Well, I guess it had to happen at some stage of my big trip, but this morning I woke up with no enthusiasm for the day ahead. The alarm went off at 06:00, and I finally made a move at 07:00. Today I have the Franz Josef and Fox Glacier eco walk planned, and I was due to be picked up from my accommodation at 09:05. My legs ached and I found myself quietly hoping that they'd forget to pick me up.
Picked up spot on schedule, we made our way into Franz Josef village where I completed their waiver form, and we then made the short drive to where I'd visited yesterday at Franz Josef glacier. We started walking along the path I took yesterday to the lookout, and then took a left onto the path to Sentinel Rock.
This was a fairly comfortable start; an uphill path to a scenic lookout of the valley the retreating glacier left behind, and what's left of the glacier now. We learned that in the late nineteenth century the glacier reached to where we were standing, and would have towered above us. It's been retreating generally since then, although there were a couple of decades of advance thrown in there as well (but that didn't help with the story that was trying to be told with the information boards). The general consensus is that in 50 years the Franz Josef glacier will be gone. It's a smaller glacier that is retreating faster than the bigger ones, but if conditions do change it will also advance faster than the bigger ones. It's still sad to see such a small amount remaining of what once filled this valley.
Back down this path to the junction, and then we headed towards the main lookout again before turning right through a small gap in the wall of the forest. We were now in the realms of guided parties only, and we proceeded to climb and clamber up a narrow path until we found ourselves at a waterfall.
After a few minutes to admire this (and to get the raincoat on as it had started raining) we descended the path, but took another branch before we had reached the main path. We followed the guide along the path, and broke through the cover and onto the original path to the main lookout just before the final climb. Up to the lookout where we had a pause for tea and cookies.
The glacier was clearer than in the overcast and cloud yesterday; the occasional opening in the clouds allowed the sunlight to show us the full colour of the glacier. After a while here, we descended the path, and darted into the forest again on the other side of the path; a trail that lead us into the bottom of the glaciated valley, and the flood plain of the river. We learned that until only a few weeks ago the river had been running along this side of the valley, but it was now right over on the other side.
We had a chance to stop here and learn about the geology of the place where the Indo Australian plate meets the Pacific plate. The main fault line runs straight through Franz Glacier village, and the filling station is built right on top of it. The fault tends to rupture every 300 years on average, and we are now due for the next one.
We made our way towards the car park, but before ending here we had the chance to follow another path up to Peter's Pool and a place that would give wonderful reflections on a sunny blue skied day; that was not today unfortunately, but the reflection was still pretty good.
Back to the car park and the minibus, and I was aware that I've probably overdone it as far as my legs are concerned. I had a chat with the guide, and the Fox Glacier that I'm slated to visit this afternoon has even more walking than here, and I know that'd be far too much. I therefore decided to stop at lunchtime, and was delivered back to my cabin.
I've thoroughly enjoyed what I have been able to do this morning, but I have definitely made the correct decision to stop when I did as I've totally seized up during the afternoon. On the bright side, I have no hiking planned for the near future so my legs will get a chance to recover for a few weeks.
Comments
Post a Comment