We are offffff!

I’m not trying to make excuses but …. We started our walk today but due to my bout of food poisoning yesterday (which I’m still recovering from boohoo) we elected to walk up the valley to Agentiere rather than the high mountain route. It was still beautiful with lots to see (as you will see from photos below) and it allowed us a more gentle shake down for our first day. We successfully managed to interpret the track notes and got a feel for how the author likes to describe the instructions. We worked well together to reason what they were meaning by various vagueries and didn’t have to turn back once! (which I’m so grateful for as it usually means retracing your steps back up hill from my experience) 

Rod is usually the martyr who absorbs all my vitriol as I struggle up hills so I’m on my best behaviour with Letitia. Tomorrow is 1180m up and 1130m down so I’m imprinting in stone (particularly for future days that are more strenuous) the wise advice in the Cicerone Guide Book which says: “If you gaze with dread at the amount of height to be gained in order to cross a path, no doubt you will suffer in consequence. Let every day be greeted with eagerness. Find joy in the steep slope as well as the downhill slope. Draw strength from the beauty of the scenes around you. Enjoy the movement of the clouds, the wind and wildness as much as the gleam of sunshine; the raw crags and screes of desolation as well as the lush flower strewn pastures and distant snowcaps. Each is an integral part of the mountain world; a world of magic and mystery. It is a world through which it is a privilege to move in freedom. Don’t take a moment of this experience for granted.”

And after all that’s what I’ve come all the way over here for.