Hiking along Wallensee

On the weekend we did a hike along the Wallensee, this is a very deep and beautiful lake in Eastern Switzerland where the mountains plunge down into the lake. On the mountain side there are some hiking trails and we took the one near the shore (although it still went up and down a fair amount to skirt around cliffs at the waters edge). From the beginning of the hike you can see we will hike on the right side all the way to the end (in the end the hike was about 20km).

We started by walking up a gravel road to the upper village and then along through some small farms before rapidly descending down to the lake.

One of the farms we saw had a rather rickety personal elevator setup to get people up from the lake. I'm not sure how I would feel riding in it!

After we descended back to the lake we stopped to have some lunch on the small rocky beach.

Here is a photo looking back to where we started from, we are maybe a third of the way along the lake!

The microclimate of this region was amazingly different, as we became pinched between the rocks and the lake, with the broad south facing prospect we saw fig trees, flowers, lizards, palm trees and vineyards. It was a bit of a mix up to see Swiss alpine hut style houses mixed with Ticino vegetation.

As we made our way along the lake we came to some very pretty waterfalls,

 
and a very unusual feature, a huge waterfall that springs out from the rocks! This is the origin of the Rin, an underground river system which exits from the stone in this very dramatic fashion. During the summer the flows almost stop and cave divers have explored tunnels up to 1km into the rock!

Here is a view of the save entrance, only the very beginning is open to the air, afterwards you must dive!

And here is the figure of the underwater river, at the bottom is the map of all the channels that have been explored.

We finished our day sitting on the waters edge drinking a beer (not as nice as it sounds because it became overcast and there was even a sprinkle of rain). We caught the train back to our car and headed back into our higher mountains where the trees have only just recently put out leaves. No palm trees here, just an hours drive away!