The Aosta valley villages wove into each other on a cloud shaded day. A friendly Frenchman joined us for our first few kms beside the grape vines, through the forests and along a variety of paths, as the sun peaked out at us a few short times. Last year we began our walk on the Via Francigena at the edge of the Aosta valley, and this is where the major part of our walking ends. [...]
The long gentle downhill slopes continue along shady pine needle paths. Our pace is closely mimicked by a small canal streamed off to follow the same contours. This gentle slope allows a metre wide and deep waterway to feed the pastures below, and remains true to us on our small path for many kms. Eventually we dip down from our 500 metre high valley edge through these watered pastures, their towering irrigation sprays offering us [...]
It was not far off t-shirt weather, an Alps' chill not able to compete with our brisk walking. Walking down now past some over-keen day explorers, who ran past us as cars swerved and jumped over safety barriers, reminded us once again to take care when it's not our playground. Our two Aussie friends and us walked single file on a busy road as the immediate track was dangerously slippery. Lisa, looking back, commented that [...]
A continual climb today from around 1400 metres to 2480 metres, through the heart of the Alps, hardly a need for signs anymore. The track is narrow but their are no points where walkers would have to decide on an alternative route. A young Swiss woman with her guitar and two Australians - an eighty year old with his daughter - were the only others walking to the top. A very enthusiastic young Swiss girl, [...]
Tumbling water greeted us as this huge stream from the myriad of mountains gathered in the valley beside us. It met us in the lower valleys as it pushed against its banks, slowly eating into them. Further up, streams joined from both sides adding to these raw sounds. It was a long slowly rising slope for the first hour or two, but enough to add to the sweat from hovering cloud humidity, soon fanned by [...]
Breakfast with 5 priests at our table and 6 at another was something I could never have imagined - how could this be? Firstly it is a pilgrimage although you would never know it from my blog, so churches are very supportive of the pilgrims; it is often where you meet other walkers and gather basic information about beds and food etc; and you are assured of a reasonable price. So there you are - [...]
Our last day with Philip who has been great company and very easy to walk and stay with. He will catch a train in the morning to his home in Waalre, Holland, with hope that his daughter has watered the plants. Further down this long valley, becoming narrower as the mountains became increasingly intimate, we began a gentle slope up for some time, something we hadn't been doing for the last few days. Now it [...]
Into a long valley with mountains on all sides, snow strips on the peaks, and down a little, the previously cut grasses now glistening after the recently vacated snow. The mountains coming closer each step as we start to recognise their intimate shapes and clothing. We walked along a km wide valley on a narrow bitumen '2 cars an hour road' between flat grassy paddocks and slightly sloping vineyards. Signs for the track are now [...]
We walked two big days with the two metre Dutchman because the next day, today, we cross Lake Geneva in a very crowded boat. It was strange to not be walking and it felt like a day off until we got to our morning destination - Vevey. The young girl in the tourist office had little knowledge of the Camino until we arrived. Now she knows that the ViaJakobsweg that we've been on until today, [...]
People were everywhere in the streets of this old Swiss village. It's Saturday market day and all ages are setting up stalls from the valley of the village, winding up like a stretched 's' and then flattening out for a long way at the top. We had a very long day ahead so we can't report on the finished product. An older couple were moving out, we know our Swiss friends are sleeping in, so [...]
