Day 13 - Friday 4th September 2015 - St Niklaus to Zermatt

Total distance walked:	19.3 km	11.99 miles
Total hours walked including stops	4 hrs 58 mins
Total hours walked excluding stops	4 hrs 41 mins
Height at start	1127 metres	3698 feet
Height at finish	1606 metres	5268 feet
Total Height Gain	839 metres	2753 feet
Total Height Loss	350 metres	1148 feet
Maximum Height	1632 metres	5354 feet
Average speed excluding stops	4.12 km/hr	2.56 miles/hr

Up just after 6.00 am, dressed, washed and packed and went for a short walk around St Niklaus before returning to the zimmer for breakfast at 7 o’clock.   Orange juice, cornflakes, yoghurt with myrtilles, bread, butter, jam and café au lait. 

I started off for Zermatt at 07.35 am and was soon out of St Niklaus and on the old road to Zermatt.  It was reasonably pleasant walking beside the river, road and railway occasionally in the larch trees above the river and walking past a golf course near Randa.  I saw and photographed the landslip which occurred south of Randa in 1991.  I stopped for a few minutes every hour and arrived in Zermatt at 12.30 pm having seen and photographed the Matterhorn but there was a lot of cloud about.  I bumped into Dave, the Scotsman who had arrived the night before from Grimentz – I hadn’t seen him since Arolla when he went ahead with Tom, the Englishman.  I found a restaurant and had a small beer, carpaccio, glass of red wine and an espresso coffee. (CHF 33.50).  I then walked up towards the centre of Zermatt to get a couple of photographs of the Matterhorn, still cloud around the summit.

Then to the station and bought a ticket to Nyon, just short of Geneva airport where I was staying the night with friends (CHF 88.00). The train went back down the valley past St Niklaus and I saw and photographed Patrick and Veronique from the train sitting beside the path (probably eating as usual).  Changed trains at Visp and arrived at Nyon at 5.35 pam i.e. a journey of about 3 hours 20 minutes.  It was Friday afternoon and the train from Visp was full of students and very noisy.

The next morning, I was at the airport in plenty of time for my flight at 10.35 am.  Through bag drop and security in about 10 minutes – slightly less than the two hours at London on the outward journey.  Arrived at Luton airport at about 10.45 am and home in time for lunch.