DAY 195 - SIERRE TO SION 10.2 MILES (20,400 STEPS)

3 November, 2011

10.2 miles (Total: 1921.3 miles) 20,400 steps (4,144,201 steps)

There is a routine beginning to emerge as I set off from Schlosshotel Art Furrer in Brig and head down to the station in Brig to get the train to Sierre. I have always found that routine is a welcome thing on this walk; so often it is a different pace to stay every night and the experience of having a base and knowing where you are going to return to that evening is a very welcome experience.

Today was just a bit frustrating as my normal experience is that major towns are a day’s walk apart. I suppose it makes sense, but these settlements were formed before highways and high speech rail links and therefore tend to reflect the travel patterns of people even before the horse and cart. For all of our technological advances, we haven’t increased the distance that the average person is able to walk in a day or two for perhaps two millennia. That distance is set at around 30km or 20 miles. For some reason, the proximity of Sierre to Sion was much closer than this, and though I felt that I was physically able to go on for another five or ten miles there was no point, as this would have brought me well short of the next stop on the railway line – Martigny, so I stopped in Sion.

Sion is quite a place and I would have enjoyed spending longer there. It is a busy town with large squares, historic buildings, and busy restaurants and cafes. The city has lost out twice in recent years in bids to host the Winter Olympics – I can see why it ran Torino and Salt Lake City so close. The history of the city is worth studying as it became the centre of the First Helvetic Republic, which was a first attempt to create a unified Swiss nation following the invasion of Napoleon. Although the Helvetic Republic did not last, the idea of a unified Swiss nation had been born and was later brought into fruition in 1848.

I return to Brig with energy to spare, and use it to catch up on a mass of emails and blog entries, which I have been working through with one hand typing.

DAY 193 - VISP TO SIERRA : 20.2 MILES (40,400 STEPS)

1 November, 2011

20.2 miles (Total: 1891.3 miles) 40,400 steps (Total: 4,086,201 steps)

Getting up now requires at least an extra thirty minutes and the support of a cocktail of pain killers taken at least forty minutes before then. I don’t mean to sound like a wimp as I am sure that there are millions for whom this is not a temporary challenge, but a permanent requirement. On the positive side, I am impressed by how quickly we just adapt to new realities whilst most of the limitations and frustrations of getting ready are a factor of time, and by simply allowing more time, the greatest obstacle can be removed.

For some reason Halloween is a very big deal in Switzerland … I am not sure why but the town squares and stations were packed with young people in high spirits and the shops were decked out in ghoulish displays of pumpkins, broomsticks, and cob-webs. Some people get a little wound up about this, but my view is that anything which gets people coming together in community, having common collective experiences has got to be a good thing. The down side of the ‘collective experience’ is that the shops don’t re-open until mid-day when the Halloween ‘spirits’ have worn off.

I get the train from Brig to Visp and stride off in the direction of Sierre. The later start in the morning and the shorter days due to the onset of winter mean that I have to get a move on if I am not going to be walking along 

busy roads along the dark that presents an added risk, especially the day after Halloween. I make it into the centre of Sierre just as darkness was falling, but missed the turning down to the station so walked to the edge of town and then had to double back – never a cheery experience.

Fortunately, I had loaded a new song onto my iPod the previous evening after having seen one of the most energetic and pulsating music videos of recent months on MTV – ‘The Adventures of Rain Dance Maggie’ by the Red Hot Chilli Peppers filmed at Venice Beach. The song was on loop most of the day and it certainly gave me rhythm to keep me going and to forget the discomfort of my shoulder.

Day 190 "Up's and Down's"

Michael walking in the Alps

29 October, 2011

Greetings from Switzerland.

Crossing the Alps had been a looming challenge ever since I crossed into Italy and I saw the Alps to my right as trekked across to Milan; there was a fear that the snows might close the pass before I reached there and of course the physical demands. Like all fears they grow more in the mind and reduce when we begin to assail them.

On the way up to the 6000 ft pass I had never felt so good, utterly exhilarated in fact as anyone would be—see pic . I resolved that as I felt so good that I would try and find follow the old Napoleonic path down the other side which wasn’t a smart move as the track had become covered in snow and I soon lost my way and then lost my footing sliding down a ravine resulting in a dislocated and fractured shoulder.

The good news is that it could have been a whole lot worse had a tree trunk not broken by fall and my head hit the rock first rather than second after my shoulder as I ended up face down in an Alpine steam with my rucksack pinning me down.  

Adrenaline is a wonder drug  and I felt such a rush through my veins which enabled me not only haul myself out of the water but also to enable me to haul my rucksack for seven miles (in five hours) along the rocky floor of the ravine until I connected with a road where I hitched a lift to hospital first in Brig and then referred to Visp as they needed to  manipulate the bone in the joint to ensure that the two pieces went back in together—fortunately I was knocked out for that part.

In one of those miracles of modern technology I noticed when I came to that I had received a text from my brother, David just after the fall saying, “Are you okay? Noticed that you are at the bottom of steep ravine and haven’t been moving for a while.’ The GPS locator on my mobile phone encouraged me that some ‘thing’ and some ‘one’ up there had been looking after me.

I was kept in hospital overnight for observation more because of the bash on the head than the shoulder—this was the first time in my life I had spent a night in hospital since I was born 50 years ago. I didn’t like it any more now than I did then. I have a propensity to think too much and so having time on my hands is a very bad thing for me. After another sleepless night I woke and decided that I needed to just get moving. I caught the Post-bus back to just beyond the point where I had hitched a lift and then walked ten miles back to the hospital in Visp where I had an appointment at 5PM.  I felt so much better for it (and for listening that evening to Radio Five Live commentary on Stoke (1) v Newcastle (3) ). Of course it was more uncomfortable than usual I had forgotten how much we use our arms when we walk, but I had been loaded up with the best painkillers Swiss medicine could provide by the brilliant medical team in Visp who had been  enthusiastic and very supportive about my mission.

If trying to find the lost trail of Napoleon was the stupidest decision I had taken then getting moving and getting over the slip was the smartest. Using the hotel in Brig as a base and shuttling back and forth on the excellent Swiss railways I walked from Visp to Sierre on Tuesday, Sierre to Sion yesterday and hopefully Sion to Martigny today. See pic 2.Michael Bates - pic 2

Of course, it is impossible for me to carry my forty pound rucksack for at least the next month but I can still make progress as I have this week. I will also have the bonus of Xuelin coming out for the next week to hire a car and help shuttle my rucksack between accommodations so that I can reach Bern on schedule on November 14 where the British Embassy have prepared an excellent couple of days of events and meetings to promote the truce. Then Cousin Stephen and Tom are coming out on a pre-planned visit on the 17^th which should get me into Germany on schedule.

Other implications of the injury are that writing emails takes about four times as long as normal so the rate of responding to emails and updating blogs will be slow—apologies in advance.

Be assured that I am in good spirits and with the exception of one limb feeling very fit.

Trust you are all well and thank you for your interest and support.

Best regards,

Michael