Fox Glacier

Have you ever choked up unexpectedly?

When I stepped out of the camper today, the sky reminded me of Maya Angelou's poem On The Pulse of Morning.

Lift up your eyes upon
This day breaking for you.
Give birth again
To the dream. 
 
(I choked up when Angelou spoke the poem at Bill Clinton's 1993 inaugural too.)

This morning pulsed with beauty.

We were headed for Fox Glacier, though I suspected its changing profile would break my heart.

It feels almost like the Hajj walking to this glacier, a slow, holy uphill trek more extremely vertical as you near the end point.

Looking back, there's Art, minuscule against the almost unfathomable enormity of the rocky enclosure.

Our photos two years apart tell the story of Fox Glacier...
An analysis of aerial surveys, published on Australian website The Conversation last year, showed a third of the permanent snow and ice on the Southern Alps had vanished in less than four decades.

2015

2017

 

So yeah, it did kind of break my heart.

Looking back again, the sun breaches to flood the rock with light.

It's a privilege to be here.

On the ten-minute drive back to Fox Glacier Township we pulled off on the side of the road to try for this river walk, but it was closed due to flooding.

Still, there's a swingbridge.

With a view up the river that feels ethereal.

We went on to yet another fine walk this afternoon, but these legs are tired. My brain too. More tomorrow, campers...