Riding the camel and other motivational features of Mount Seta ; )

Riding on the camel was our motivation when we had to go hiking in the valley of our mountain cabin as kids.

I hated hiking so much 😂! Camels got me going though. And the white-red-white striped marks of the Swiss hiking trails. Finding the next sign was like our treasure hunt. My parents used them very well to motivate us! And then there was another highlight to find: The chocolate flower. It’s a little orchid, no fancy bright looks BUT it smells very yummy like chocolate-vanilla!

So chocolate flowers, these signs and the camel were our motivation to go on this mountain top called Seta. The camel is a rock formation which still 40 years later goes strong 🐪❤️. Every time I pass the camel I have to ride it and take a picture if I have a photographer with me 😊. The one I show you here is from Bry Penney, my dear pro photographer: The best picture I’ve got is of the camel and me! 

We just went up there yesterday when our friends visited us. We had a blast AND we saw chocolate flowers AND the signs made me happy AND I loved to see the camel 😍. 

Mount Seta is an easy 45 min hike from our cabin (it took us 3 hours when we were whiny toddlers) but when you are on the top, it‘s really a „peak-feeling“. So rewarding! Aaand there is a book at the top, hidden in a tin in the stone-man (as we say in Swiss German for the super stable piled stone construction) to write an entry as proof that you were there! I show you our few last ones in the pic.

When Ken came to Switzerland the first time in 2002 we approached the summit and he commented: „Oh no, about another three hours to the top, right!?“ I said: „Are you kidding? It’s 20 minutes from here!“ He couldn’t believe it because the distances in the mountains are quite difficult to estimate. A year later Papa Sakata came to Switzerland his first time and at the exact same place he sighed: „Oh my God another few hours up there!“ Ken commented: „Are you kidding? It’s only 20 minutes from here!“  Bragging son imitated me from last year ☺️. It’s again always a great memory to think of the two Sakatas making their first mountain hiking experiences when I’m at the point where they commented. 

Sometimes in life it’s the same you know when we all think „Oh my God, till the summit it’s so long, but actually if we just put step-by-step one foot in front of another, we can reach that summit sooner than we think and then have this wonderful feeling of being on top of the world and having the big view and big insights where we want to go and what’s next.

What‘s next in your life? What are you working towards? And what are your favorite childhood-memories? I‘d loooove to hear YOUR stories!

Sending you lots of looove from the mountaintop 😉

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