4 Nov

 Walked up to the old marble quarry. Beautiful crunchy snow underfoot. Klyte loaned me some boots, ski pants and a really nice doona-like jacket. We saw tracks of little animals who clearly ran around near the river overnight or early that morning. Icicles hanging off low branches hanging over the water.

We walked up a 'black' snowshoe track so there were some steep bits and we had to carefully cross the little river. Normally it's fine hopping across rocks in the shallower bits (especially with enclosed snow boots) but it's a different story when any exposed surface is covered in ice. We held hands and kicked at the ice/tested footing before proceeding. Uphill was really hard going with the alititude.

At the top there were massive blocks of marble sitting like sacrificial altars, black against the snow on the large flat open area in front of the quarry. In the quarry itself were thousands of icicles, handing off all of the exposed stone. The sounds of cracking and occasionally falling and smashing icicles was eerie and awesome.

The whole walk was magical - the sound of snow crunching underfoot, the trees laden with powdery-whiteness, the quietness of the forest blanketed with pine needles and snow, icicles and water running under ice on the track, little footprints and evidence of animals having pranced and jumped over rocks...

When we got back down we had leftover soup for lunch with crusty bread, and a game of scrabble. A bit odd with the french set - too many vowels, and the letters were worth different amounts - but it was fun. I won.

In the afternoon we walked back up to the church and had a look inside. The entrance way has lovely old (slightly damaged) columns and carved figures made of local marble. As with a lot of churches, it has lots of different timelines, being rebuilt after an avalanche, and being shot up in the war. It had a beautiful chandelier in the middle which looked like ice or snow crystals. There was also a fresco exposed in one wall section which was rather beautiful and depicted some of the swiss guard.

When we got back we had a sauna! Klyte lent me a bikini haha. We lay on the benches on towels, sipped perrier, and broke up two sauna sessions of about 10+ mins with a shower in between. It was very relaxing, and nice to feel so warm.

Hubert arrived in the evening and we made fondue. After dinner we played Cluedo (pronounced clue-ay-doh), then Klyte and I started another game of Trivial Pursuit. We left it for the morning when we were both only missing two bits of pie.

13,825 steps

9.29 km