The Call Of The Mountains

Posted bynickletjogPosted inDiary

Thursday 3 to Saturday 19 October 2024 (Part One)

A colourful garden wall in the hills above Oberägerie

A busy summer, of family events and celebrations, has meant that this year Rachel and I deferred our summer holiday until into the autumn. Avoiding the heat of high summer has certain advantages, especially for walkers such as us, and so we decided upon a two-country trip to Europe, with opportunities for short walks in the uplands; a few days in the awe-inspiring Swiss Alps, followed by some time in Italy that included a week with a walking group in the wonderful hills of Tuscany. I have said before that I tend to avoid posting Blogs of holiday snaps on these pages, but looking back on our trip I think that some of the photos from our walking days are worth sharing. So here follow some views from our time in Switzerland, in this first Blog of a two-parter following our trip.

The village of Oberägeri, in the canton of Zug, south of Zurich . . .
. . . where we stayed with Rachel’s cousin Chris and family: some soft mountain rain on our first day’s walk!
Next morning the rain just held off for our climb . . .
. . . and we even had some sunshine at last . . .
. . . before climbing to our picnic spot, by the White Cross on the hill behind the village
Views over the neighbouring town of Unterägerie . . .
. . . and southward over the Ägerisee lake
Steady on the path down . . .
. . . past the goats!
Next stop Locarno, on Lake Maggiore, in the south of Switzerland
The Madonna del Sesso church at Orselina, above Locarno . . .
. . . then the cable car up to Cardada, and a walkway . . .
. . . to the hilltop viewpoint over the lake
Our walk today followed the contours, more or less, through the woods on the high path at around 1,350 metres of elevation . . .
. . . with some occasional pleasing and far-reaching views
Next day we stepped out northward . . .
. . . out of Locarno . . .
. . . on the five-mile lakeside path to Tenero, at the head of the lake
The ferry across Lake Maggiore . . .
. . . and a grebe for company
Back at the marina in Locarno . . .
. . . and a rather large plane tree to hug!
Beware of the bull!

This stop in Locarno concluded the Swiss element of our trip. In the second part of this account I will share some pictures of our walks in Italy during the second leg of our voyage. See you soon!

The tropical beach at Tenero

My Blog heading today ‘The Call Of The Mountains’ is taken from the title of a song penned and performed by Swiss folk metal band Eluveitie, off their sixth studio album ‘Origins’. Over the years since their formation in 2002 the group has had an ever-changing cast of musicians, but in their 2014 iteration when this song was released they featured the interesting vocals and hurdy-gurdy playing of Anna Murphy. Along with various bagpipes, flutes, whistles and fiddles on some of the album’s tracks, Murphy’s presence gives the band quite a Celtic feel, reflecting in part her Irish heritage. The number is a little different to any other that I have included in my Blogs, but it is in its own way evocative of past and present mountain walks in Switzerland.

In the park in Locarno there is a ‘Walk of Fame’ that celebrates with hand-print plaques the various singers and musicians who have played at the town’s annual festival in the Piazza Grande: these include some British artists that I have featured in these Blogs, including Sting, Amy Macdonald, and (here) Ellie Goulding

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