Almost over....(part 2)

July 20th, Sunday. My cousin's birthday! The first night camping in the tent, we had learned two very important lessons: First of all, there's a reason why most tents these days are equipped with RAIN FLIES. Secondly, there's a reason WHY a tiny two-person tent from Woolworths only costs 20 euros. To be specific, it did not HAVE a rain fly, and we discovered from the very beginning that this was NOT ok. Of course it was better than huddling under a small blue tarp during a long rainy night, so we tried not to complain, but after about twenty minutes of drilling rain, the condensation on the walls of the tent became a mini-rainstorm of its own. And of course, this lasted THE WHOLE NIGHT. So, having learned our lesson, upon subsequent uses of the tent, we attached the blue tarp over the tent as a sort of make-shift rain fly. This worked much better than nothing, but the tarp was not quite big enough to cover the entire tent, and for some reason the part of the tent which was uncovered always ended up being the places where our feet stuck into the side of the tent. Because, you guessed it, our tent was so small that even I couldn't stretch out completely while laying down inside of it, and Rendy is a good 4 inches taller than I. So, end result, we woke up every morning, regardless of rain or shine, with the feet of our sleeping bags wet and FREEZING due to the condensation from the sides of the tent. Yes, when you look at Swiss weather reports that predict temperatures in the high-20s, be aware: that's the temperature IN THE VALLEYS, not up in the mountains. Gut zu wissen, nicht? On this our second day up in the mountains, we were about to reach the peak which we had intended to reach the first day before having to recalculate our speed, when suddenly we heard a rumbling off in the distance. Rendy and I looked at each other leerily. After spending nearly two days attempting to reach a peak that was only a few kilometers from our starting point, the last thing I wanted to think about was having to descend to avoid a thunderstorm. Rendy, on the other hand, was already sick of ascending, and was not opposed to the idea. I put down my pack to scout the trail ahead and see whether it leveled off ahead, but clouds began rolling in thickly and soon I had to abandon that attempt. According to our Topo map (which was not very detailed: in our enthusiasm to cover a lot of ground, we had bought one large-scale map instead of spending the money for what would have been quite a few small-scale ones. But can you really blame us? Each one was like 15 Franks!), there appeared to be a second trail which branched off heading downhill from the trail we were following just beyond the summit, so we reasoned that by going downhill and skirting the peak, we should be able to meet up with the trail on the other side. In any case, we hadn't gone very far before the thunder started getting louder and it started to rain, so we had to quickly choose a level spot and set up camp. The wind was blowing so hard we had difficulty pitching the tent, but thankfully we managed to finish before we got too wet, and we spent a very long and restless night. The wind whipping around the tarp that we were using as a rainfly made so much noise it was difficult to have a conversation. The ground upon which we had been forced to set up camp was level, but not by any means flat, so my sleeping spot was in a sort of depression which was not too uncomfortable at first, but did not allow me any possibility to change positions throughout the night, and Rendy's spot was on a sort of hump off of which he kept rolling (usually onto me!). On top of that, the sound of the thunder echoing from all the surrounding mountains was rather terrifying, because we hadn't really been able to tell how far we were from the summit, and for all we knew, the lightning could have been dangerously close. Luckily, the thunder and the wind didn't last all night, but the rain sure did, and it was very, very cold.

July 21st, Monday. It was foggy when we woke up the next morning, and I refused to be dragged out of my sleeping bag until I felt the sun start to warm the tent (that was probably around 10am). Finally we got ourselves together and took off to try to find this second trail. We followed what we thought to be trail markings for a while, but the path became steeper and steeper and all of a sudden the markings disappeared completely behind a barbed wire fence which appeared to be telling us that the terrain on the other side was unsafe. Now we had a dilemma. To the northwest, the terrain seemed to level off, and we could even hear cowbells and see a road that appeared to lead to a village not too far from Chur. To the South, however, we could not see far enough ahead to determine what the terrain would end up to be. The rational thing to do would of course have been to head Northwest, and to be perfectly honest, the only reason we chose NOT to do so was because I couldn't stand the thought of having spent THREE DAYS in the mountains, only to end up back in Chur! In the end, however, it was Rendy who made the decision to keep going south. We both knew that I was more steady on my feet when it came to steep terrain, and also had a smaller pack, so I didn't feel comfortable making that decision for him, but that's what he wanted to do as well, so we started off, paralelling the barbed wire fence, to see where it took us. After about a half hour, however, the barbed wire fence took a sharp curve uphill (towards the summit we had been avoiding!), and we discovered to our dismay another very steep dropoff directly between where we were and where we wanted to be. On the other side of a narrow valley, however, we saw clear signs of what we were now certain had to be the trail we were seeking. We looked behind us, and realized we had been descending quite a bit since we had been following the barbed wire fence, so backtracking would mean a lot of uphill when we were both already quite tired. We looked at each other, looked at our Topo map, looked once again at the trail on the other side of the valley, and decided to do the insane. We were going to attempt to cross that steep valley (maybe the altitude was messing with our better judgement??). But anyway, we were now close enough to the tree line that if we had lost our footing, we would only have slid about 50 meters before bushes would break our fall. It would not exactly be comfortable, but we were pretty sure we weren't going to break any bones. And thankfully neither of us slipped at all. Before long we found ourselves on the trail we had wanted to reach so badly, and we sat down to have another look at our Topo map when a Belgian couple walked by (hiking downhill) and I asked them what the weather had been like at the summit. They replied that it had been perfect, so apparently the fog had only been on our side of the valley. They asked where we were headed and we told them that we had spent a couple of nights in the mountains, but now we were thinking we wouldn't mind going to the village and spending the night in a bed and breakfast. They wished us luck and continued on their way, and we followed not too long after. When we reached the following village (after having taken our time the entire way), we were dismayed to see that the only bed and breakfast in town was closed on Mondays! Suddenly, much to our surprise, who should we meet again but the very same Belgian couple! They asked if it had worked out to get a room, and we said, no, we would have to try the next village down in the valley. They looked at each other, and the husband said cautiously that it was still a several hour walk down to the valley floor. Rendy and I hoped that was not true, but we told ourselves that even if it were, we would find a place to camp and make our way down the following day. Then the wife spoke (in accentless German). "We have a car. We could give you a ride down to the valley." The American side of me hesitated in responding, but Rendy seemed to have picked up quite a German side to him, because he piped right up in answering that we would really like that. The couple was extremely nice and drove with us through several villages before bringing us to what seemed to be a rather major hub for that particular valley, a place called Thusis. They drove with us along the main street and showed us where all the hotels were that they knew, and wished us luck in finding one. There was one bed and breakfast which had rooms available, but they were 38 Franks per person per bed, and it was in a 7 bed dorm room, so we left that one, and unfortunately, all the hotels which had a one or two star rating were also closed on Mondays. Mental note: don't arrive in Switzerland on a Monday! There was, however, a campsite in town, which cost much less than 38 Franks per person, but also gave us access to hot showers and even laundry facilities, so we were quite happy, and after getting settled in, we asked the camp director the question to which we'd been dying to get an answer since we arrived in Switzerland: Where the heck can you go to eat Fondue??? The man hesitated for a moment, and we clarified that we have always associated Fondue with being a typical Swiss food, but we hadn't yet seen it available anywhere, so had we been mislead? "Doch, doch," he responded, es sei eine typische Schweizer Gericht, but it was usually only eaten in the winter and he really didn't know if there was anywhere to get it in high summer. I probably don't need to tell you how disappointed I was! I guess that just means I have to go back to Switzerland in the winter!

July 22, Tuesday-July 24th, Thursday. From Thusis, we weren't too eager to ascend too quickly back into the mountains, so we stayed down in the valley, and were very glad we did, because the Hinterrhein (the river we were following--a main tributary of the Rhein!) flows through some gorgeous rock formations. We spent one night at a campsite called Rania, another in a campsite in the city (village??) of Andeer, and after that we ascended steeply and passed through a village called Bagnusch which is so remote there aren't even any roads that lead to it! From there we continued another couple of hours and passed a village called Cresta where we asked about lodging and were pointed in the direction of a hut which we headed towards, but didn't reach before the sun sank behind the ridge and it began to get cold quickly.

July 25th, Friday. My other cousin's birthday! This was a particularly exciting day because we were planning to cross the Italian border! The plan had actually been to spend longer in Switzerland, but we just couldn't afford it, because (even though the exchange rate with the Frank is currently better than with the Euro), EVERYTHING is expensive in Switzerland. The nights that we spent camping were not too expensive, but we hadn't been able to treat ourselves to warm meals or any of the things that make vacations relaxing! Taking another break from writing. Again, will try to finish when I get a chance.