Well, Readers, the centre of Obergurgl has been taken over by all sorts of inflatables and men shouting into microphones in German: yes, it’s the Gletscher Trail Run 2026. On Friday night, some people will be running 62 kilometres up and down the local peaks, with the race starting at 2.00 a.m. Last year the winner was North Macedonian runner Aleksander Stojkoski, and very impressive that was too. There are lots of shorter races, but this one is the one everyone wants to win. The fastest woman was Austrian Edith Zell, who came home in 8 hours 59 minutes, and what impresses me about her is that she’s in the 40-44 age category. In fact, looking at the results overall there are lots of folk aged between 40 and 55 – maybe endurance peaks in middle age? I also have great respect for the person who finished last, Timo Hornig of Germany, who arrived at the finish after 13 hours and 45 minutes, alongside another German, Marc Metzger, who arrived just a second earlier – I imagine these two had been keeping one another company for all those hours. You can see all the results here. It would have taken me about 24 hours to even walk the route.

Anyhow, after our ambitious walk yesterday we decided to take a more reasonable walk through the meadows, with only a slight deviation from our first day walk to cross a terrifying (well, slightly scary) bridge. It’s always interesting to see how flowers that were just tight buds two weeks ago are now in full flower, like these Melancholy Thistles.

There was a thunderstorm last night, and everything is looking very green…

And here is the scary bridge! Normally you can’t reach it, but some kind soul has popped in a new path, and so you can walk back across the Gurgl. This also eliminates a steepish climb, so I shall have to remember it for next year, when we’ll be looking for an easy early walk.

There were some tiny birds twittering away in the willows by the river but I’m not at all sure what they were – help! Slightly smaller than a sparrow and feeding on grass seeds. I’ve seen Linnet several times, so that’s one thought…

And then some real excitement – the kestrel who has been hanging around our hotel put in an appearance, and was roundly mobbed by a spotted nutcracker who was not at all impressed.

On we go, to the frog pond, which was seething with tadpoles two weeks ago. Now there are far fewer tadpoles, but lots of larger ones, many with their back legs appearing. You have to grow up fast in the Alps – the season is short, and many ponds dry up. Not this one, fortunately.

And then I spotted this flower, which is rather special – it’s Clustered Bellflower (Campanula glomerata), and it’s an Alpine specialist. It is the most extraordinary deep indigo colour, as so many bee-pollinated plants are.

And then it’s on a bus and off to the Giggisjoch for lunch – you might remember the splendid homemade grapefruit ‘lemonade’ and soup from a few days ago. Today, it was fresh strawberry lemonade….

and this very splendid ‘bread pudding’ – actually more like Queen of Puddings, plus custard (of course!) and berries. It was really tasty!

And tomorrow it’s off home. Let’s hope that Easyjet gets us to the correct country this time, that the trains from Gatwick are running, and that the temperature isn’t too much of a shock.