Davis Pictures

After 10 days of hiking covering over 170 kilometers including 30,000 meters of ascent (and, obviously, descent) we ended back where we started.  We had completely circled Europe’s tallest peak, Mont Blanc, traveling by foot through Switzerland, Italy and France….

Ice cream was 1 franc, so I had two (one for Jen and one for me) and then we took off our shoes and put our feet in a pristine Alpine lake, and talked about our travels with Amit, our chai buddy.

Then Amit shared his chocolate with us sourced from …. Uganda. 

I think that was a sign…  It was time to go home.

Yeah.  …Sometimes.

Sometimes there were bridges to cross the mountain streams… sometimes there weren’t and you were left to decide if you were going to wade across with your boots on or take them off.

Some people took showers at the same time.  Welcome to Italy.

When we found beautiful places we stopped… and made chai.  I carried a teapot from Kenya that has traveled every African country with us for the last 12 years.  Kenya tea, Kenya powdered milk, and a camp stove completed the ensemble.

…and at the top of mountains we met other people who like chai – like Amit from India… (And that’s why we carried extra cups.)

Another helpful sign helped us understand what it was like to hike 20 kms making 3000 meters elevation gain in a day on mountain faces so steep that they had to attach a bar to the cliff so you wouldn’t fall off.

Jen and I are not really “snow” people.  We like ice in our lemonade and we have a refrigerator, but hiking long distances through snow on the steep side of a mountain was a new experience. 

Luckily, there was a helpful sign to explain the risks….

My altimeter confirmed our suspicions…  We were in the mountains.

The hills were also alive with wildlife!  Marmots are basically fat gerbils that whistle.  Chamois are very shy antelopes that get turned into carwash accessories.  And if you take a selfie with an ibex they don’t show you their best side.  Everything else we saw had been shot and mounted on the wall of the most bizarre mountain lodge ever…

Wow.  The flowers were amazing and all the cows wore bells.  Jen did her Julie Andrews impersonation.  Davis did his impersonation of a hobbit.

On our journey we also took some time to meet Obelix, eat gelato, take a selfie at some famous location, and watch the sunset over Florence.