Wednesday 3rd September: Another stunning sunny day, can you believe it? 5°C to 20°C
La Sage to Arolla: 11.5k: 9am to 12.30pm: 3hrs 30 mins - OUR SHORTEST DAY IN 16 DAYS!!
Accommodation: Grand Hotel Kurhouse
Ian setting GPS at Hotel La Sage
View down Val d'Herens
View Up Val d'Herens
Cold du Tsate, yesterday's climb
Time to feed the cows today
Val d'Herens and blue skies
Cup of Tea at the Wayside Chapel
Lunch and a beer in Arolla
View from Hotel Kurhaus
View from Lounge Hotel Kur Haus
Time to blog in lounge room
Hanging out the washing
Celebrating half way at 16 days
Rack of Lamb Swiss Style - yummm!
The Grand Hotel and Kurhaus Arolla
We can't believe it's another stunning day - blue skies and snow capped alps. Today was our shortest day in 16 days and we’re now half way. The total walk was to be only 500k but at half way we're already over 300k, with long days to come. Today was a 11.5k walk up a deeply forested valley, slowly rising to 2074 metres to Arolla, with snow capped mountains high above. No cols or passes today.
It’s an easy day so we sleep in til 7am, pack and go down to breakfast. The porridge that some walkers raved about was cold and gluey and the hot water for the tea was luke warm, and the internet still didn't work - slow and flakey and we gave up trying to make refuge bookings for the next two nights. We leave in brilliant sunshine but it’s a cold 5°C walking in the shade down to the quaint village of Les Hauderes deep in the valley, with pretty chalets and small barns on narrow paved streets.
The path to Arolla follows the main road up the valley through pine forests. There's several walkers on their way to La Sage. It's an easy stroll slightly uphill, an overall graded climb of only 554 metres. On the way up, we look back to see La Sage and Les Hauderes set to a backdrop of pine forests and snow capped Alps. It's a beautiful sunny day, with a very slight haze in the air. At 11am we spy a small chapel on the side of the track with seats in the sun - a good place for coffee. More walkers say G'day, with a strange accent - Australians, probably Victorians!! And one of them is wearing a Tilley hat like Ian's.
Further up the valley, way pass through the small hamlets of La Gouitte and Satarma. The gushing stream below has washed away some of the path so we need to walk on the road for some of the way. Soon there's a sharp right up a horse track to Arolla. Amazingly we arrive at 12.30pm. The place is much smaller than we'd imagined, with about 10 chalets, 6 hotels and 2 small shops servicing hikers. We buy a small piece of cheese and a few dried ham slices to go with our left over bread and butter - and of course a beer for Ian. We sit down in the village square to eat lunch. It's almost hot in the sun.
Theres' a sign that says 2 mins to the Grand Hotel and Kurhaus, which we assume is the time by car. Yes it took 15 minutes to walk uphill to this lovely Victorian era hotel built in 1896 to cater mostly for UK visitors. Inside is a grand old lounge room. There's no one at reception - we're too early - so we get on to the internet. Luckily there's no password and the internet signal is strong and fast. An American couple from Oregon are heading out to do some hiking. They just arrived yesterday and raved about the rack of lamb. We'd already decided on a picnic dinner in the lovely beer garden but lamb is very tempting.
At 2.30pm someone appears at reception and we check in. Our room is out the back facing the pine forests (courtesy of booking.com again) but it's really big and though no view, really nice and quiet. We've noticed a huge patio just up the corridor from our room 117 and it's in the sun and breeze with a clothes line all set up. There's no need to do any washing, having washed last night, but we thought we'd take the opportunity to do it all again while we can.
We book the next two mountain huts and a Bed and Breakfast in Le Chable, then a 10 minute walk down to the epicerie in Arolla to buy cheese, meat, bread and tomatoes for the next three days, plus a beer to have with nuts while we wait for dinner. We've decided to splash out and have the rack of lamb that the Americans recommended to celebrate our half way mark, instead of a picnic dinner. At 7pm, we're in the dining room sitting by the fire and order a rack of lamb each and a red wine, which is really nice - the best we've had in Switzerland so far. And the 7 boned rack of lamb is absolutely delicious, complete with a smattering of vegetables. Ten times better than the French chef last night. Well done Grand Hotel and Kurhouse - highly recommended! We've eaten more than our walk today but can still fit in a piece of dark chocolate. A quick check that our food bag hasn't been taken by the foxes and we're in bed.