We had some strong thunderstorms yesterday evening, and with more forecast for this afternoon we thought we’d get out early this morning. We catch the train up to Wengernalp. Lovely views as always, but it’s too early in the year for livestock, so everywhere is very quiet.

Swiss glaciers have been in the news lately. A village in the next valley was wiped out last week when the glacier above it collapsed. Fortunately geologists had warned of the possibility that this might happen, and all the people and their livestock were evacuated a few days before the disaster struck. Here’s our glacier.

Fortunately, the mighty Jungfrau glacier doesn’t pose a danger to Wengen.

Our walk takes us to a place called Mettlenalp, where we pause at a bench for a drink. Nice views across the valley to the village of Mürren.

The path continues to descend, and we come across the first livestock. It’s a family of goats.

Goats are friendly, inquisitive creatures, and they appear to enjoy the attention that they get from passing hikers. We walked on down the path, and a few seconds later we heard a great cacophony of bells behind us. The goats had leapt over the electric fence and decided to join us for our walk.

We were accompanied by Mr and Mrs Goat and their family for 10 minutes or so, and at one point we thought they’d lost interest in us. But then we heard the bells again as they came racing down the hill to join us. Press play!

Eventually we came across a Swiss couple who had a telephone number for the goats’ owner. The goats seemed happy to stay with them until they could be walked back up to the meadow where we’d found them.

A nice walk, and we were home in time for lunch. Uptown Lights at the Braunbaer this evening.