Longest Day on the Hill

..... that I have had for 3 years and, because I was up so early (set off at 05:30 to photograph the moon) the animals were not expecting anyone! I loved the look of astonishment here! The other 6 had zoomed off already. The female bouquetins and their young were much more chilled, allowing me to pass quite close. (2 youngsters in extra). Having got high above the Cabane de la Tourche I decided to challenge myself and push my tired legs for another 2 hours to the summit of the Dents de Morcles 2,969m but the path went down before it went up. I crawled to the summit. The whole way I was alone, a young man arriving after 15 minutes, wanted to take each other's photos. Just as I was about to take his, I thrust his camera back at him, a bearded vulture had just flown below us! My long lens was in my rucksack and I just managed to get a couple of shots in before the vulture disappeared, one of which is in extras. These are so rare, the largest bird in the Alps, reintroduced in early 1990s but it was 1997 before one actually hatched in the wild! I am fascinated by these iconic birds... see... http://beardedvulture.ch/project/reintroduction

Now just about staying awake and heading for an early night! Apparently I did 37,664 steps today, nuts! But I did enjoy most of it! Hope you are having a good weekend too.