A 7hr walk Frutigen to Kandersteg

Fri 26th Sept 2014

Happy Birthday Carol (David's sister)

The cat came in first thing and would you believe got in the bed with me!!! Got organised with our picnic and walking gear to do the marked route from Frutigen to Kandersteg - 17km (took us 7 hours) Before we set off we walked into town and asked at 4 different hairdressers if they could do my hair tomorrow - all fully booked :( David Briggs where r u when I need you?) At the start of our walk we met the local postman who was on an electric bike with a trailer! Great idea but wonder how he goes in the winter??!! We then headed via a 13th century castle ruins. All the houses around here look very new and so well kept but some date back to 17th century! We can tell this as it is burnt into the gables under the roof. Off then along the river until we found a restaurant so decided (as I needed a wee) to stop and have our first Swiss beer (about Perth prices) the food on the menu was a ridiculous price is a good job we had our picnic. The walk so far had been fairly flat but then OMG! Up up and up and most of it was very steep. We followed some train tracks except when they often went through tunnels. Had our picnic lunch at a terrific spot with again views to die for (well worth the climb) no pain no gain! Later we must have taken a wrong turn and came down sooner than we should but picked up the track later on. We arrived in Kandersteg at about 5pm and the train back to Frutigen was at 5.15 so we will do Kandersteg another day as looks fab and has a cable car (may do this when Jess joins us) the train back only took about 20mins but cost 27 Aussie dollars!!!! The whole time walking we kept pinching ourselves as couldn't believe we were actually walking in Switzerland (and still can't!) all seems a bit surreal. It is absolutely beautiful here and we have been so lucky with the weather (again!) the prettiest place we have been to so far. Had a great skype with Jess in Munich who is really enjoying the work for Topdeck Tours. She is now going to meet us here in Switzerland so we are not going to Germany now. After our meal we fell into bed exhausted.

The local postman