Des randonnées en Suisse
Sandy & François hiking in Switzerland
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Sandy et François font des randonnées en Suisse.
We eased ourselves into the first day with a 4 hour hike,25kms, from our chalet to Eggberge - an easy trail through the hillside farms,farmers raking their hay,cow bells ringing and our constant backdrop of snowcapped mountains,walked through a cedar forest which was a relief from the hot midday sun!
Yesterday off we went ,again from our chalet,to the Klausen Pass (1955m),a gradual 4 1/2 hour climb,13kms, stunning views,gorging ourselves on wild strawberries for the first hour, becoming total disorientated in a small herd of bell ringing cows(!),had to backtrack before we found the trail - those bells get inside your head! Finally at the Pass feeling good,we decided not to take the bus back down and opted to walk back via the opposite mountain range not realising that we had to climb up a further 200m over a rock escarpment ,cross the waterfall we had looked at in awe of from the other side early in the morning and then descend down a steep rocky path into a valley of,you guessed it,another herd of bell ringing cows ! We hiked on further,knowing we would take the cable car from Wannelen down to Unterschachen where we would then take the bus back. Always open to change,we decided to keep hiking from Unterschachen convinced it was all downhill from there.Maps should be made in 3D,as we found ourselves climbing up another 200m before the descent back which was twice the distance of our morning climb!!!! Being intoxicated with the views we were unaware of the distance we had hiked - 40kms ,8 hours !!! If we continue to hike this far every day we will soon have been to every corner of the region!
Each night we plan our next days hike - maybe we should stick to the PLAN! Nevertheless we both feel good and are looking forward to tonight when we plan our walk from Attinghausen,over the Surenenpass(2291m) to Engleberg,20kms,on Saturday - well,thats the plan!
Saturday we walked to Engleberg - took the cable car from Attinghausen up to Brusti(1525m) and walked up to the Surenenpass(2291) very steep and relief was short lived once at the top as it was quite cold. We descended down into the next valley and the view just took my breathe away --lush green vast pastures cradled by these magnificent range of snow capped mountains (3200m),on one side of the range waterfalls spaced along the whole length coming down from the high peaks,it was a magnificent site,I could of stayed there all day! But we climbed back up and wound around another peak to Furenalp where we stopped for a beer -2300m up sitting on the Bergehaus Terrasse with a beer, blue blue sky,live accordion music and looking directly at the Titlis (3238m)! By this stage we had been walking for 6 hours, 15kms, so we decided we deserved another beer and soaked up the superbe view! We were back down in Engleberg(1000m) about 3.30pm,the mist had settled in by now so we decided not to take the cable car up to Titilis but wait for Friday when we are to drive back here. Took train back to Fuelen where our car was.
It was a great day!
Sunday,Frank had declared he was sick of wearing his hiking clothes!(Little does he know there are a lot more days of hiking to come!) So today we went up to the Pilatus(2432m) no mean feat of public transport to get there! 2 trains to Lucerne,bus to Kriens,36mins spectacular aerial cable car,then change to 6min high speed gondola(made famous with Sean Connery,James Bond movie) and we arrived on top of Pilatus and marvelled at the magnificent Alpine panorama(73 summits) and Lucerne below. To get even better viewing you can climb 300 stone steps(counted them coming down)to marvel even more at the view.
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Took a short stroll through the carved out caves and then walked 40 mins around the face to the highest point of Mount Pilatus,Tomlishorn(2132m)Some crazy guy built a railway up to Mt Pilatus so here you have it the 4618m long stretch of railway with 48% gradient (see photo above) and is still the steepest cogwheel railway in the world - and that was our descent down to Alpnachstad where we took a 4 hour boat journey ,crisscrossing the lake ,back to Fuelen - finished off a perfect day,a complete day!
Monday,back in our hiking gear,we headed off to the Melchsee-Frutt - trained to Lucerne,then Sarnen and bused to Stockalp where we took the cable car up to the Melchsee-Frutt(1891m)
Here the landscape was very different with the beautiful blue alpine lakes and rare wildflowers.We did a 5 hour circular route of the High Trail - it was lovely to be walking near the water .The area is a winter haven for ski ing ,the chalets were quite different to anything we had seen,and not only were there the bell ringing cows,but also bellringing goats and bellringing horses!
The weather was absolutely perfect again -another perfect day!
Today we hiked the first half of The Swiss Path which is a 35km route around the southernmost end of Lake Lucerne. . - a part of Swiss Heritage,a cultural day!! Each canton is allocated a section of the path to maintain and each inhabitant represented by 5mm! It was a stunning,stunning walk along the lakeshore,through a nature reserve,then climbing 75metres to a spectacular path and more breathtaking scenery ,parts of the higher path we were walking through tunnels which were the original roadway,all the time coming back into view of the lake below! The last leg of the walk we climbed up a further 390m over the mountain and descent back down to Brunnen,16kms ,4hours it was a long walk in the heat being at lower altitude!
Tomorrow we do the second half of the walk.
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