Val Fedoz

I got rudely awakened at 7 A.M. by loud music and the start of a big trail running event just in front of my hotel room. 
As I didn’t see a chance of sleeping anymore, I went for breakfast and took the next bus to the pretty village of Sils-Maria, to follow yesterday’s suggestions of fellow blipper Christophi for a walk up to a hill with this lovely view over Lake Sils towards Maloja. It looks better in large, as usual.

To stretch my legs a bit more, I added a detour into the wild and beautiful valley Val Fedoz, where I enjoyed a picnic break on an island of the little river (first extra). 
Later I walked back on the other side of it, down to the lake (where a herd of goats was resting under the trees - second extra), and back to Sils along its shore. 

My inner botanist had a field day on this walk. I added two more extras with some of the wild flowers I saw, one for the carnivorous and fascinating common butterwort, and a collage of alpenrose (which isn’t really a rose but a species of rhododendron), a bearded bellflower, a marsh orchid, a wild Alpine clematis, an anemone seedhead full of dewdrops, and some spring gentians.

I could easily have added more photos of this lovely walk…

The suggested plan to have a drink at Isola by the lake didn’t work, as the restaurant terrace was already full when I got there. So I walked on to Sils, where I enjoyed a veggie quiche and a glass of wheat beer before taking the bus back to my hotel. 

Here, celebrations for the winners of the “Glacier Marathon” were in full swing when I arrived. Someone managed the 42.2 kilometres, with added 2600 metres of altitude difference, in just under five hours. There are still runners arriving now, after over ten hours. Wow.