By Bike

Day 40 (12th September) – Grindelwald to Fiesch.

After 5 wonderful and regenerative days, it was time to farewell this stunning region, remount and head to the other side of the Bernese Alps via the Grimsel Pass.

The glorious weather having headed elsewhere, we set off on a grey and ominous dawn, cautiously snaking our way down the mountain along with the morning commute towards Interlaken and the Brienzersee.

A delightful mix of bike paths took us along the southern banks of Brienzersee, through dark conifer forest, past thundering waterfalls and fancy guest houses to the upper reaches of the Aare River.

Our journey was briefly held up by a railway crossing… I mean fighter jet crossing. It taxied towards limestone cliff before disappearing into a hangar tunnelled into the mountain.

At Meiringen, beside the Sherlock Holmes Museum, we stopped by a wonderful statue dedicated to Melchior Anderegg, known as the “König der Bergführer” or “King of the Alpine Guides” for his contributions to mountaineering. Glad I’m not the guy who lost his hat!

It was then onto the Grimsel Pass.

The Grimsel Pass connects the Rhine to the Rhône river basins and is believed to have been used since Roman times as a trade route connecting central Switzerland with northern Italy. 

The upper reaches of the Aare squeeze and cascade through a narrow valley of towering granite and gneiss cliffs on either side.

Slowly inching my way up the valley in the swirling cloud, the sheer walls of chiselled rock, muted colours and geometric form, reminded me of John Brack’s “Collins St., 5 pm” (1955) – depicting rush hour in Melbourne.

At about 1,800m the Räterichsbodensee appeared out of the mist, the first of five dams on the river and its tributaries for hydroelectricity production. I discovered later that Switzerland maintains 220 dams, the highest density of dams in the world, and its 682 hydroelectric power stations supply 60% of Switzerland’s total electricity production.

As I neared the top, the road cut a Zorro-like slash back and forth across the rocky wall. However, the real challenge with this climb became less with the incline and more with the weather!

Thankfully for Sam and I, Sue and Liz were waiting at the top in the fog with the heater on, cups of tea and biscuits.

After recuperating, we rugged up for the descent.

It wasn’t far before we dropped out of the cloud and enjoyed another thrilling spiralling descente rapide.

We even had a touch of sunlight and cloud free views of fresh snow on the peaks before we reached our camp at Fiesch.

According to Garmin