Green

Sometimes it is good to stay down. Closer to the everyday ground. OK, I am a little bit talking like LaFontaine's fox about the sour grapes, considering that recently I have been rather unsuccessful in mountaineering. But this latest trip wasn't even meant to reach somewhere really high. We just wanted to climb and exist... with no particular summit-like target :-)

And here we go, we found Meiringen (in Switzerland). It is supposed to be a Mecca for rock climbers. Well, the rock routes - they weren't easy for us to find. We had no maps. There were many, too many paths up there on the hillside, in the forest and none of them had any specific direction indication, except for "Wanderweg" :-)

This is how our day turned to be a little frustrating for him, he kept sighing that we didn't have a topo. That we should never leave without proper topos (maps). Well, true, but I hadn't been able to find any.

On the other hand I was just so happy trudging up the hills after him, much slower, yet keeping a steady rhythm in the exceptionally hot May Saturday afternoon... Finally out IN the forest!

Everything was so green. Leaves and trees, fields, the landscape was dominated by its freshness. Even next day, the river canyon we visited, the famous Aareschlucht wore overwhelmingly green shades, green water perpetually meandering along its own heavily carved narrow canyon-way, with green branches peeping in from the top of the rocks on both "shores" of the gorge.

All in all, it was a very inspiring green. A colour of hope and renascent life, that feeds you one last time before you, mountain climber set off again to steeper routes up into the White.