Trübsee

Saturday morning. Lockdown is slowly winding down in Switzerland. Barbara is off to the hairdressers. I am heading out to the Engelberg area for a walk to the Trübsee!

From Zürich I travel via Lucerne and onwards to Engelberg, where I manage to get the outdoor app to point me in the right direction. Soon I’m heading uphill, first through farmland, warmly greeted by cows and a few sheep. Then, as I get higher, I enter an alpine forest, along a path following a ridge between two torrents of rushing water. It’s spring and the snows are melting, so these waters are heading downhill at a great speed, and with great noise as the water crash over stones. I think to myself that having a river on either side, is like having the sound of rushing water in stereo – or surround sound!

Higher up a heavily loaded ant, about to cross my path, comes to a rapid stop! Barely an inch from where my foot lands. Then scurries onwards as I lift off upwards. Ahead of me a butterfly flutters from flower to flower. Above me I hear the shrill whistle of a kite. Chats abound, and in the distance I hear a cuckoo calling. It’s spring!

Six plus kilos and nearly 800 hundred vertical metres later I reach the lake! On the bank, overlooking the lake, a few lazy marmots are sunning themselves. Probably thawing after a long winter’s hibernation. I manage to get within a few metres without them scattering, and take a few pictures of these elusive little characters. Then they get tired of my presence and dive into their holes… and I continue my walk along the lakeside, looking for a place to have my cheese and salad sandwich.

I find a spot overlooking the lake with layers of mountains in the background and settle down. Just as I sit down the wind drops and I manage to get a picture with an almost ripple free lake surface, reflecting the mountains in the background.

Then it’s time to head back. I start heading downhill, along a path that follows a contour, past a few summer farmhouses, before turning steeply downhill, first along a narrow little path, then through the last few patches of snow still clinging on, before heading into the trees, and finally across farmland and into the town of Engelberg.

Another great mountain day!