Kandersteg has the slightly odd ambience of a tourist town
just out of season – like an ageing beauty, the signs of past glory are there,
but now looking slightly faded around the edges. The large terraces outside the hotels are
empty, their umbrellas furled, and the town sits rather sullenly under a permanently
grey sky. However, the reason behind our
itinerary’s three day stay here is immediately apparent when you look at what
lies on Kandersteg’s doorstep. The
topography of the town would suggest that it is an isolated town surrounded by
mountains and disconnected from the world around it, but not at all. By the ingeniousness of Swiss engineering at
its best, Kandersteg is linked to its neighbouring valley, and indeed
countries, by a rail system which simply
goes through the mountains. The Swiss are understandably proud of this
huge achievement, and our first walking tour from Kandersteg gave us an
opportunity to fully appreciate the enormous imagination, tenacity and skill of
the railway designers and builders.
Travelling by train from Kandersteg through the Lotschberg
Tunnel reminded me of a film I had seen as a teenager. A plane crashes and several people are lost
on a snow covered mountain side. When
they crawl through a tiny opening in the wall of the mountain they enter a
world that is permanently in summer and where no-one ever ages – a true “Shangri-La”. Sadly I can’t vouch for the anti-ageing
benefits, but arriving on the other side of the mountain from Kandersteg into
the “Lotschberger-Sudrampe” was not dissimilar.
The grey drizzle we had left behind was replaced with sunshine which
grew steadily stronger as the day progressed.
The south facing mountain sides were covered with vineyards and orchards,
and in the valley below the fast flowing river was an artery which united a valley
full of industrial activity and busy townships.
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| The busy valley below the Lotschberger Sudrampe walk |
Our original plan was to get off the train at
Hohtenn and then take a walk which follows the railway line around the side of the
mountain to Eggerberg which lies further up the valley, from where we would
catch a train back to Kandersteg.
Neither Anthony nor I are linguists, and certainly neither of us have
any German between us, so our first mistake was assuming that the train would
stop at every station, as they do in England.
Not so! The Swiss have a far more
efficient system whereby the train will only stop at the smaller stations on
request. This we discovered after
Hohtenn whizzed by without the train stopping!
Once we realised our mistake we had to quickly get up to speed and
reschedule our walk to go in the opposite direction! We left the train at Eggerberg and began our
5 hour hike back towards Hohtenn, contouring around the mountain sides, and
gaining a wonderful insight into human determination and ingenuity at its very
best. Vast bridges and viaducts spanned
the deep gorges which were gouged into the mountain sides, and tunnel after
tunnel appeared, not only for the train running around the mountain side below
us, but also on our hiking trail, with
sometimes up to 7 or 8 tunnels in quick succession. We were able to experience the quite
extraordinary sensation of literally walking through the sides of a mountain.
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| Tunnels for trains, and on the left, for trekkers, each as remarkable as the other |
We came across a mountain hut at Ranerchumma and
drank in the sunshine over a delicious lunch of Rosti, before hurrying on to
reach Hohtenn within the hour to catch the next train for Kandersteg.
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| My first ever Rosti - I'm sorry but the English breakfast isn't a patch on this! |
The path was a wonderful variation of tiny
track which literally clung limpet like to the mountain side under overhanging
rocks, to slippery earth trails under the trees with fast flowing channels of
water running beside them. In some
places, the “path” was actually the edge of one of these channels, on one side
water and rock face, and on the other – a very long fall! Luckily metal hand rails on the rock face
provided much needed reassurance! In
one place, the channel was actually made out of interlocking halves of huge
logs which had been dug out to form a gutter, which made an interesting
juxtaposition between the modern day engineering we were witnessing with the
railway line and an ancient but equally effective form of engineering in
wood.
Coming through yet another of the many tunnels
on our path, we caught a glimpse of our first chamois. Sadly I wasn’t fast enough to reach my camera
before this lithe creature made mockery of our need for paths and tunnels by
leaping around a protruding outcrop on the mountain face and swiftly
disappearing from view.
The path suddenly descended and we crossed a
deep gorge on a metal suspension bridge, which then turned into a series of
steep metal steps which followed the rock face of the gorge down towards the
water crashing below. I couldn’t quite
believe what was happening, as the metal steps actually took us virtually
behind a cascade, with the bottom step flooded by the rushing waters. Behind this step was a large plank, which
appeared to be blocking our way. I was
just starting to think we must have gone horribly wrong when Anthony pointed
out a switch in the rock face above me, which I pushed and suddenly the way
forward was revealed. Stepping gingerly
onto the flooding metal step and over the plank, a lit tunnel led us through
the mountain from behind the waterfall.
It really was like something out of “Boy’s Own” and great fun!
Finally we reached Hohtenn, with ten minutes to
spare before the next hourly train, and so were feeling very pleased with
ourselves and quite elated by what had been an incredible walk. Suddenly the air of elation evaporated as we
searched for the railway station, and saw a sign for “Hohtenn Station – 55
minutes”. How could this be? We asked a local man, and my heart sank when
he pointed to a large cross on the skyline high above the village – that was Hohtenn Station, where we stood
was Hohtenn Village. Somewhere we had
lost too much height on our walk and taken the wrong trail, leading us well
short of our destination. There was
nothing for it but to begin the long, hot climb up a very stony mountain side
to the station above, made even more frustrating by the sound of our train
whistling by over our heads without us.
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| Hoftenn Station at last - time to cool down and reflect - "Act in haste - repent at leisure!" |
However, this small setback didn’t detract from
what had been a fantastic day in the sun, marvelling at how man has overcome
the natural obstacle of mountains, and connected a country that could be so
easily isolated and locked in by its natural topography to the world around it.
THE GEMMI PASS - THURSDAY, 19TH
SEPTEMBER
The weather conditions which deteriorated so
quickly at the beginning of the week have slightly been preoccupying our
thoughts and determining our plans, but fortunately things are improving, so
much so that we were able to make this walk up to the Gemmi Pass at 2,346
metres. This ancient and popular pathway
between the Bernese Oberland and the Valais region has been a trading route for
hundreds of years. It is set amidst
glorious alpine scenery with far reaching views from the Pass itself towards
the Weisshorn and Matterhorn. Once
again our day began in mist and cloud and as we headed down to the bus station
to catch a bus to the cable car station at Sunnbuel we could only hope that the
day would brighten. The cable car ride
did little to allay our fears, as far from punching through the overlying cloud
as we ascended, we could see very little as the thick wet cloud enveloped our
little bubble. Perhaps luck wasn’t going
to be on our side today as it had been yesterday.
We decided to sit it out at the top, and I made
the waiter’s day by ordering the house special, coffee with a good slug of
grog! I think he was well impressed that
I could drink this at 9.00am!! We drank
our coffee, poured over our maps and waited for the miraculous unveiling of
promised scenic delights, but it just wasn’t going to happen. Eventually, we decided to set out and just
make our way gently towards to first stop en route to the Pass, the
Schwarenbach Hotel, the oldest mountain hotel in Switzerland, and a destination
for many famous names. Conan Doyle has
Sherlock Holmes spend a night here in one of his novels, and Pablo Picasso,
Mark Twain, Lenin and Alexandre Dumas were also once visitors to this isolated
but beautiful hotel. Our walk, although
cloaked in cloud, was still beautiful in its mystery. One could sense that around and above us,
there was a magical world just waiting to be revealed, and sure enough, an hour
and a half later as we sat enjoying a late breakfast of Rosti at the
Schwarenbach, the long awaited sun began to burn through, and the mountain tops
with which we had been playing hide and seek all morning began to reveal
themselves in their pristine white glory, flurries of snow billowing gracefully
from their peaks. But the game wasn’t
over yet – as we scurried to be back out on the path and appreciating the sun,
another veil of cloud descended. Before
I had time to photograph this wonderfully historic hotel, she was evaporating
before my eyes behind a veil of cloud, like the vapours of a dream not quite
remembered in the light of morning.
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| Playing hard to get - the views on the ascent to Gemmi |
We pushed on regardless, and as we climbed slowly,
more and more blue sky appeared above us.
Then, the highlight of the day – a vast bird gliding along the
mountainsides – a huge eagle gave us the most wonderfully graceful display and
flew by so closely it was almost unnerving.
We stood watching in awe for a good 15 minutes, hoping it was going to
treat us to another close encounter. We
felt so lucky to have seen this, and so now we have black squirrels, marmots,
chamois and an eagle to tick off our
list of Swiss wildlife!
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| The sighting of this majestic eagle will remain a highlight of the trip |
The path towards the Pass skirts alongside the
Daubansee – a beautiful mountain lake, before rising up again to the Pass. Conditions were steadily improving, and we
were now able to enjoy walking in shirtsleeves in bright sunshine, with a light
breeze. Above us, more and more peaks filled
the skyline, whilst behind us towards the Schwarenbach, the cloud sat low, like
a stubborn child, arms folded and refusing to budge. At last we were able to appreciate the much
awaited glory of this alpine haven, and it certainly didn’t disappoint.
After a celebratory hot chocolate at the Gemmi
Pass, all that was required was the descent!
Feeling on top form with the sun on my back, and fantastic views all
around, I had toyed with the idea of simply walking down to the thermal springs
at Leukerbad, and hour and a half away.
Fortunately Anthony stuck to the original plan, and booked our tickets
on the cable car down. As we descended I
was hugely grateful that we were travelling by cable car. The path to descent from Gemmi was carved
into the rocky face of the mountain side below us, a treacherous combination of
zig-zagging path, vertical steps and sheer knee-jarring horror. How
they managed this centuries ago, with mules and sedan chairs as transport,
beggars belief. As Mark Twain wrote: “We
met a few men and a great many ladies in litters; it seems to me that most of
the ladies looked pale and nauseated; their general aspect gave me the idea
that they were patiently enduring a horrible suffering. As a rule, they looked at their laps and left
the scenery to take care of itself.” I
can see why!
Not knowing quite what to expect at Leukerbad,
we were pleasantly surprised by this quaint town, its lovely timber houses
meandering down the main street, the fast flowing river at its heart, and the
coffee shops and restaurants full of people sitting out and basking in the warm
September sunshine. We made our way to the thermal baths, and
enjoyed the strange sensation of swimming in bath temperature water under an
open sky rimmed with snow capped mountains.
Even Anthony (never knowingly gets wet!), couldn’t help but appreciate
the attraction of this peculiarly European idea of therapeutic bathing.
We made our bus out of Leukerbad with minutes
to spare, and then marvelled at the Swiss transport system as we seamlessly connected
bus with train to Leuk, and the train from Leuk to Brig and finally connecting
train to Kandersteg, each scheduled within a minute or two of each other, but
each one 100% punctual and each connection made seamlessly.
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| Leukerbad with its spectacular backdrop |
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| Thermal baths at Leukerbad - a peculiarly European past time |
It has been another wonderful day. The weather is now much improved and our
proposed high alpine trek tomorrow to Adelboden is looking more hopeful. As much as I have enjoyed exploring in and
around Kandersteg, I am excited at the prospect of arriving somewhere new
tomorrow.
