The Walking Dom

Jul 31

Jul 31 Dry-ish

Section 6-9
Altdorf-Meiringen

Podcast of the day: Dirty John

Song of the day: ‘Motion Sickness’ by Phoebe Bridgers

I miss: Nothing at all. K fine. Maybe a shower.

Yesterday I made it to a tiny shelter only seconds before it started pouring like there was no tomorrow. Being high up in the mountains, with poles in hand, I always feel a bit uneasy when the weather turns nasty. Thunder and lightning all around me, I was so thankful that the Swiss build little cabins literally everywhere they can. Even on mountain tops. I sat under a tiny old barn roof which looked like it could break down any minute. But it didn’t and I stayed dryish. After a few minutes the worst of the storm had passed and when the clouds moved, I got my first glimpse of the Wetterhorn. A gorgeous, epic mountain which marks the beginning of Berner Oberland. The section I was probably looking forward to the most. I’ll hit Eiger, Mönch and Jungfrau all in one day. I mean… wtf more do you want?

Now that I'm slowly hiking past the peaks with big names, I'm finally starting to get a better understanding of this country and where everything is. We, or at least I do, fly around the world to see amazing places when in fact, we can just hop in a train for an hour and we're right there. I'm so happy I took the decision to hike this trail even if Corona sort of made the decision for me. At first I thought it would maybe be a bit too ‘nice’ or not rough enough, or too popular but non of that is true. Once you stop comparing this trail with the long tracks of the world it becomes this beautiful thing. You hit an Alphütte or two a day and instead of eating dull tortillas with canned tuna for weeks, you'll get to enjoy delicious mountain food for lunch. No carrying around massive food bags at all. I love it.

I've been on trail for seven days now and I'm already half way through the country (told you it's tiny). My legs feel tired, I'm in need of a shower and on top of that I stepped on my glasses yesterday so I'm currently navigating blind. But despite all that, or probably because of all that, hiking is the best thing in the world.