Lauterbrunnen – Amidst the Alps and the Falls

Lauterbrunnen is a cosy little hollow a few miles further up the mountain from Interlaken in the middle of the holiday area of Switzerland’s Alps. The name Lauterbrunnen means “place of many waterfalls” or something like that, and it has become popular in summer as a great place for adventure sports such as skydiving, white water rafting, canyoning and even some base jumping. I arrived at about 8pm after a short journey from Bern. I wasn’t staying at Camping Jungfrau so I had to get to my Hostel, which luckily was only a few hundred meters on the other side on the river. After checking in, Steve and Jenna (a couple from Southampton, that were also in Bern) and Myself went over to the bar for a meal and a few drinks. I had a Swiss Rosti, which is basically grated potato, fried like a pancake, then cooked with an egg, cheese and bacon on top. It was awesome.

Jenna, Steve and I kicked on at “The Bomb Shelter”, a Contiki and Busabout only bar at Chalet Jungfrau. Unfortunately it was full of 18yr old GAP year kids who wear having some sort of costume party, as a part of a Contiki theme night. As it was neither Jenna, Steve nor My idea of a fun environment, we headed over to the bar at Shutzenbach, where we were staying. It was a good night at the Shutzenbach bar, we drank far too much and laughed a lot at all the girls trying to dance hot, when they were just plain not. No amount of bum shaking and hair flicking makes up for bad bone structure, years of poor diet and no exercise. In the end I stumbled up the stairs to bed at about midnight, with Steve and Jenna not too far behind.

The next morning I got up and had a bit of breakfast with Josh and Kylie (another couple I met in Bern). We then headed out to Trummelbach Falls. The largest falls in the area where in peak flow twenty thousand litres per second flows through the massive gorges the water has carven in the rock over millions of years. Trummelbach was very impressive and the day was clear as lovely as we walked back towards town. We decided to go up to a smaller waterfall near the Camping Jungfrau campgrounds, which was very pretty, but I was disappointed that I couldn’t stand underneath the waterfall. Josh and Kylie went into town, whereas I decided I was going to stand under that waterfall, trespassing, falling rocks and otherwise were not going to stand in my way. I think I was still annoyed at myself for not jumping off the bridge in Bern into the Aare river, as Josh did. But in my defense, my stuff was all packed and he jumped about two minutes before out bus arrived. Nevertheless, I wanted a special solo memory of my own.

The waterfall was inaccessible from the tourist path; however you could walk directly up to it from the road, over a large grassed area which was someone’s back lawn. They had obviously experienced this a few times and were sick of it, as there were large “Private Property – No Trespassing” signs adorning the fence to the paddock behind the house. Next to the property was a dry creek bed which led up to the waterfall, covered by trees and shrubs. This was the secondary creek leading down the hill from the waterfall and would only have water in it when the waterfall was flowing particularly heavily. I decided this was my avenue of attack and made my way up the creek bed, shirtless wearing my Diesels, which have pretty much lost all their grip as they’ve been the only shoes I’ve brought on the trip. I slipped a few times on rocks, but with my cat-like reflexes I was able to avoid any major spills. I started to feel a little like Rambo as I pressed up the creek toward the waterfall, as there were helicopters bussing around above me, running paragliding and skydiving trips. I was hidden under the cover of the treetops so I crawled through the jungle with the bags and sticks being my only problem. When I got close to the top, the creek began to fill with water, as it got some of the flow from the waterfall, luckily there were still rocks big enough to avoid having to walk in the water and I finally made it to the top with a great sense of pride. Now I had to figure what to do with my camera and mobile phone as there was nowhere particularly dry for me to set them down. I took a few photos in the waterfall and then decided to head back, before I completely destroyed my brand new camera. It turns out that the trip down was significantly harder that the way up, with me nearly slipping on my ass more than once, but I eventually made it back. Scratched, muddy, wet, but with a great deal of pride that I had decided to do something, and then done it, even if it was something as simple as walking up a hill and standing under a waterfall.

That afternoon Josh, Kylie and I had booked to go White Water rafting. We were picked up at around 4pm by Outdoor Interlaken and taken to their base where we got into all the gear and then headed out to the Black Lutshine River. We got some safety instructions and some rafting instructions and then we were straight into the rapids. It was FUREAKIN COLD in that river, despite the wetsuit, as we were only a few kilometers down mountain from the Glacial melt. Josh and I were at the front of the boat, and hence copped most of the spray, but it was absolutely sensational fun and I would recommend it to anyone.

That night Steve, Jenna and I again went out for a meal, and again I got a Rosti. Damn, I love those things. We had an easy night though, as I was getting up at 6am to go on the train up to Jungfraujoch the next morning.

I woke up at 6am and met Josh and Kylie before walking into town to catch the 6:59am train from Lauterbrunnen up to Jungfraujoch, the highest train station in Europe with restaurants, viewing platforms and snow. Sounds great, and it should be for about 100euro, but unfortunately, it was a really cloudy day and all you could see was white. We still had a good time sliding down a hill on the snow disks (basically the same as toboggans) and playing with the Huskies. The only problem was that my Diesels aren’t built for snow at the best of times, and certainly not when they are still pretty wet from the previous day’s adventure to the waterfall. My feet got cold, then they went numb, then they actually started to hurt quite a lot. Still we had a great day, and after the journey back we were all pretty tired.

That night I went out for a meal in town with some girls from Perth that I had met up at Jungfrau. Lauren, Laura and Mel are all from Perth, and are just doing the west loop after having just done a tour in Egypt. Hearing their stories of Egypt has made me even more determined to go there next year. We all shared some cheese fondue, and I had yet another Rosti. That’s four in 3 days. I’m such a tubby bitch these days. It’s embarrassing. I don’t think I’ll ever have another Rosti, but it was nice while it lasted. Josh and Kylie came down to the restaurant and joined us for a beer before we all headed back to the campsite to get some rest before getting on our respective busses the next morning.

Lauterbrunnen has been a fantastic few days, filled with adventure and beauty. I’ve once again proven to myself that wherever I go, there are other great people out there travelling, and I will always find new friends – even if I seem to lose them as soon as the next bus departs. The place has unparalleled natural beauty. As we drove out past the lakes on Interlaken, you can see the lake, with small villages along the shoreline, then majestic mountains stretching up higher than the low layers of cloud. It is truly gorgeous, and I can only hope that the mountains of Kitzbuhel, where I’ll be all winter, are half as pretty.