Dear Readers, one of the ‘easy’ walks around Obergurgl is through the Arolla Pine Forest, which largely consists of Arolla pines (Pinus cembra), with a few larch trees thrown in lower down. It’s a wonderful walk with a bit of uphill and a bit of downhill, and on a fresh sunny day it’s a great way to get one’s mountain legs back after a bit of a tumble. Alas, many, many other people thought the same thing, and so the path was full of people of various ages and stages of fitness all trying to sort themselves out on the narrow, twisty and sometimes precipitous path. Fortunately, most people (including us) are happy to stand aside for those frisky youngsters who are running up in plimsolls, and the people working their way up with two poles and a lot of determination will also make way. We stood aside for one really lovely couple who had gotten part way and decided the path was too tricky – the husband was partially sighted, and negotiating all the differences in surface, from soil to rocks to scree, was too much. It makes me humble to see how people give these things a go, and are sensible enough to know what’s too much. There’s a lesson there for me, I think, I’m much too inclined to push ahead even when things are too tricky. Being stubborn sometimes helps, but being silly doesn’t.

Last year we got turned back by a herd of cows coming down the path, but no bovines today! Instead, just the sound of many birds, including the cawing of the Nutcracker, who plants all the stray trees that you can see scattered across the landscape, much as the Jay in the UK is responsible for the spread of a lot of oak woodland. And a Crossbill too! And a Willow Tit!

We get to the top, and sit for a while looking at the bog where a fellow resident at the hotel, a dragonfly enthusiast, managed to spot four species of those splendid insects. I was just glad for a sit down.

Well, by now my ankle had had quite enough of that going uphill stuff and wanted to do some going downhill, so we headed off to the Zirbenalm for, astonishingly, my first Apfelstrudel mit Vanillesauce (custard !) of the holiday.

Pre-custard

Custard Deployed!

And on the way back, we stopped to talk to the Alpine blue cattle calves who are in their own little pen. They really are the most attractive of cattle, and always remind me of teddy bears.

And then it’s home, for a nap and a bath and to contemplate what to have for dinner tonight. And a few Ibuprofen to take the edge of my ankle.