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The heatwave that we’ve been enduring for a few days is behind us, and the weather forecast for today was drizzle and cool temperatures. Ideal for a run in the valley, or so I thought. Anyhow, we caught the bus to Schilthornbahn. Val got a nice shot of the world’s steepest cable car disappearing into the clouds above the waterfall.

Val had her usual walk along the valley, while I ran, and I had wrapped up a bit on account of the forecast. To my dismay, the weather turned out to be warm and sunny rather than the cool conditions that we’d been promised. Here I come, toiling up the hill.

I continued my run towards Lauterbrunnen, while Val turned off the path and headed down toward the river where it’s usually a bit cooler. There’s a nice old covered bridge down here which leads to the campsite on the other side of the river. True confessions: I have used Artificial Intelligence to remove some graffiti and an unsightly signpost.

The warm weather is forecast to return tomorrow, so that might be my last run in the valley for a while. Very enjoyable as always.

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Switzerland is enduring a heatwave at the moment, so if we want a walk it needs to be early in the day and as high as possible. We head for Männlichen. At 7290 feet above sea level it will hopefully be a little less hot.

There’s a nice walk from here which goes around the mountains to Kleine Scheidegg. Today, it opened for the first time this season. There’s still a lot of snow in places. Here we are at Gummi.

And this is the ski run called Barhag.

It’ll be another few weeks until it all melts, but in the meantime the snow provides a welcome opportunity to cool off a little. We were home in time for lunch.

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Just across the valley from Wengen is the tiny village of Isenfluh. We get there on a little bus from Lauterbrunnen.

It’s very pretty, and also very quiet.

For many years the only way to get here was via a steep mountain footpath. Then, in 1962 a road was built connecting the village with Lauterbrunnen. There’s also a small cable car which takes hikers up to the hamlet of Sulwald. It has capacity for 8 people, or 1 cow.

There’s very little else here. The village shop closed in 1969. In 1987 disaster struck. A landslide destroyed the road from Lauterbrunnen. The evidence can still be clearly seen today.

A temporary cable car was built providing access to the valley. A new road was commissioned, which eventually opened in 1992. It is said that the villagers held a three day long party to celebrate. However, despite the 10 million francs spent on the road, the population of Isenfluh remains alarmingly low. Historical census data paints a depressing picture.

• 1880 – population 176
• 1900 – 145
• 1920 – 118
• 1941 – 86
• 1972 – 42
• 1982 – 53
• 1995 – 70
• 2012 – 56
• 2024 – 69

In an attempt to make the village a more attractive proposition, the local council has made plots of building land available at attractive terms. There’s a big advert at the bus stop.

We can only wish the council the best of luck in their attempts to keep Isenfluh alive. We continue our walk down to Lauterbrunnen, passing the huge torrent known as the Sousbach.

Down in the valley, a hydro-electric plant is under construction to harness power from the Sousbach. A nice walk on a very warm day.

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It’s going to rain today, but before the first drops arrive we think we can squeeze in a walk. We start at Mürren across the valley. Here we are approaching the restaurant at Winteregg.

Cattle have started arriving in the summer pastures. The train drivers have to be careful to avoid them. Views back to Wengen in the background.

A long telephoto shot back towards Wengen. Our house is arrowed.

Eventually we reach Grütschalp. We stopped for lunch at the little self-service cafe and enjoyed the views of the high Alps.

We were lucky enough to get home before the rain arrived.

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We had some strong thunderstorms yesterday evening, and with more forecast for this afternoon we thought we’d get out early this morning. We catch the train up to Wengernalp. Lovely views as always, but it’s too early in the year for livestock, so everywhere is very quiet.

Swiss glaciers have been in the news lately. A village in the next valley was wiped out last week when the glacier above it collapsed. Fortunately geologists had warned of the possibility that this might happen, and all the people and their livestock were evacuated a few days before the disaster struck. Here’s our glacier.

Fortunately, the mighty Jungfrau glacier doesn’t pose a danger to Wengen.

Our walk takes us to a place called Mettlenalp, where we pause at a bench for a drink. Nice views across the valley to the village of Mürren.

The path continues to descend, and we come across the first livestock. It’s a family of goats.

Goats are friendly, inquisitive creatures, and they appear to enjoy the attention that they get from passing hikers. We walked on down the path, and a few seconds later we heard a great cacophony of bells behind us. The goats had leapt over the electric fence and decided to join us for our walk.

We were accompanied by Mr and Mrs Goat and their family for 10 minutes or so, and at one point we thought they’d lost interest in us. But then we heard the bells again as they came racing down the hill to join us. Press play!

Eventually we came across a Swiss couple who had a telephone number for the goats’ owner. The goats seemed happy to stay with them until they could be walked back up to the meadow where we’d found them.

A nice walk, and we were home in time for lunch. Uptown Lights at the Braunbaer this evening.

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It’s the warmest day of the year so far, so it makes sense to go high for our exercise. There’s a walk from the top station of the cable car up to the Gipfel (peak) of the Männlichen mountain. In all the years we’ve been here we’ve never done it. Time to give it a try. There’s still a lot of snow up here, and most of the walks are closed owing to avalanche danger from the mountains above.

The path winds its way up the mountain, and gets particularly steep towards the top. Thankfully there are ropes to help. Val reaches the peak.

Up here we’re at 2343 metres above sea level (7687 feet). No trees, and big patches of deep snow. Spring has only just arrived at this altitude; flowers cover the mountainside.

The walk back down was a lot quicker than the ascent, and we certainly enjoyed our ice cream when we got home.

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Last night we popped over to Gimmelwald for beer and pizzas next weekend with the Zwickys. Obligatory selfie.

The wet weather seems to be behind us for a while, and this morning we awoke to bright sunshine and mild temperatures. We caught the train to Wilderswil. Lovely old covered bridge.

We walked along the river towards Bönigen. There’s a shooting range here. Target shooting is very popular in Switzerland; just about every town and village will have a club.

Approaching Bönigen.

Bönigen is home to a kayak school. Val’s winter boss Ben works here in summer.

The steamers are doing good business in this glorious weather.

Gone fishin’.

Lots of wildlife.

A good walk. We got some shopping at Interlaken Ost, and treated ourselves to ice cream on the train ride home.