Blue Sky over Val Roseg

Today is my last day here, and I still had a number of walks on my „want to do“ list. But when I woke up to blue sky over the Roseg valley (which I can see from my hotel room), I postponed all other routes for next time, and walked towards the big mountains at the valley‘s end. 

It is a long walk, and I had planned to go even further than last time - to a glacial lake at the very end of the valley, and then take one of the horse drawn carriage „buses“ back from Hotel Roseg. But nothing ever goes as planned. I hadn’t known about a massive rock avalanche in April, which had blocked all paths at the Roseg valley‘s end (see second extra), and I couldn’t get to the lake.

It didn’t matter much, as it’s a lovely walk anyway, and I enjoyed my lunch break sitting under a Swiss Pine tree, looking at the highest peaks in the Eastern Alps. In the thumbnail is Piz Bernina, with 4,048 metres the highest of them all. To its right, the 3,970 metres high Piz Scerscen, where the giant rock avalanche originated. The glacier below the peaks is the Tschierva Glacier. I am old enough to remember it reaching almost all the way down into the valley.

As always, I loved looking out for more flower species, butterflies, birds, and other animals. On my way up, I spotted a chamois grazing in the valley, but it fled before I could get a picture. 

Along and sometimes on the path, countless little streams ran down, and I had to jump over them to avoid getting wet feet. While I was doing that, I almost stepped on the little guy in the first extra. It’s a common adder, the only venomous snake in many parts of Europe, and pretty rare nowadays. I had only seen one many years ago in France, and never around here. It was really small, thinner than my pinky, and less than 30 centimetres long, so I wasn’t scared of it at all. After I had taken the picture, I made sure it left the sunny spot on the path, so it was safe from hikers in heavy boots.

The other extras are my usual collages of landscape, flowers and animals along the way.

I had coffee at the Hotel Roseg on my way back, but decided against the horse „bus“, because I would have to wait almost two hours for a free spot. So I walked back as well. At the end, I had done more than 30,000 steps, and my feet are complaining now. Tomorrow they will get a lot of rest, when I am sitting in trains for most of the day.