of an old Iris Murdoch - The Accidental Man... I remember loving this book and in fact anything by Murdoch but quite honestly 50 years on I found it tedious and gave up about a third of the way through... tastes change and some novels really date.
I climbed the small rise by the road and sat sewing on a bench but it was so sunny... much cooler temperatures but deceptive as you are so high up and easy to catch the sun - so I sat until I felt the sun cream had run its max and then had a little explore down the track... not a lot going on.
Dr Fred outing was quite epic and took longer than we had expected - so taking into account he was fairly knackered and we would just be sleeping in a layby a bit further down the valley we opted to stay another night on the pass. Its a busy place but calms down a lot after 7,00ish - also the faciltues while basic are immaculate and free... other than the 2 swiss francs per person to sleep here.
Quiet night and we were on our way down the valley quite early. We did manage to get totallly lost going through / by/ in.. Visp we got caught up in kilometres of tunnels and ended up doing the saame circuit twice... thank technology for mrs sat nav....
Back in France back on a network and now to plan the lasy few weeks as we drive up France.
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