The Swiss Alps are majestic in winter but we have never spent much time there in summer so we were looking forward to returning to the chalet to finish the decorating and landscaping and to really explore the Valais region.
There are many different walks and hikes with a wide range of difficulty and we started on a mission to walk all of the bisses (at least 50) over the next few years. A bisse is simply a man made waterway, most of which were built in the fourteenth and fifteenth centuries to supply the fields and animals in the alpage during the summer months which can be very dry. Some of them are just simple ditches dug by hand but others are amazing feats of engineering which literally traverse the cliffs as seen here:
For more challenging walks we drive further up into the numerous valleys most of which have a lake,
like Kandersteg which is over the mountains in the Bernese Oberland.
One of the prettiest walks is on the Bisse de Trient near the French Border with magnificent views of the glacier at the end.
There is no shortage of things to do in this area: hiking, cycling, golf and paragliding to name a few. In addition there are various music festivals in Montreux, Verbier, Sierre and Sion and then the more traditional events like the Alphorn festivals and (don't laugh) the cow fighting. This is a serious competition which lasts all summer culminating with 'La Reine' (the queen) being crowned. At first glance it appears nothing more than 2 cows locking horns but we are told that it takes intelligence and skill to win a fight and it is not necessarily the biggest cow that wins. Owners will pay large sums for a
well bred animal, betting is serious but most importantly it is a social occasion high in the mountains where the locals often camp for the weekend to watch the fighting, followed by a bar b q and copious amounts of wine.
Day 1 of the season- the cows get familiar with each other:
There are many different walks and hikes with a wide range of difficulty and we started on a mission to walk all of the bisses (at least 50) over the next few years. A bisse is simply a man made waterway, most of which were built in the fourteenth and fifteenth centuries to supply the fields and animals in the alpage during the summer months which can be very dry. Some of them are just simple ditches dug by hand but others are amazing feats of engineering which literally traverse the cliffs as seen here:
For more challenging walks we drive further up into the numerous valleys most of which have a lake,
like Kandersteg which is over the mountains in the Bernese Oberland.
One of the prettiest walks is on the Bisse de Trient near the French Border with magnificent views of the glacier at the end.
There is no shortage of things to do in this area: hiking, cycling, golf and paragliding to name a few. In addition there are various music festivals in Montreux, Verbier, Sierre and Sion and then the more traditional events like the Alphorn festivals and (don't laugh) the cow fighting. This is a serious competition which lasts all summer culminating with 'La Reine' (the queen) being crowned. At first glance it appears nothing more than 2 cows locking horns but we are told that it takes intelligence and skill to win a fight and it is not necessarily the biggest cow that wins. Owners will pay large sums for a
well bred animal, betting is serious but most importantly it is a social occasion high in the mountains where the locals often camp for the weekend to watch the fighting, followed by a bar b q and copious amounts of wine.
Day 1 of the season- the cows get familiar with each other:
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