Travelling with Stabilo #7: Destination - Bernese Oberland , Day 4
Check out the previous three parts of my travel story here:
Travelling with Stabilo #4: Destination - Bernese Oberland , Day 1
Travelling with Stabilo #5: Destination - Bernese Oberland , Day 2
Travelling with Stabilo #6: Destination - Bernese Oberland , Day 3
We woke up to a misty morning. The sky was clear, the air fresh and crisp, perfect for another day of hiking. On this last day of our wonderful adventure in the Bernese Oberland, we were going to explore the Lauterbrunne Valley: The narrow valley carved out by the river Weisse Lütschine, with the Jungfrau, Eiger and Mönch towering on one side and Schilthorn and Brig on the other. We began our journey at our hostel in the middle of Lauterbrunne Village, and simply followed the road south. It was quite early in the morning, and because of the fact that the valley was surrounded by mountains, the sun could not be seen. So everything was covered with a thick fog. Lauterbrunne village was a small place. There were some houses, a church, and that’s about it.
Within minutes we were at the edge of the town, and in front of us was just a winding road flanked by snow-covered fields, all shrouded in mist. We couldn’t actually see very far, because the mist was so thick. But just as we thought we were walking into vast emptiness, a camp suddenly appeared. A pretty large camp, looked like it was a holiday park. It was just in time too, for a much-needed toilet break. On the other side of the road was a small pub. Too bad it wasn't open this early in the morning, otherwise it would have been pretty cool to sit in the snow and drink.
Past the holiday park we were truly in the countryside. There were still houses here and there, but very sparse. Sometimes the we would hit a crossroad, with the roads on either side seemed to lead straight to the foot of the mountains. We took photos here and there, but mainly we just kept going straight. There were hardly anyone on the road. Once in a while there would be someone doing their morning jogs. We also saw people doing cross country skiing, which looked pretty fun and less extreme than hitting the slopes.
As we walked along, it got brighter and brighter. It started looking really surreal as we walked into the mist against the rising sun. Eventually, the sun slowly rose above the mountain peaks. The warm morning sun started to disperse the fog to show the true colours of the valley: wooden huts looking orange under the sunlight, browned trees covered with shiny icicles, all sitting on a sea of white, powdered snow. Suddenly we heard a crash and looked up, and not too far in the distance we saw snow and rock trembling down a mountain cliff. We just witnessed a small scale avalanche! Luckily it happened just above some trees so don’t think anyone was hurt.
We crossed a bridge over the running Weisse Lütschine, passed a frozen waterfall, and we came to the end of the trail – the Stechelberg Cable car station. All together it took us around 2.5 hours to walk from Lauterbrunne, so it wasn’t too far, and the trail was very flat, so it was a very comfortable walk. It was definitely one of the highlights of our trip. With that, we took the cable car back up to Mürren, and spend the rest of our day tobogganing down the slopes of Allmendhubel. It was so much fun to speed down the hillside and get splashed with snow as the toboggan came to a stop at the bottom. It was a bit annoying that after each ride down which only took about 5 minutes, we had to queue for 10 – 15 minutes to get the cable car back up the slope. But it was fun nonetheless.
So this concluded our adventure at Bernese Oberland, one of the most beautiful region in Switzerland. In hind sight, we probably should have stayed longer, and spend some time skiing and snowboarding just like everyone else. I would also love to revisit in summer again, when the grass will be green, wild flowers blooming and cows feeding on the mountain side, to experience the many scenic hiking trails the region has on offer. But until then, I will be revisit this beautiful place again and again in my dreams.
