Swiss O week: Stage 4

After a rest day that was, well, restful (and very welcome), day 4 dawned very early for Eric who set off for the railway station while Elise and Samuel were still sleeping for his earliest start of the event. Elise and Samuel decided on a more civilised departure time as they didn't have the inconvenience of pre set start times.

The early departure did have its benefits - a near empty train and an early ride on the chairlift which started in cloud and mist in the valley only to climb above the cloud to enjoy a glorious sunny morning. The view from the top of the hills over the sea of cloud in the valley was breathtaking.

Todays race was another fairly high day. The courses were a mix of about 70% open pasture and 30% forest (100% steep again though - what a surprise!). Samuels course was particularly tough both for navigation and steepness and he did well to get round. Many of the steep paddocks were very muddy which makes it extra hard to turn the legs over.

Part of Samuels course

Elise took some photos out on her course which show some of the toughness of the terrain.

Before heading home we paid a quick visit to the first aid tent where Elise got some treatment for her back which was getting quite sore from the endless climbing. One aspect of alpine orienteering is the need to carry heaps of gear to the race each day in case of inclement weather. As a consequence Eric got stuck with carrying three bags (plus groceries) home which meant that there was more than one sore back by the end of the day. Just two more days to go...

Video Day 4

Comments

Inca Trail day 4

This was the day we would arrive at Macchu Picchu so we awoke with a keen sense of anticipation. To celebrate the last day on the trail, somehow the chef had whipped up an enormous cake which was served after breakfast. After a discussion with Marco about the likely weather over the next two days we agreed that it would be best to tour Macchu Picchu as soon as we arrived in mid afternoon rather than wait until tomorrow. Marco assured us that this would mean less crowds and better weather (he was right). We could see the backside of the mountain above Macchu Picchu in front of us as we started out. Unlike the last two days, today was mainly downhill. We would have to descend about 1,000 meters and judging by the first part of the morning walk, most of this would be on steep and slippery rocky steps. After alternating descents and traversing along steep hillsides through cloud forest and bamboo groves we reached the ruins of Intipata. Intipata was a very...

Santa Cruz

Unlike our first island hop, Isabela to Santa Cruz was done by boat (see the addendum below for my thoughts about inter island boat travel). At least the early morning trip was a smooth one. Luckily we had managed to book an apartment in Puerto Ayora which meant we could do some of our own catering for a change. By the time we arrived we were slowing down some, we felt we'd seen much of the wildlife the islands offered and frankly, we were exhausted. So we didn't venture too far from Puerto Ayora. One nice place near town we did visit (Eric went twice) was Tortuga bay which was exactly what you would expect a tropical beach to look like. In fact it had two beaches, one a surf beach and one a quiet cove where you could snorkel with barely a ripple. There wasn't much wildlife here except a few Iguanas (and one turtle) but the warm water was great for a swim nevertheless. As with San Cristobal we took a taxi trip to the highlands, crawling in Lava tub...

New York: National Museum of Mathematics

When we first came to New York we all wrote down where we wanted to go while we were here. All of us included the math museum (confirms our status as a family of total geeks) so that is where we headed today. On the way we went to the LEGO shop. There was plenty of great Lego art and some pretty cool sets that Samuel hadn't seen before. The best part was the machine that used a palm print to generate your Lego avatar. Eric: Check out the six pack. Not sure where they got the toupee from though. Samuel is Johnny Depp? Amazingly accurate this one. The famous Flatiron building A nd the math museum? Of course we enjoyed it! It was all interactive with loads of old and new problems to solve. We even got to use maths in an artistic way. Tessellating Samuel and Eric were most entranced by a floor exhibit which changed periodically but had a range of practical problems. The museum was well populated in the morning with ...

EE & S Adventures

Search This Blog