It only really occurred to me yesterday that, with restrictions still in place in many countries and travel off the menu for most, this site can transport you to another part of the world without you even having to leave home. So I make no apologies for including quite a lot of images in this post, as I think it will give you a better feel for the walk.
As you will see there are quite a few flowers in the gallery. I’ve deliberately left them unnamed so that you can both marvel at their variety and beauty and try to identify each, just as if you had been walking along the path yourself. The other reason of course is that it takes me ages to identify them and even then I sometimes cannot find the answer. This was/is particularly true of the ‘Light brown plant’ in pic 42. I thought it was a dead flower when I walked by the first time, but then took a closer look on my return. It looks very much like an orchid to me, but I cannot find anything similar looking anywhere online. There are no leaves, it just grows straight out of the ground. I’m guessing that it’s some form of Coralroot Orchid which, if true, is “rather rare” according to my Alpine Flora book.
I also thought I’d try to bring some sense of being abroad by including some French, as I often find the names of the butterflies much more exciting in French – like the Brimstone (which always reminds me of fire and brimstone) is known as a Citron. The Moorland Clouded Yellow is a Solitaire, the Mountain Clouded Yellow a Candide and the Purple-shot Copper is a Cuivré Flamboyant. The Black-veined White (which at least describes what it is – see pic 30), is a Gazé. But WordPress doesn’t seem to allow me to include the e with an acute accent in the gallery names, so I’ve had to stick with English. There is however a picture of an information board written in French and German for anyone who’d like to test their language skills. 😊
For more information (in English) and a video of some of the most ‘exciting’ (aka exposed) parts of the route, please click here.
Bonne promenade!
Alittlebitoutoffocus 
Oh so right you are, Mike, taking us off on this alpine hike through the Alps and away from home. Gorgeous photos. So much runoff in your mountains, filling the troughs and nourishing the plant life. Can’t imagine building those troughs on the side of a rocky mountain behemoth! The butterfly photos are outstanding, enjoyed the selfie and all the photos in your picturesque land. Thanks so much.
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You’re welcome Jet. I hope it took you away for an albeit too short ‘holiday’. Did you check out the video (tab in that link)? It’s worth a look if not.
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I appreciate this escape! No such thing as “too many photos” in my opinion. Beautiful work! Thank you
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I’m glad you enjoyed it. I shrink the photos to around 250k to make sure they are not taking too much space or time uploading, so I hope they come up OK and do the subject matter justice.
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They come up beautifully and are so much fun to see. Thank you for posting them!
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It’s my pleasure. I very much enjoy the walks and I’m glad others do too, if only virtually!
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I’m no expert but I’d say your light brown plant is a Broomrape of some kind. There seem to be quite a few varieties out there – very weird plants and I think parasitic in some way. Nice pics!
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Thanks David, you may well be right. It certainly has the right ‘straight out of the ground’ look to it, as well as the overall shape. I had a quick look on the Swiss flora website for the Orobanche family but none looked exactly like it, but I guess it could easily be another family altogether. I’m currently wading through a few pictures I took yesterday of some butterflies and plants. I may have a few ‘new’ ones to post.
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