Madulain

A day of mixed weather, with more snow and low clouds in the morning. As soon as it stopped snowing, I was on my way to Madulain, a village in the main Engadine valley, where Christophi and Päivi had recommended the hike to Alp Es-cha Dadour (don’t try to pronounce it); a little mountain restaurant. 

It was a shorter walk than in the past days, but with more altitude, so I started slowly. The trail went up through a beautiful larch forest, where I spotted squirrels, woodpeckers and nutcrackers. While I was looking up, a huge bird flew right over me: a rare bearded vulture. I had never before seen one in the wild, so that was a magical moment. By the time I got my mobile out, it was already far away, but I took a picture as proof (to myself) that this had really happened. 

On the second half of my upwards walk, it snowed some more, and I was happy to arrive at the Alp and warm up with hot soup. 

The way back was all downhill, and the sun came out. I found a bench in the sunshine for another rest, and took a panorama photo of the mostly sunny valley - my main blip.

In the extra: the larch forest, the vulture, a historic train coach, an ice climber in the local river gorge, and my delicious lunch.