Walking the Roseg Valley

It was one of those days with a clear sky of the deepest blue and when Steve decided the he was not going to ski and asked me what I fancied doing. I didn’t have a moment of hesitation before saying it looked like the day to walk the Roseg valley right up to the restaurant at the foot of the Roseg Gletscher and taking some food to feed the birds and get some pretty photos along the way.

 

It is quite a long walk, just short of ten miles there and back and we have done it lots of time before and always loved every moment; what’s not to love about it because it is so peaceful and far away from traffic, if you don’t count horse drawn vehicles.

 

Steve got his back pack ready making sure that he had the smaller pair of the two sets of binoculars that we had brought with us. He also put the camera battery on charge for a while whilst we had a bit of breakfast, which is not something we do at home but both agreed that this walk should be undertaken with a bit of fuel inside us. He cut up some bread into tiny cubes and some cheese rind too and put them in a bag for bird feed, adding some snack food for us both and a small bottle of water. I made sure that I had a notebook and pen, distance sunglasses, reading glasses and lip salve.

We wanted to get going whilst it was still early enough to be quiet and have less people about. We drove to Pontresina Station to park the car before setting off from there on the path leading into the Roseg Tal. It was cold enough since we were in shadow and would be until the sun moved on a ways, but clear and we were wrapped in suitably warm, comfortable clothes and sensible footwear.

It’s a wonder we don’t fall over as we walk, with both of us searching the mountain sides for signs of wild life. There are usually deer of various sorts to be seen if you have a sharp eye and we have only walked a couple of miles when we saw a group of Chamois high up on one side of the mountain grazing. That brought us to a halt as binoculars and the camera were pulled out of the back pack. We took several photos and looked through them to make sure that they were OK before moving on up the valley.

The absolute stillness is a sheer joy to people used to driving a truck in heavy traffic at home. We hardly saw another soul on the outward section of this favourite walk. We stopped several times to try to get some shots of the tiny birds flitting about that were mostly tits of various kinds. We did see a couple of woodpeckers and heard another busy at work drilling but were not quick enough to capture them on camera. I had stood with my hand full of food a number of times but although some birds looked curious, none were brave enough to fly to my hand for the treat. I did that each time until my fingers were nigh on frozen, then just left the food for them rather than tease the tiny creatures.

About a mile before the end of the trail we came to a suitable spot and again I took my glove off and held a handful on bread and cheese out and stood very still with Steve a little way to one side, ready to catch a little mite who was brave enough to come to my hand. He took a whole bunch of photos where he had just missed the fleeting visit of one bird or another and just got a photo of a hand full of breadcrumbs. Patience was rewards and in the end we got a few of the shots we were hoping for.

There was a Spotted Nutcracker but even though he came quite close he wasn’t as brave as the smaller birds and in the end I put some food on a wooden bar and he came along and ate from that instead, very close but he did not want to trust me to come as near as I wanted him to.

We had a hot drink when we got to the Hotel Restaurant Roseg Gletscher and stayed long enough to warm up before starting back again. Inside the restaurant reminded me of a line from the Rocky Horror Show…. “It’s like a hunting lodge for rich weirdos”, and it truly is; there are trophy sets of horns everywhere, maybe hundreds all very artistically displayed. Wherever you look there are stuffed animals and birds and a group of six fox skins hanging centrally. The metal chandeliers are all laden with horns and there are pretty snow hares sitting stilled by taxidermy and everything that is native to the region on every ledge in every direction.

We walked the downhill section on the way back much faster that the outward leg because we had our photos and now the stillness was shattered but lots of walkers, some mountain bikers and of course the joyfully pretty sight of horses pulling visitors who are unwilling to walk very far under their own steam in coaches. The horses came as troikas or pairs and are a lovely site for horse lovers like us.

We had the sun on our backs and gradually cast off our hats, then our gloves and then the coats came undone as the sun got higher and we were tired enough by the time we got back to the car.