Travel Log

Well, what a day! Today we wanted to start with Grindelwald First, getting the cable car up to the sky walkway and walking to Bachalpsee (a high altitude lake). It was pretty heaving and there were a lot of people on the slog to the lake, not helped by a moaning Thea. We were very glad we weren’t one of the unlucky souls signed up for a 2+ hour wait for the glider ride thingy.

It was pleasant when we reached the lake with the tourists spreading out - and Nick, Alex and Jasper had a bracing swim.

We took the “red” mountain path down from the lake heading for Bort. This turned out to be one of the most amazing walks ever. Wall to wall views of alpine peaks, a river valley, wildflowers, and basically no tourists. At around lunchtime we came upon a waterfall and used this as the perfect spot to chill out for an hour - sitting in the water, sunning on the hot rocks. Absolute bliss.

Just after our break we were strolling down and admiring the dozens of paragliders, and one in particular coming low over our heads. It didn’t look right when he failed to turn and moment later took a very hard crash into a small cliff. We couldn’t see him from our location on the path, but were watching for him to stand up, or for the parachute to start being folded away. This didn’t happen and soon we could see another walker on the scene and on her phone, presumably calling for mountain rescue. We headed up to see if we could help and it turned out he had broken his leg and it was an open fracture.

His leg was bleeding quite badly so we ended up using my bumbag as a tourniquet, but luckily the helicopter rescue soon arrived and we left them to it. We did take his name and email so we can send him photos once he’s recovered.

The rest of the trail to Bort was pretty boring and by now it was roasting hot. In Bort it was a pit stop for ice cream, chips and a sit down (our poor legs!). It was a bit of a wait to get the cable car down as most were full of people who descended from First and we had to wait for an empty car. In Grindelwald it was even hotter but we needed to go to Coop for supplies. 🥵

I had a double take when I saw Thomas DeLauer (https://youtube.com/@thomasdelauerofficial) in the Coop, shopping with his family. I didn’t say anything because I’m not that guy. He’s got 3.9 million YouTube subscribers and I’m one of them.

The last slog from Coop to the bus stop with all our hiking backpacks and food bags was almost unbearable! Ahh the bliss of arriving back to our chalet which was cool and quiet!

But the beasting for today wasn’t over. After dinner (bratwurst and potatoes and corn on the cob) we drove to the glacier gorge canyon for an evening walk. This has metal walkways and tunnels, but the best bit was the giant spiders web over the roaring torrent. This was lit up for the evening. What a day! 22,000 steps in total.