In which we hike over two passes and Russell finds out that rest days do not agree with him.
The rest day in Binn was... very restful. We each made a token visit to the village, which was lovely, but basically we just hung around our hotel. Several of us washed our clothes, after having been unable to arrange anything with the somewhat unfriendly owner. Fortunately the quality of the food was excellent and the other serving-folk were charming, so overall we were happy, but there is a major difference between being exceedingly happy and being just happy, and online reviews and ratings will reflect that. Given that there is competition in the village (at least a couple of other hotels), I predict that long term the success of her hotel will be limited... which is a pity.
Afterwards we caught up on email etc., and of course we played lots of games (we being Russ, Franz and I... Père Ephrem went off to Brig to buy a new pair of poles, although even had he stayed with us I have to say that he doesn't strike me as the game-playing type :-).
The following morning dawned wet, but by the time we set off at 8:45 there were only a few drops falling and we didn't bother to put on our rain gear (the rest of the day was mostly sunny). Binn is a lovely quiet valley and we enjoyed the three hour walk to the Binntal SAC refuge where we had a light lunch. Or perhaps I should say that most of us enjoyed it... Russell was flagging. At first I thought it might have been the cheese fondue with wine we had the night before (followed by a double digestif to... ahem... help the digestion), and it probably did play a role because he didn't sleep well, but then I remembered that after the previous rest day (in Macugnaga) he had had the same problems despite not having fondue for dinner... which is when I realized that rest days obviously don't agree with him. I will plan future long hikes with this in mind.
:-)
Aside from that revelation, the day was uneventful. We crossed into Italy over a "low" pass -- 2409m -- and then went over a somewhat higher pass (2600m) to get to our refuge. As always the difference between German-speaking Switzerland and Italy was striking (the former being so much neater and well-maintained). And we arrived at the refuge just after 4PM -- net hiking time about 6h40m instead of the predicted 7h.
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