The weather forecast was not promising with severe weather warnings over most of Vaud so the leader of this event decided to keep this “hike” low and with opportunities to escape if necessary.
Just 5 of us assembled in the parking in Morges: Larry, Bill, 2 Marks and an Irish interloper -Arthur Grifith. Surprisingly none had walked the full path before. Despite the forecast, which was changing by the hour, the day started out dry but not sunny.
We started along the lake, past Préverenges to the Ile aux oiseaux which certainly lived up to his name. This was new to many of the participants and now includes two powerful, and free, telescopes to watch the birds at close up.
After many of the birds had been identified, but not by me, and the information panels scrutinised, we continued on to St Sulpice. This is the only section of the walk where the path leaves the lakeshore, just before and just after the church.
We would have walked past the church had Mark 2Rs not insisted we visit it and what a treat it was: built in Romanesque style in the 11th century and looking inside as if it is all original. This is a true gem and well worth a visit, thank you Mark.
Shortly after St Sulpice the path returned to the lakeside and we continued on to our lunch spot at les Berges de Vidy. By now it had started to rain so we donned waterproofs or raised umbrellas which miraculously stopped the rain.
Conversation, at lunch or on the walk, covered Irish reunification, the siege of Troy (Paris killed Achilles who had killed Hector), Philip Larkin and his Whitsunday poem, places to visit in Northern Ireland, whether we would be in time for the boat back from Ouchy and many other subjects which I’ve forgotten but will add when the participants remind me.
We left Vidy planning to catch the boat back to Morges and arrived at the quay in Ouchy just as it was pulling out.
So we originally decided to walk up the path from Ouchy to Lausanne station but there was a metro train already waiting for us at Ouchy so we caught it in order to just miss the next train to Morges. Eventually we sorted out tickets (the most stressful part of the day) and caught a train back to Morges and returned to our cars.
A very interesting, and even cultural, walk if not too strenuous. About 15 km with essentially no height gain. The storms came to nothing (but were violent during the evening) and the only serious rain was while we were in the restaurant.
