Griesalp

Hottest weekend of the year, but only reached 32degC, but still we decided to pack the tent and head much higher up in the mountains. There is a camping platform, Nomady.ch in Switzerland, which offers places to camp near farms or alps for just one or a few people. It’s more for vans, but some have tent spaces too. I found one at 1,500m just below a Naturfreundehaus, at Griesalp in Berner Oberland. The traffic was really bad, the motorway to Bern was really busy, mainly with foreign cars, mainly German passing through Switzerland to go south. Last year, there was much less through traffic, now it’s completely back to normal
Past Bern, the journey was great, I had read that we were going to drive up the steepest post bus route in the world, and boy it was the steepest road I’ve ever been on! Griesalp is a beautiful spot, we got our tent up, then sat under the tree admiring the view over to the Blümlisalp, a spectacular snow and glacier covered peak which sits above Kandersteg. That and the surrounding peaks of Wilde Frau and Morgenhorn and the Gamchigletscher provided an amazing backdrop to all the green dairy pastures and forests of the Griesalp.
We went for a walk, an hour up to this little hut, which also served drinks. Unfortunately the old man had had a fall earlier in the day, and had to be taken by helicopter to the next hospital. The good news is, that he has some cracked ribs, and nothing too bad, but his wife, in her mid-80’s was left running things, and wasn’t very mobile.
We had dinner at the hut above our camp, then we enjoyed the sunset and Alpenglow over the peaks, and a fire crackling as the sky darkened giving us a glimpse of distant galaxies. Also very lucky to spot 2 shooting stars. When we got into our sleeping bags there was a chill in the air, making it very pleasant to sleep with the sound of waterfalls and tinkling cowbells.