"The inversion layer is only a few
hundred metres thick and, if you
drive up any mountain road - a ski
field or an alpine pass - you quickly
get out of the drizzly fog and into the
most brilliant sunshine. We take our
picnics and hiking gear and drive
up to spend a few hours in the sun,
recharging our inner solar batteries
at an altitude. From up there, the
inversion layer is like a white sea,
with the mountain peaks protruding
from it like an island archipelago.
With the sunlit fog blinding like the
surface of a glacier, the views are
what this land must have looked
like at the peak of the Ice Age.
After soaking up the sun and
the wide-open vistas, we return
to the world of fog, immune to its
sombre moods."