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July 18th, 2007
After an early breakfast we hiked off around 7:50 to cross the Foo pass on the way to the village of Elm and, after five days straight of hiking, another well-deserved rest day.
In theory the hike was a simple one: up the valley, over the pass, and descend to Elm. In practice, and for the first time on the H2H, we lost our way. More precisely, since I'm responsible for maps and directions, I got us lost. Frankly, I'm amazed that this was the first time: I'm not that good at map-reading. We lost about 30 minutes while going up and down an extra 100m or so before we worked out where the trail must be (or rather, to where it had been relocated by an unhelpful farmer!).
The rest of the hike was beautiful and uneventful, up a wild valley, across a large high-altitude wild-flower-strewn meadow, and over a grassy pass between high stony peaks before descending through similar surroundings to Elm. On the way up we didn't talk much (oxygen deficiency has that effect), but on the way down, in part to take our minds off of foot pain, we did.
A chance remark of mine to Sally about the Dark Ages led to a vigorous revisionist discourse from Thomas who claimed that in point of fact that the term "Dark Ages" was a misnomer, since they were a time of great intellectual and spiritual developments that laid the basis for Europe's later global supremacy.
In support he cited the Frankish kings conservation of Roman civil organization and practices, the linking of church and state in the Pope's granting of the title of Holy Roman Emperor, the missionary activities of the Irish monks, the idea of the Crusades, and various legal codices demonstrating the continued existence of societal law and order.
He took particular issue with the image popularized by Renaissance intellectuals of the lights going out with the fall of Rome and only coming back on in 14thC Italy.
In vain did I argue that political expediency and a few new concepts in no way made up for the rapid decline of most of those factors characteristic of civilization, such as the population crash and the shrinkage of cities, the loss of engineering skills and cessation of wide-spread education, the gradual decay of the road and public health infrastructures, and the general absence of significant new developments in art or science.
Moreover, I pointed out, the exaggeration of some Italian Renaissance intellectuals should not invalidate the use of the term "Dark Ages" to describe what was by all statistical measures a prolonged period of significant absolute decline vis a vis the age of the Roman Empire.
Thomas would hear nothing of it: resorting to statistics was indicative of the old Anglo-German disagreement as to the importance of civilization versus culture, he said. The cultural developments that allowed Western Europe rather than Byzantium to inherit the mantle of Rome were made during the so-called Dark Ages, and thus invalidated the term. The general decline of civilization was of relatively minor comparative importance.
Needless to say, I continued to disagree, vigorously, and the long descent into Elm went by remarkably quickly. In fact, it wasn't until we were down in the valley walking into Elm at around 3:15PM that I realized how tired my legs and how painful my feet were. The shower and pre-dinner relaxation on the bed watching the Tour de France were most welcome, as was the prospect of the rest day on the morrow!
