The waterfalls of Trummelbach

Today was our last day in the Jungfrau region, it will be sad to leave, but boy did we have a fantastic last day. We drove up a valley from Interlaken, known as the valley of the waterfalls. One side of the valley rise the foothills behind which are the big mountains of the region, the other side of the valley is a cliff face hundreds of feet high with pine trees delicately poised on the edges at the top.


The cliff face is beautiful greys of stratified rock and then you start to see the waterfalls, just dropping off the top of the cliff to the bottom without touching the face. Narrow channels of water must flow to the edge with such force that when they reach the cliff edge they don’t trickle over, but fly right off. With the sun behind the waterfalls it was an incredible effect. A series of stairways and paths leads to caverns behind the waterfalls so you can look through the fall to the mountains on the other side of the valley.


We continued to drive up the valley and then turned off, this time to the mountain side to view the glacial falls. These were just amazing. Very narrow ravines have been carved deep into the mountain side creating narrow channels, chutes and the occasional pool down which comes torrents of water. The water is from the glaciers on the three highest peaks in the range and flows at up to 20,000 litres per second. The sound is unbelievable as the water echos off the sides of the ravine. The curves that have been created in the ravine are soft and silky, reminding me of some of the rock formations in the Utah deserts (Simon P if you are reading these you may have seen similar). The Swiss being the Swiss have built an elevator that goes up on about a 60 degree angle driven by cables and cogs that takes you near the top of the falls and blasted tunnels and holes in the walls of the ravine to give you unreal views that would only normally be possible with ropes and harnesses to view.
The falls today have been one of the unique sights and sounds of the trip so far.
Switzerland has certainly been a special experience and we will miss it as we head away to Lugano for the night destined for Italy on Saturday.