Spectacular Hike above Lake Oeschinensee

Wednesday October 17 --  After spending a restful night in the pretty hotel Emmental in Thun, we enjoyed the town in early morning light (all these years we have been passing through on our way to Canton Valais and this is the first time we actually had a look at this pretty old town, now one of my favourites) on our way to the train station for the second day in this area: A hike above Lake Oeschinensee. (Photos of Thun are at the very bottom of the page).

This lake is extremely popular and so we have put off hiking in this area for a long time now. Every review I ever read about hiking near this lake mentioned the masses of tourists. I try to avoid hiking where lots of other people do, because I don't like the constant chatter; I need the silence that belongs to this kind of landscape. So mid-October with balmy weather was probably the best we could hope for. 

Most of the people who come up to this lake (there is a very handy gondola cableway just 15 minutes' walk from the Kandersteg railway station) go straight to the lakeshore but we chose the high trail, less frequented, but on this day still enough people walking up here so you can't really get away from the chatter. But I cannot deny it, this setting is definitely something spectacular and no wonder everyone wants to come up here. And even though there is a decent amount of uphill, it is a good trail with a lot of variety and not difficult or dangerous in any way. 

I could almost say it was a satisfying way to end (maybe) a long year of hiking, except that we should have descended with the cableway again after returning to the foot of the lake, but we decided to walk the extra 45 minutes back down to Kandersteg, which was rather uninteresting, and partly steep and gravelly. So as a reward, we stopped for a sweet chestnut vermicelli dessert at the cutest little chalet-café we had seen in Kandersteg in the morning....

From Kandersteg Train station it is a 15-minute walk to the Cableway (on the left)

Heading up to the lake in the Gondola, looking down at Kandersteg

The ascent was not particularly difficult. The trail was good and varied.

I always enjoy sections of trail like this one!

Looking backwards at how far we came from the summit of the cableway

First glimpses of the lake, definitely a jewel!

It is impossible to capture the splendour of this setting. The lake is surrounded by vertical cliffs on three sides!

An alpine chough

It is only possible to photograph this with a 360-deg setting on the phone-camera, but the shade on the opposite side appears "washed out"

That promontory was a good look-out point, but also many people there. From there the trail was pretty level, a real treat to walk. 

Up ahead are a few cabins, one of which has a terrace and the farmers are still up there serving refreshments. After our picnic lunch, we descended the zigzag trail back to the lake

It was a spectacular view along the entire trail

Up there, next to the flag, is where we had our picnic lunch

The cabins receive extra propping with sticks and stones to withstand the pressure of four meters of snow here in winter

From here we walked another hour and 45 minutes down to Kandersteg, but we should have only gone back to the lake and taken the gondola down again

Exactly at this spot is where we had our picnic lunch

Up on the right is the high trail, and from here you go back down to the lake.

They have fixed up the trail here, it's wide enough for a the farmer to drive a small quad up, but slightly steep none-the-less. When he came racing up the trail, it was hard to find spots to give way to him!

Very interesting and varied trail. The loop took 2.5 hours and was not at all boring.

There were many people hiking this loop, several were hiking in groups as well.

And heading back to the foot of the lake.

Here at the foot of the lake is a restaurant with sunny exposure. Lots of people come up here. We were up on the slope on the left.

Heading down the valley back to Kandersteg, there were a couple of glimpses of the valley, but mostly the trail was gravelly and steep.

For all our effort we decided to reward ourselves with a dessert at this very lovely café in Kandersteg.

Ice cream sundaes with meringues, whipping cream and sweet chestnut past vermicelli.

Our total walking time was about four hours.

If I ever did this again, I would ride both ways with the Gondola

CITY OF THUN in Early Morning light, a 10-minute walk from the Hotel to the train station:

View from the Hotel Room

Hotel Emmental in Thun, it had a great Mexican Restaurant, the rooms were modern, but the room doors were paper thin, still the originals!

Schloss Thun

On the Aar Canal

There were two wooden bridges, this one at right angles

The lovely town of Thun

This second covered bridge is about two minutes from the train station.

Thun on the Aar Canal

Thun on the Aar Canal