Riding amongst Alpines and Cowbells

I woke to the sound of rain on my tipi! Oh no, this was my big riding day. Bursting for the loo, I hurriedly put on my trainers and waterproof, and headed down to the campsite washrooms. I toll this opportunity to wash and brush my teeth as I didn’t plan to make another trip in the rain. However, it was quite light and soon stopped altogether but it was very cold this morning. As Carole put out the breakfast muesli, bread, honey and expresso, she read the temperature gauge to be 8 deg. and promptly brought me a heavy blanket to wrap around me while we ate under the awning on the decking of her caravan. She was already wearing one of Ronata’s thick lumberjack coats.

We walked around to the ranch well layered and waterproofed for the morning ride up through the forests in the mountains. By the time we had the horses ready, the sun was out and the temperatures soared. The same four of us as yesterday set off up a steep track and when we got to the top, the scenery was typical of The Endagan Valley – tiny Tyrollean chalets dotted below, with fresh new green larch reaching across the mountainside up to a purple backcloth of snow- capped mountains. We dismounted on a sunny bank dotted with large electric blue Gentian all facing the sun. There were also large lemon flowers which I thought at first was Evening Primrose but Ava told me they were Anemones. As we walked the horses down the steep and winding pathway through the forest and into the meadow below you could always hear the jangle if the cowbells, some near, some further across the valley as the sound carried well. On a sunny bank in the meadow below I spied Wild Orchids, unmistaken by their spotted leaves. I had certainly come to the Swiss mountains at the best time of the year for wild flowers.
After untacking and returning the horses to the others at the ranch, we had a bite of lunch consisting of fried potatoes and eggs, followed by some strawberries and bars of delicious Swiss chocolate.
As Carole could see my interest in wild flowers, she told me if another special place not far away from the campsite, where I could go for a walk in the afternoon. It was about a 15 minute walk along a wooded track and then through a meadow over the other side of the railway track. It was a peaceful spot just crammed with so many different species of alpines, many if which I’d already seen but also some new ones including violas and Scabious. I just sat down amongst the flowers and enjoyed nature and peace.
I have now returned to my tipi and chilling out, updating blog and planning my itinerary for the next leg of my journey tomorrow.

There were six of us for dinner this evening but tis time under the awning of Carole’s and Ronata’s camp. Danny joined us as he, Andre and Ronato were making a clever mountain bike stand out of a huge tree trunk this afternoon. They also carved some very nice plant troughs out of wood with a chain saw. Dinner was a selection of veggies in a salad dressing for starters followed by chicken curry with rice and then the obligatory liqueurs with coffee. Carole made these liqueurs from pine tree shoots and wild strawberries. During dinner a truck arrived delivering their specailly designed barbecue. It as huge and very heavy. It took the four guys to lift it into position, but they were very proud of it and talked about it for quite some time afterwards.