2024-02-18 We’re in Valais again
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Oh yeah. Hiking down on the valley floor. There’s a nice dry forest.

> The Pfynwald or Bois de Finges is a natural reserve and one of the
> largest continuous Scots pine forests of Europe. It is located on
> the language border between German- and French-speaking Valais,
> Switzerland, on the alluvial cone below the Illgraben valley. –
> Pfynwald, on Wikipedia

The trail started along site names like Hexenplatz (witche's square)
and Galgenweg (gallow way). Creepy.

The forest was nice, though. Very different from the forest we have
around Zürich.

It is dry and coniferous.



A trail leads through a dry forest with snow covered mountains in the
back.



The trail continues.



This is the Illgraben. It is very unstable. Wikipedia says there are
mudflows two or three times a year.

No water is visible but there's a big scar in the ground.



Looking into the Illgraben we see how the edge keeps crumbling.
There's a barrier made of twigs whenever the trail comes close to the
edge.



This is the Bhutan bridge, designed by engineers and blessed by
priests living in France. It is a result of 2002 being the
International Year of Mountains. It's a hanging bridge that crosses
the Illgraben.



Surprisingly, there are actually tracks of some sort of construction
vehicle in the valley.



We saw some Hepatica nobilis (Leberblümchen).



A rock covered in moss.



A huge rock cliff rising behind the forest.



A tree felled by beavers. We loved that water-logged part of the hike.
We didn't see any beavers, though.



There were two stone towers we saw. I fear these were built for
hermits. What a shit way to spend the few days you have in life.



As the sun begins to set, we see the industrial zone of Sierre.



Just as we were about to leave the forest, we saw Pulsatilla vulgaris
(Küchenschelle).



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