With Stefan. A work trip to a workshop in Konstanz gave a welcome opportunity for a little walk in the Swiss Alps. Stefan who knows the area planned the walk and led the way so I had the very rare for me experience of cheerfully following him with only a minimal sense of the local geography. We drove - well Stafan drove while I mostly slept - to Wasserauen - where there were lots of parked cars. Langdale on a summer bank holiday is quiet by comparison. From the car park a path led off to the left and climbed up through woods for about (I'm guesstimating not having inspected a map) 600m. THis brought us to a beautiful region of high pasture. The views from here were wonderful, looking over to the high peaks of the Alpstein, dominated by the impresive Sentis. (Climbing any of them would have called for a rather longer day than was consistent with our 9am start from Konstanz.) There was a little famhouse and a small shop here that sold only what the livestock - cows and goats - produced, cheese, butter, milk. We bought a couple of mugs of cold, very fresh milk. It was utterly delicious.
We walked for a bit through this nice pasture land before another bit of a climb. Then our path followed a sort of grassy sloping ledge that runs along halfway up a very large cliff. It was broad and easy going but a trifle airy in places. But soon enough we were at the tiny hamlet, complete with Berggasthaus, of Meglisalp, our destination. Not a summit but at 1517m. above sea level, higher than anywhere in the UK. I had some rather warm coke in my rucksack but we couldn't resist the ice-cold bottles of pop they had on sale here. Possibly a mistake. I had a big bottle of pop. Stefan had a small bottle of pop. After we had drunk them they gave us the bill. The equivalent of about £18. "Seriously?", I asked. The waitress just shrugged: "Transportation".
From here a path leads down a big cliff to the Seealpsee. When I say "down a cliff" I realy mean just that and much of the way is alarmingly exposed. But it was very straightforward on an extremely well made path with even a bit of metal wire for the faiont-hearted to grab hold of down the airiest sections. Once we got to the Lake the adventurous part of the walk was over and the way home lay down a tarred road very crowded both with humans and the fabulously docile cattle that are everywhere in these parts. The constant sounding of their bells furnished the main soundtrack for this lovely Alpine walk.
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