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After breakfast, we set out on foot for Naters, 4 miles horizontally and down 2,200 feet vertically. We retrace our steps in reverse order on yesterday’s walk as far as Geimen. Not an easy stretch, due to loose gravel, slippery grass and ditto stones. After Geimen, the trail passes through agricultural land, past farms and wayside chapels. One cross shows the portrait of a victim, where he must have fallen to his death from a cliff. We meet a young woman going uphill with a baby on her back, and are overtaken by a man on a moped going downhill as well as a rider on a mountainbike. We finally reach Naters at 1045, 90 minutes after leaving Blatten. It’s warm down there. We walk into the centre of the town by the churchyard (trust me to find one of those) and cross the Rhone Bridge into Brig by the railway station.
We check into the Migros, the local hypermarket and restaurant, for some custard slices and coffee. Our next port of call, before we do the twice weekly shop, is to find an adapter for my battery charger. I purchased an adapter on the Net, but this does not fit the Swiss sockets. Fortunately, the Interdiscount store comes up trumps with another adapter, 9 francs, which allows me to charge up my GPS machine. Then we went back to the Migros for the shop, which amounted to the same amount as last Sunday in Blatten but for twice the amount of goods.
After a bottle of pop at the station, we jumped on the postcar back to Blatten at 1.23pm. It incurred a delay after a posse of a dozen women came on board on the Marktplatz. They never stopped talking all the way to Naters Moos, and left our ears ringing. The mercury in Naters was 27C / 80F, but only 20C / 68F in Blatten, showing the difference made by 700 metres (2300 ft) of altitude. There is some cloud around the 3000-ers over Belalp, but it remains fairly clear nonetheless. Can feel this morning’s descent in the old legs!
A spot of rain is left later in the afternoon. Concrete mixers are running up and down the road, supplying cement for a building project higher up. At 4.30pm, we go to the village PO (which is open from 4.30 until 6pm). The post master is a bit of a joker. Then it’s off to the village shop for postcards. It seems you can hire a Trottibike on the cablecar and run it back down to Blatten from Belalp (a distance of 4-5 miles) in 90 minutes. We’ve got a fair amount of sunburn, and not just on the walk down to Brig this morning. Tried the whirlpool, which leaves you out of breath.
Waterfall at Geimen
Chapel at Geimen
Donkeys at Moos
Naters from above
Naters
Brig station
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