Sunday, 20 - 10 (iKaruS Thinks I should date these.. but that just proves time is running away with me!)

Today, after discussions yesterday, we knew was the last day for a number of cog railways and cable cars so we choose too attempt to do two if the weather stayed reasonable. The oddly named First and the Schyinge Platte.

Did I mention that the trains take a while to get from A to B.. might be the altitudes they have to travel- but it is something to factor into all trips, I heard someone today(Monday) in Interlaken think they could just get to the Jungfrau in 30 minutes - its more like a three hour round trip at best!.

We didn't get up as early as I had initially planned as my plague (snuffles) and the very dark nature of 0700 meant the bed was too warm and comfortable. However I did get up at 0600 and the very bright moonlight was shining directly through the roof windows and made the Jungfrau out the window looked amazing, The Sphinx observatory has a blue light that shines all the way down the valley words do not really describe it well and dawn really rushes you one minute its dark with moon light and the next the day simply exists. It takes a while for sun light to reach the valley but it just becomes light.. Still at 0700 I wasn't getting up, but we made it out the door reasonably early, with gear for anything the weather could throw at us packed. The day was scheduled to have 9mm of rain fall but it wasn't falling yet so we rushed on the slow trains to Grindlewald. From Grindwald to First I knew it was going to be a cable car but I had thought it might be one of those big ones! This was not the case!

To let you in on a badly kept secret.. I am terrified of heights.. yes me…. First is approximately 1km, yes one kilometre, up from Grindlewald (actually its more than 1km, whose arguing its a long way). But I knew, iKarus really wanted to do a cable car, so I figured I hadn't heard of a cable breaking recently and how scary could it possibly be. Fingers curl around the seat bottom as thoughts of plunging, or worse just stopping in the middle of a traverse.... how scary... the answer is less than the London eye was - maybe it was the gentle ringing of the cow bells or the tinkle of the goat bells (yes the goat bells are higher pitched than the cow bells!) but it was rather relaxing. Till we got to the first station and I realised how much further we had to go, up to the second station and then the final shorter but steep haul to the top. People (yes humans) also have a flying fox set up on that last stretch. We witnessed a family of four zip down the line, the father was way ahead of the smaller kids, aint gravity a great thing.

It was chilly at the top so we stopped for coffee and looked out over the valley, - is it right to call such a deep glacier gash ripped across the earth a simple valley? I don't know but the coffee was ok and I managed to steal yet more sugar satchels! this is an ongoing theme to save the sugar for our morning plunger coffee. suppose I nearly have enough for the rest of the trip. After the respite and feeling much more like ourselves again we did a short wander, knowing we only had so much time before we had to leave if we wanted to also go up Schyinge platte. So instead of completing the circuit we cut it short. I was going very slowly with much snuffling at altitude, amazing how the breath doesn't seem to fill your lungs as much at that height.

One of the things we noticed was far fewer tourists up there. but still managed to see people in ugg australia boots, and a smattering of people not wearing clothing appropriate to the climate! Techncially we could have hiked for six hours from first to Schyinge platte but I'm very glad we didn't.

The weather still held so my master plan was working we were going to be able to do First and Schyinge Platte in a day without the hike between the two. The car to Schyine Platte is a old fashioned cog rail it travels at 12 km an hour and takes about 45 minutes to reach the top. On the train with us was a mother possible german or scandivian and her daughter - they were really cute and clearly had a great bond, and a asian guy. Huge tourist pull! about half way up you come to a station where we passed a very full and steamy train on the way down. The tracks are generally one lane only so the passing places are pretty important. You could walk from the top all the way down but it takes over three hours an hour and a half to get half way.

As we reached the top the weather finally closed in.. but we had just enough time 2 hours before the last train back to do an hour and half circuit right….

uh uh.. we set off on the track and rounded the restaurant, headed up the hill, by this time we were both in our water proof jackets but as we reached the fork in the path about 20 minutes in to the walk, we made a sensible choice. 20 minutes on or another hour going forward. The rain had now not just set in but we were also in the clouds visibility went down to about 100 meters and so we turned down the shorter path instead of the long one. this path and the one we were one were both tagged as 'mountain' trails. I totally agree that second half of the track turned to slippery mud that we scrabbled around on trying not to fall over.

We laughed in the face of danger.. knowing out walk was short … as we watched the clouds and rain come over the lip of the mountain and fall around where the track was.. bravely we struggled on as our alter egos the mountain hippo and mountain walrus (A hippo is better as they have feet but can smell if you are behind them),singing in the rain, only to come across the alpine garden complete with alpine human gardener in a teeshirt racking weedy material that had been whippersnipped on a slope that we had trouble trudging up!

We did take some shots of the weather and the panoramic view which I cannot possibly explain!

Dripping and iKaruS now cold (his pants were not water proof, where as mine were) we waited for the last train of the seasons to leave the mountain. Thankfully they had heaters under the seats and iKaruS was able to sit being gently warmed as we headed back to Wilderswil glad we experienced the mountain weather in a 'safe' way and happy to be headed down.

As luck would have it, that was the worst of the weather and it had stopped raining, We considered heading to interlaken to do washing but it all seemed like too much trouble so we opted for a dinner out instead.