Around Lake Brienz

If you don’t know it yet, Lake Brienz, one thing in advance: it’s beautiful!

Lake Brienz is the twin of Lake Thun and is located in Switzerland, more precisely in the Bernese Oberland, namely here:

On the right is Lake Brienz, on the left Lake Thun, with the city of Interlaken in between. The Bönigen campsite near Interlaken is located directly on Lake Brienz.

I pitched my tent here in the summer of 2017. It was my first camping trip with Mowgli. We didn’t have our Mowglimobil or a roof box yet, all my stuff and the dog had to fit in a small Clio. went too. The first thing I learned here was how to drive pegs into stony ground, which is pretty flat.

Bönigen was our home base for some very nice excursions, which I would like to tell you about here.

From the campsite to Interlaken

There is direct access to the lake from the campsite. You can swim in the beautiful turquoise waters anytime and for free. It works like this: I go swimming and Mowgli wants to save me and swims after me. When he catches up with me, he grabs my shoulder with his paw. As soon as we are back on land, I tend to my wounds and Mowgli rolls in the grass, proud of the successful rescue operation.

But you can also walk along a wide path along the lake and the Aare to Interlaken and see the city or take a boat tour across the lake from the jetty. We shared an ice cream in Interlaken and walked back. Was a nice day!

Grindelwald

The Jungfrau region is home to the mountain giants Eiger, Mönch and Jungfrau. One of the places in this region is Grindelwald at the foot of the famous north face of the Eiger:

I would like to see both. It’s not far from Interlaken. The town of Grindelwald was a bit overrun with tourists that day, but it is definitely worth seeing. We did a nice hike with great views in this area.

The Axalp

If you drive south of Lake Brienz on the A8 in the direction of Brienz, you will eventually turn right up to the Axalp:

The special thing about this path: it is lined with more than 100 carved figures. The story behind it: Avalanches and storm Lothar caused massive damage up here in the winter of 1998/99. People turned the sad sight of the devastated forest into a unique work of art by carving figures out of the tree trunks. Here some impressions:

The St. Beatus Caves

The Beatus Caves are named after the legend of the monk Beatus, who is said to have lived here in the 6th century and chased away the fearsome dragon that lived in the caves. One can visit the monk’s hermitage as well as the caves and attached museum and then pay a visit to the restaurant. From there you have a great view over Lake Thun.

From Interlaken, drive north of Lake Thun on Seestraße/Staatsstraße (221) until you reach the Beatus Cave car park. From here it is about a 10 minute walk to the cave entrance.

Admission is not cheap, but the dog is allowed. However, you have to be careful with the electronic gate so that you don’t end up like Mowgli and me: human inside, dog outside. My panic was unnecessary, the service staff that was summoned was able to solve the problem 😉 And dress warmly, it’s cool in the cave, about 10 degrees.

Inside, a fantastic world of stalagmites and stalactites, small lakes and waterfalls, moss and fern gardens, niches and gorges awaits you. Here are a few impressions:

Mowgli chases the paraglider

We hiked comfortably in the sunshine through the Lauterbrunnen valley, also known as the valley of the 72 waterfalls. In addition to the impressive waterfalls that spring from the almost vertical cliffs, paragliders and base jumpers also like to use the place to jump into the valley here, and so the sky was full of colorful human birds that day.

Mowgli got very upset every time he saw such a colorful plane overhead. Then, when one of these “birds” was about to land on a fenced meadow, there was no stopping Mowgli rushed towards the paraglider with all his might, the dog leash snapped at the carabiner, the fence offered no obstacle at all and barked loudly the dog ran towards the man. Baffled, but quick-witted, I resorted to the only means that could stop him now: “Stooooppp!!!” With an emergency brake he came to a stop about two meters in front of the plane, so I could grab his harness and lead him back on the path. Luckily the man took it easy.

The stop command was the first thing I taught Mowgli: stop at the curb, stop while riding a bike, stop while running… As you can see once again that a good upbringing can even save lives 🙂

The torn dog leash was knotted and we walked on comfortably. At the end of the day my pooch got a new fancy expensive leash.