9th. Sept. Excursion to Tarfala lake. 16k 6hrs 45mins

Today we went for a nice walk up a side valley. We reverted to our old routine and left around 9.30 after a leasurely breakfast. The weather was cloudy with rain forecast for the afternoon. The valley we went up was a narrow erosion valley created by the runoff from glaciers.

We passed the usual waterfalls and crossed the usual bridges as we worked our way up. The upper valley has three glaciers feeding it and is home to one of the earliest research stations dedicated to glacier study. A couple of guys were doing studies down stream of the centre and polluting the atmosphere with a fire. The centre itself was Marie Celeste quiet as we walked through it. Half a k further on was the mountain hut and lake that was the day’s destination. Under blue skies it must be spectacular, with the mountains mostly hidden by clouds it was still pretty good.

It took us almost exactly 3 hours to get up there. We had our soup and sandwiches sitting looking over the lake and the started back down, hoping to beat the forecast rain. The clouds started to lift so we could see a bit more of the surrounding mountains and then a very light drizzle started. Still we got back quite dry.

The usual afternoon activities the followed. At dinner we met a swedish couple who live just outside Gotenburg. He is a carpenter for a prestigious yacht builder so he and Colin had lots to talk about. We were also next to the couple of guys we met at Vistas. They arrived very late and had had to detour round a moose. The lady of the couple was not impressed, she had been walking around her village with ear buds in and had inadvertently come too close to a moose and had been chased round the village by it. Not s happy memory. Some fall colours.