Thus we were reduced from nine to five as we hiked off the following morning to cross the Bunderspitz pass on our way to Adelboden. The weather forecast had promised a hot day followed by thunderstorms towards evening, and so it turned out to be. Since it would otherwise have been another very long day, Lidia opted to take the gondola up to 1700m and Ioana went with her while Russ, Sally and I, still with perfect "all-the-way-on-foot" records, slogged up a steep zig-zag trail through the forest.
Russ and Sally stopped for lunch at a small alm hut but I pushed on, finally catching up with the other two at the 2411m pass. Amazingly the views from there were if anything even more spectacular than from the Hohtuerli: looking back one could see the the Oeschinensee and beyond it, over the Hohtuerli and perfectly framed by the glacier-clad Bluemlisalp massif, the snowy peaks of the Eiger, Moench and Jungfrau... absolutely stunning.
After we had eaten lunch, and once Russ and Sally had arrived, we headed on down to Adelboden, stopping halfway for refreshments at the Bunderalp hut where the owner gave us an impromptu demonstration of his Alpenhorn. Sitting there with the views from above fresh in our memory, sipping cold drinks in the afternoon sun, and listening to the notes of the Alpenhorn reflecting of the cliffs above us... it was a perfect Swiss moment.
And I'm afraid it was all downhill from there -- figuratively, and for the most part literally. For one thing, Russell twisted his ankle just after the Alpenhorn demonstration (not too bad, but enough for it still to hurt a couple of days later). For another we had to climb about 100m after reaching the bottom of the valley in order to reach our hotel (climbs at the end of a day are never appreciated!). Then it started to rain about 5 minutes before we got to the hotel (I know, a little thing, but still...). And lastly there was some friction in the group, brought on doubtless by the many and varied stresses of a long expedition such as this one, which led to us splitting into two groups for dinner.
An unfortunate end to an otherwise beautiful day.
