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.....
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| Impressions of Canton Basel-Land on the bus ride from Liestal to Meltingen |
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| We were surprised to see that the trail we were walking was called the "Via Surprise" |
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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.
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| Walking along the stream called Ibach, in the Kaltbrunnen Valley |
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| It was lush and green and tropical and messy in the Kaltbrunnen Valley |
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| Wild-Romantic Kaltbrunnen Valley |
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| There was a clearing next to the stream where we stopped for a coffee break. |
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| Wild-Romantic Kaltbrunnen Valley |
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| Wild-Romantic Kaltbrunnen Valley |
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| Loads of ferns everywhere |
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| Also, it is an area of limestone cliffs and natural caves |
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| Very popular Sunday Afternoon picnic area for the city dwellers.... |
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| Loads of fun for the kids to discover the caves in the limestone cliffs. |
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| Wild-Romantic Kaltbrunnen Valley |
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| Wild-Romantic Kaltbrunnen Valley |
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| After coming out of the valley you reach the Chessiloch "monument" |
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| In WWI soldiers were stationed here to guard the strategically-placed railway bridge. |
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| We headed South along the Birs River to Zwingen. This is a view of the Basel-Land region to the North. |
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| At Basel we traveled on the high-speed TGV to Zurich, except in Switzerland it doesn't travel at high speeds. |
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