Tag Archives: hiking

Rigi and the Swiss cows

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I had an extended layover in Switzerland this week, so I decided to go and hike Mount Rigi.  For those that don’t know, Rigi is close to Luzern, about one hour outside of Zurich.

It’s not an overly challenging hike, but I attempted it in bad weather in the hopes that the rain would hold off.  The first part of the hike goes up a rather steep section of switchbacks, but the trail itself is in very good condition.  At one point there is a rest shelter, about half way up. I stopped here when it started to rain.
Good signs on the mountain, with a view of fog in the background.  The times seem to be a little exaggerated unless you hike quite slowly.
I continued the hike when the rain passed.  The trail goes steeply through a field after the shelter.  Unfortunately Mother Nature decided to open the heavens at this point, and since I had no shelter, I got totally soaked!  By the time I reached the summit I was pretty much dripping water!
The fun part was while it was raining I could hear all these bells around me.  Historically, Swiss farmers put bells around the cows to find them on the mountain.  Now I think it’s mostly for tourists.  Either way, I could hear the cow, but not see it until it shoved its nose into my arm! Thankfully the cows on Rigi seem to be friendly!
A nice viewpoint on the top, but a view of only fog.
Right at the top they are running a steam train for the anniversary of Rigi.  I didn’t see what it cost, but I got a few pictures if it on the way down.  I thought it was really neat as I have never seen a steam train in operation before.

Cappadocia

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I arrived in Cappadocia on Turkish Airways from Istanbul.  I wanted to take the train, but all rail services have been suspended from Istanbul due to them upgrading to high speed lines.  Even if you book a flight last minute in high season (which is what I did), you are unlikely to pay more than 130 Lira.

I arranged a shuttle from the airport to the hotel, but it was dark by the time I got there.  Apparently this made for a cool picture of Göreme town.
It’s a fairly small place, but it’s in the centre of everything and all the hiking routes radiate from here. The open air museum, which showcases several churches built into the sandstone rock, is nearby.

Before I hiked love valley, I hiked up to see Üçisar castle, about a 3km hike from here.
You can see the word castle does not really do it justice.  It is a natural structure with rooms carved out inside it.  You can climb to the top for 6 lira (as of Summer 2014).  The view at the top is great.  You can see as far as Mount Erciyes, which is 3950 metres and still has snow at the top right now at the end of June.
The hiking around this area is really good.  With a decent map the trails are relatively easy to follow with a few of them cut through the rock.

The cows of Inle

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The Inle area is surrounded by many minority tribal groups.  Most of these live on the hillside in small rustic huts and survive by farming the land and raising some cattle or sheep.  Once or twice a month they may come into a major centre for supplies.  In the wet season this can be more problematic as the trails throughout the hills wash out.

Most of these trails are not very well marked, so I hired a guide.  The cost for the day was 10$ for a guide and lunch.  I was in a small group with 2 Americans.  I always wonder what kind of skills a trekking guide has, but I have always assumed that I probably know more about hiking than they do!  This time I think I was correct.
The dirt track here is the trail, so it’s pretty hard to get lost.  About one hour into the trek we had just ascended a steep section and the guide was about 30 metres in front of me, when he suddenly turns around and yells “oh f$#k” (this turned out to be his best English), and starts running toward me.  
When he realizes the trail is too narrow to pass, the fearless guide decides he would run off the trail and down the mountain!  Once he is out of the way I saw what he was running from, a cow.  Having had some experiance with cows before, I jumped up with my arms is the air and yelled at the thing.  As expected, the cow was not big on confrontations and ran in the opposite direction.
The poor guide clambered back up the hill looking very red.  After that we spent most of the afternoon making fun of the guide for being afraid of a cow!  Goodness knows what would of happened if we ran into something really dangerous!