Thursday, August 21, 2014

Stage 20 -- Robiei to Prato-Sornico

In which we enjoy perfect hiking weather, regret Russell's absence, and have another long day... the penultimate hike on this section of the H3H !!

Dinner in our hotel in Robiei was very good, as were the bedrooms, but Franz was nonetheless a little disappointed. Not by the hotel, but by the fact that the rest of us headed off to bed just after 9PM. I told him that that is what he gets for being so fit.

We woke up the following morning to a beautiful sunny day with hardly a cloud in the sky... and to the bad news that Russ wouldn't be hiking with us today: his chafe had gone thermonuclear and hiking was out of the question. Fortunately for him this was one of the few days on this section of the H3H where both start and destination were reachable by regular transport, and the distance between them not immense (only about 25km). So we set off at 8:45 leaving him to navigate the Swiss public transport system (gondola, bus, bus), while we went over another high pass.

It was a bit chilly at first, with a brisk wind, but as the day went on the weather got better and better. The pass, at 2550m, was much less rugged than the previous day, and with a stunning view back to a beautiful high Alpine lake. The long descent down the valley on the far side (as in, VERY long... over 1850m of downhill!) was, aside from being exhausting, lovely, with huge variation from bare rocks, to sparse grass, to meadows, to forests, to small hamlets of old wooden houses, to charming villages.

We arrived at around 5PM, footsore, tired, but in good spirits. Russ was already here... but since he is lodging with Franz tonight, and since I've not had the energy to do more than take a shower and lie on the bed writing this, I don't know yet how his day has been.

No WiFi,for the third day in a row, so no upload of this blog. Sorry! And now a little snooze and then dinner.... Tomorrow is the last day....

Sent from my iPad