Cow fighting and Swiss horn orchestra

After a similar start and breakfast to yesterday we had a quiet morning doing some life admin. The Chalet that we are staying in is built on the land gifted to Norbert and Anne-Marie by Norbert's parents. The original chalet is from 1868 and is where Norbert came on holiday as a child. It is still in pretty much the original condition and has no electricity, running water or toilet, but still functions as either a playhouse, walk through history or an extra guest room when necessary! Pretty cool to have a look around.

After the midday nap, Vero took Martin, Jo and myself to a village called Les Hauderes further up the valley to the traditional cow fighting championship. Cow fighting is an interesting sport where you start with eight cows in a ring and they fight to be the dominant cow or the last triumphant one. This is what naturally happens in the wild, however humans have made it a spectator sport. A cow is deemed to be ‘out’ if they run away from a challenge or lie

down and the fighting really is a battle of wills as the cows butt heads and lock horns!

We arrived in time for some lunch (sausage and Swiss potato salad), and to watch the juniors battle it out. These cows were only around two and a half years old. Certainly an interesting watch, with fights breaking out all over the ring, until the final four started going at each other. This lasted for a good 15 minutes until two cows backed down and then one other decided to quit leaving a top three. These three were paraded around the arena by their owners to generous applause showing off the massive bells they won as trophies.

As the pitch was being watered down, we were entertained by a traditional Swiss horn orchestra. These horns are massive and make a pretty wide range of sounds. Pretty cool to see as we had missed this at the folk festival the day before. We had promised Martin an icecream so that was next in the order of play. Wow it was one of the best soft serve ice-creams we have ever had! Time to head back to the car and drive to a small village called Evolene, a small ski resort with an array of traditional chalets and flags. A great spot to have a wander around.

Tonight for dinner we had a Raclette. This is a traditional dish of melted cheese that you eat with potatoes and cornichons, little pickles. It is a bit of a process as you melt the cheese under an element and scrape it onto a plate one by one, but it does taste as delicious as it sounds. Melted cheese is great on anything. This was again accompanied by meat, bread, other assorted cheeses and another never ending glass of wine. Another great evening with good company, plenty of laughs and topped off by a show of shooting stars.