Dachsies on the Alps
Text and photos: Tiina Linkolehto-Kivelä
    
We traveled from Finland via Baltic countries, through a route called Via Baltica.
The whole trip took 12 days and it included 6300 kilometers driving.
We rented a van for our group: Petri and  Tiina
and the miniature dachsies  Tempo and Touho.
We slept in the van. Dogs thought that living in this big, moving house was cozy.
    
Very soon Tempo took his place on the refrigerator.

Touho kept on watching the traffic.


  
    
On the Lithuanian border we stayed overnight, together with all the trucks.


Guardian dogs keeping watch in the van!

Finally in Switzerland, in the village of  Zermatt.

    
So we went up with a cableway, up to Klein Matterhorn station. The height did not scare Touho.

Some water with and up to Breithorn.
Tempo did not want to walk for long and begged to get carried.


  
    
The thin air did not seem to bother the dachsies as much as us.
Dachsies were the only ones in our group to wear ropes.
On the top 20th of July 1997.
Breithorn, height 4 164 meters
Few dachsies have  climbed this high with their own feet!

  
    
Tempo wants to get in the lap. Touho is ready to go on the edge.
The weather is fine. You can see the bold Matterhorn  (height 4 478 meters) from Breithorn.
    
There were cracks.


Storm was coming. Tempo had enough a long time ago, and now Touho had
his paws sore because of the ice. Both the dachsies were really tired.

Because of the storm we did not stay in the tent.
So we went to a quiet cableway station to  stay overnight.

Inside the station it was cold and damp and a lot of echo, like in a mine.
We tried to dry out our outwear and we made food.


  
    
Tempo was so tired that he did not even eat! He just growled and made himself a bed in Petri's coat.
 Touho was very hungry, and so he ate half of Tiina's food too.  His paws were very sore because of all this walking on the ice.

Once again we were lucky! The door to the skiers locker room was open.
It was very dusty, but warm and dry, and there was no echo. Especially  Touho appreciated this!

From Switzerland to France, going up to Mont Blanc.
This time the dachsies did not climb with us.

Tempo and Touho stayed down on the ground when we left up the mountain.

Finally: in the bed AT HOME!


Tired but very happy paws.