2nd September 2010

WOW! What a hike we had today. We caught the free bus to a small town called Surlej. From Surlej, we took the Corvatsch mountain lift up to the top station for a look at the views and then went down to the middle station for the start of the hike. The top station sits at 3330m with views of Piz Roseg at 3937m and Piz Bernina at 4049m. What a spectacular location.

We started hiking at Corvatsch Mittelstation Murtel at 2702m. The trail went downhill for a while and then zigzagged steeply up-hill until we reached Fuorcla Surlej. This is a hut that sits on a saddle between 2 mountains. Also a spectacular location.

From the hut it was steeply downhill with an altitude difference of  900m and it took us nearly 2 hours. What a hard slog!! It is harder to go down than it is to go up. Hiking up is hard on the heart and hiking down is hard on the legs and knees. But we were accompanied on the walk down by some great views towards the mounatins and down into the Val Roseg.

But eventually we got to the bottom to a restaurant in the Val Roseg. Here there were horse drawn carriages that you could use to get back to the bus station but at CHF50 for us both, Ray said 'no', we would walk back. 2 hours later we finally arrived at the bus stop and I don't think either of us could have taken another step.

Only one more day to go here in the Engadin and all our freebies. It has been great so far with all the tourist cards that have given us free access to transport and mountain lifts. But from now on, we pay. I am looking at buying a Swiss Half Fare Card for CHF99 each which gives half price on most forms of transport. It is provided by the Swiss Transport Company and is valid for most mountain lifts, buses, trains, boats etc.. It should be worth it as we are staying for quite a while.