Post by Lisa Rigg FRSA

Permission to build a walkway along the Aareschlucht or Aare Gorge, in the Bernese Oberland, was granted in 1887; with the structure opening to tourists in 1889. This sublimely cool river of turquoise passes though a gorge created by the glacial ice receding and the subsequent water eroding the limestone. Geologists believe that this is not the only gorge to have been formed here. They have worked out that with every interglacial period a new ‘Aare Gorge’ was created. The Lautere Schlauche or ‘noisy gorge’, which begins at the Meiringen entrance too, runs more or less parallel to the Aare and is evidence of this pattern of erosion. There are also a couple of cave entrances along the side that were converted into underground military bunkers in 1940. These caverns, tranformed into defensive strongholds and barracks, were intended to house up to 185 officers and soldiers. But they were never used and remain abandoned on the other side of the river. As I came towards this narrower and quieter section, I suffered from what is widely referred to as ‘l'appel du vide’ or the ‘call of the void’. I had the urge to jump into the water and take my chances. Surely, any river/rock man would understand this desire, and whether safe or not, would have followed in after me