Wilderness Reserve "Chaltbrunnental" in Canton Basel Land

June 25, 2017 -- In a heavy downpour we headed off to the train station to go West, because if it was going to be nice today, it was coming from the West.

Back in 1986-1988 I lived in the far NW corner of Switzerland in a "suburb" of the city of Basel, and that was the area we picked for this excursion, mostly because there is a very lovely wilderness reserve called the "Chaltbrunnental", a piece of forest left to nature to do its own work. The idea was, if it would get hot again, we'd be in a cool area.

Indeed it was a lovely walk in the lush and almost tropical gorge/ravine, along the Ibach stream, lots of ferns (especially hart's-tongue), many impressive lime-stone formations and natural caves. Unfortunately also a favourite Sunday afternoon picnic area for city-dwellers, so we were mostly accompanied by the smell of campfires. But it was a magical romantic promenade, about 1.5 hours on this stretch.

After emerging from the gorge on the North end at the Birs River (tributary to the Rhine River at Basel) there is a landmark of historical value called "Chessiloch", a rock face covered in insignias of various Swiss military divisions stationed in the area during WWI (to guard the strategically important railway bridge here). On their time off the soldiers used to gather here and they handpainted the designs to commemorate their presence.

After another hot and rather boring hour's walk to Zwingen, we took the train to Basel with a stop at both my old apartment and place of work (Aesch/Reinach), both almost totally unrecognizable, due to expansion and just plain memory loss.....

Impressions of Canton Basel-Land on the bus ride from Liestal to Meltingen

We were surprised to see that the trail we were walking was called the "Via Surprise"

We walked about 2 hours to Chessiloch through the Wilderness reserve, then another boring hour to Zwingen. From there we took the train to Aesch to see my old apartment building and work-place one town over, and from there took the tram into the city of Basel.

Walking along the stream called Ibach, in the Kaltbrunnen Valley

It was lush and green and tropical and messy in the Kaltbrunnen Valley

Wild-Romantic Kaltbrunnen Valley

There was a clearing next to the stream where we stopped for a coffee break.

Wild-Romantic Kaltbrunnen Valley

Wild-Romantic Kaltbrunnen Valley

Loads of ferns everywhere

Also, it is an area of limestone cliffs and natural caves

Very popular Sunday Afternoon picnic area for the city dwellers....

Loads of fun for the kids to discover the caves in the limestone cliffs.

Wild-Romantic Kaltbrunnen Valley

Wild-Romantic Kaltbrunnen Valley

After coming out of the valley you reach the Chessiloch "monument"

In WWI soldiers were stationed here to guard the strategically-placed railway bridge.

We headed South along the Birs River to Zwingen. This is a view of the Basel-Land region to the North.

At Basel we traveled on the high-speed TGV to Zurich, except in Switzerland it doesn't travel at high speeds.

"Col de Bretaye" to "Col de la Croix"

Sunday June 18, 2017 -- After our Saturday hike along the steep cliff face on the Irrigation Trail "Bisse-du-Torrent-Neuf" above Sion, we spent the night in a B&B room near the train station and were off early to meet friends from Belgium who are vacationing on Lake Geneva.

We met in Bex to ride a special cogwheel train (Bex-Villars-Bretaye) up the mountain to the pass called Col de Bretaye. Both Urs and Etienne are fans of the railway, so excursions with them revolve around.... railways. The little train shares the road with vehicles through the little residential areas (mostly vacation getaways) on its way up the pass. Up in the lush green hills of Canton Vaud we had a yummy lunch and a lovely, too short, time to visit.

But with the weather as nice as it was, I let the others ride back down the mountain without me, and I did a short 1.5-hour level hike from the Bretaye Pass to the Col-de-la-Croix Pass, only 6 km, but fairly level, with great views of the Dents-du-Midi mountains and Mont Blanc (located in France near Chamonix), which at 4,808 m above sea level is the highest mountain in the Alps. From there I took a bus back to Villars-sur-Ollon and rode the cogwheel train back to the Rhone Valley.

Our excursion started in Bex with a cogwheel train to Villars, then another to the Bretaye Pass

A dream come true: Etienne gets to ride up front with the locomotive driver.

View from Gryon

In Gryon is an old tram (from Zurich?) which has been standing here since at least 1980!

Looks like everyone is enjoying this train ride.

At the Pass, the train takes off again while I am trying to get a photo for Etienne!

View South toward the French Alps. Bretaye is a popular ski area for this region.

The train heads back down the mountain. Stunning Mont Blanc looms in the background. (4808m)

Before lunch we went for a short walk to Lac de Bretaye

Lac de Bretaye

Fancy (and yummy) lunch at Hotel du Lac

Salty and Sweet (I had yummy thick fries)

Etienne, Françoise and Urs went back down by train, and I did a little hike, because the weather was so great.

It was 13:30 when I started. The bus at Col-de-la-Croix was due to leave at 14:51. I walked fast and just made it to the bus!

My hike from Col de Bretaye to Col de la Croix. 6 km in 1 hour 20 mins. From here I took the bus back to Villars-sur-Ollon

First I had to navigate through this cow herd.

This was my view for most of the hike: Mont Blanc at the center back, Les Dents du Midi the prominent ridge in the forefront.

View eastward in the direction I was walking.

The first Alp Roses

There were several of these newts in a water trough where I refilled my water bottle.

Some vacation cabins along the way.

Last view South before arriving at the pass

Zoomed view of Mont Blanc.

Col de la Croix. I made it to the pass with about 5 minutes to spare before the bus came.

After taking the bus back to Villars-sur-Ollon, I had to wait for the little train to come up from Bex

On the way back down into the Rhone valley, this is another glimpse of the view at Gryon.

Bisse du Torrent Neuf: Restoration of a Vertiginous Irrigation System

June 17, 2017 -- The Canton Valais has always been very dry and this caused the early mountain farmers to become very creative (sometimes dangerously so) with how to channel the water from the higher elevations along the steep cliff faces in the deep ravines to their meadows at higher elevations. Mostly these channels consisted of ditches with an elevated walkway to inspect the system for blockages and to control, via sluices, which meadows get water on which days. Often wooden flumes were attached to vertical cliffs, or canals were dug out of solid rock.

There are many such dizzying irrigation systems throughout the region, and we had read about a particularly exciting one that has recently been restored to illustrate to the public how amazing these early feats were.

The Bisse du Torrent Neuf (Bisse is the French word for these irrigation channels) extends 3.5 km into a very steep gorge just North of Sion in the Rhone Valley, and was originally built in 1430, and therefore had suffered much damage from rock slides over the centuries. The irrigation system is still in use, and the restoration includes four suspension bridges where the original trail has been damaged by rock slides. All along the trail, guard rails have been mounted to make the trail safe to walk. 

The restoration is very well done, and although it was a good trail, for us the fact that this is accessible by car and marketed to tourists meant that there were too many people crowding our adventure, which wasn't as adventurous as we had hoped. (Especially annoying is crossing the suspension bridge when many people walk or run behind you).

Instead of returning the same way (which creates bottlenecks along the way) we descended into the ravine and returned along the paved road, so also to get a glimpse of the trail from below. From Chandolin we took to bus back to Sion and spent the evening walking around the pretty old town before spending the night in a B&B for an early start to our next adventure on Sunday....

Our day started by dropping off our overnight packages at the B&B in Sion where we were spending the night, and then a quick look around Sion for an hour before heading up the hill by bus to Savièse, the start of our hike.

City of Sion, in Canton Valais, Switzerland

Because we came by bus, our hike started at the Prafirmin Bus Stop.

Sluices along the way control which meadows get water on certain days

The first 2 km were mostly through woods along the raised path beside the channel

The actual renovated trail is between the Chapel and Brac (3.5 km one way)

Along the way are new guard rails, making the trail safe to walk. Water flows through the wooden flumes

This shows how the original flumes and channels were constructed

We always have to watch out for falling rocks.

First of four suspension bridges. It becomes annoying when others walk over at the same time, with heavy steps or at a running pace.

One of four new suspension bridges

Previously, there were no guard rails here

Along the way we get spectacular views into the ravine and Rhone Valley

Down below is the "Pont du Diable" ("Devil's Bridge") where we later crossed on our way out of the ravine.

Another of four suspension bridges

Along the way are sections of the original flumes, and displays of how the farmers walked the trail

One short section goes through a tunnel

Here we ran into a group of people coming the other way. It created quite a bottle-neck

Often the flumes had to be mounted onto the cliff face

Final of four suspension bridges

We descended into the ravine to view the trail from below.

We descended into the ravine to view the trail from below.

We crossed the "Devil's Bridge" and found the trail was washed out. We didn't want to go back, so used some fancy footwork to get down to the road.

To walk out of the gorge we had 3 km of paved road (on the left) ahead of us. Not the best.

On our way out of the ravine (on 3 km of paved roads, unfortunately) we are greeted by these beautiful and steeply built vineyards.

At our destination of Chandolin, we got this view into the Rhone Valley

This is the post bus that picked up up an hour later in Chandolin for the trip back to Sion

On the bus back down to Sion. (This is Chateau Valère in Sion). We were the only passengers and had some great conversation with the bus driver, whose name interestingly was M. Torrent. Before heading to our B&B we walked around the old town Sion enjoying the evening lighting and atmosphere.

Old Town Sion

St. Theodul Cathedral in Sion

Grilled sandwiches with gelato for dessert!

Pretty doors

Pretty Windows

Evening sun in Sion

Evening sun on the ruins of Chateau Tourbillon in Sion