The end of summer heralds the arrival of autumn, and a really nice time to be out and about. Due to the lack of deciduous trees in Australia, the display put on by the trees here is something that really captivates me. With colour beginning to bloom, it seemed appropriate to explore one of the lesser known regions of Switzerland, the Jura. The Jura mountain range is a really fascinating place which is often overshadowed by the neighbouring Alps. The range straddles the border of France and Switzerland in the north and then stretches into Germany, where the range is known as the Swabian Alps. It is much older than the Alps and in recent (geological-scale) times has been compressed laterally due to the rising Alps, resulting in long and very narrow peaks and often deep valleys. In addition, a longer life means a lot more wear and tear, which has resulted in many deeply carved canyons and caves. Here we explore one of the most famous canyons, that formed by the Areuse river, and a geological anomaly, Le Creux (the cavity) du Van.

Just Gorges

Usually I do not make mention of the puns littered throughout the text, but the title is too good not to mention. If it eludes you, just read it aloud.

Starting nice and early from Geneva, we caught the train to Boudry, which all up takes about 2 hours: a little over an hour to get to Neuchâtel and only ten minutes from Neuchâtel to Boudry, but the train goes only once an hour, so we had to wait at the station. Our plan for the day was to follow the Areuse from Boudry to Noiraigue and then if time and weather permitted, possibly begin the ascent of le Creux du Van. Annoyingly, this area is not covered by a single map, so we had both the Swisstopo 1164 Neuchâtel and 1163 Travers maps. That being said, the signage was excellent and were it not for the weather, they would not have been required.

Arriving in Boudry, the weather was overcast, but there were hints of clouds breaking and blue skies. There were a few other groups that looked set on doing the same walk as us, I suppose due to its accessibility and the fact you can walk one way and take the train back. So with that in mind we pushed out early to get ahead of everyone. As we entered the gorge, there was quite an impressive aqueduct crossing the Areuse, which was just next to the hydroelectric station, marking the beginning of the trail and, more importantly, the gorge. From the town you would not guess what was hidden further upstream. It did not take long until we had gained a little height above the river and one could see the magnificent carvings of said river into the surrounding rock. One thing I had not expected was just how ferocious the river would be, which does give you an appreciation for how the gorge has been shaped into what it is today.

The area is littered with smaller trails which at various points go every which way, but the route that we followed was that which was closest to the river. It was not long until we found some bridges spanning the canyon and its narrower points – between 5 and 10 metres wide – and often providing some of the more stunning views. There is one section I remember in particular, as it was after a very steep section; the canyon would have been only 3 or so metres wide but at least 30 or 40 metres deep and with a single turn, the area opened up, revealing cliffs of some hundreds of metres and with plenty of colour around to remind you that it was autumn. Unfortunately I think we were a little early for the red leaves, but there was still lots of colour around.

After we reached the more open spaces, there were many more cascades, both natural and man-made. The most notable was the Chute de la Verrière, which was by far the largest and warranted an excursion down into the water to investigate further. But above this, the river opened out, becoming much calmer and the path began to wander a little further from the river. Arriving at Champ-du-Moulin (a collection of about 6 houses), we found a bench and sat down for some lunch.

We were still uncertain about what our plans were, as whilst the weather had cleared a little, it still looked very unstable. We had two main options, one of which was to camp at a campground near Noiraigue - which was not really desirable nor did we know if it were operational - or we could try and find somewhere to camp during our ascent of le Creux. Usually the latter would be a no brainer, but as we were in a national park, we were unsure of the rules of bivouacking – I know that it is fine in the Alps, but there are strange rules when you are in “less remote” areas. So uncommitted, we pressed on. I had thought that the gorge had played its hand, but little did I know what it was saving until last.

About one kilometre past Champ-du-Moulin, we arrived at another hydroelectric plant and past this it was clear the gorge was going again. With a width of only a few metres, the cliffs rose up between fifty and a hundred metres and the river once again became extremely turbulent. Something one often forgets to mention when discussing canyons is how deafening the sound of the river can be, making it a real challenge to talk. It was during this section we came across one of the prettiest bridges I have ever seen, which has been standing for some hundreds of years. After we had some time with said bridge, we continued on our way, which took us over another bridge, but this time much larger and with a see-through floor, which was probably forty or so metres above the river. But sadly after crossing this, we had reached the end of the gorge. The path ran next to the railway track and headed into Noiraigue.

Given it was only about 1600, we decided that we would skip town and take our chances on le Creux. The town is at 750 metres and le Creux is a touch over 1400 metres, but a sign in town said 1h45 to the top, so that was fine. There was apparently a short-cut (according to the map) which bypassed the town, but in the supposed location there were sheer rock faces, so I had my doubts. I asked a passer-by if he knew the way, assuming he was a local as there was nobody else around, and after a chat he told me to follow a path which crossed the river and climbed a mountain on the other side. But he was “fairly certain”. So ignoring his directions, we went into town and then out again in the direction of Les Oeillons. The road was slowly but surely heading upward, but as we gained height, the weather deteriorated. Arriving at Les Oeillons, it was raining quite solidly, and as Les Oeillons appears to keep a large number of horses, it was an absolute mud pit. In addition, there were about half a dozen people at the “café“ there, who knew given the hour that we were climbing up and going to camp on the top, which we had decided was not legal, but given it was low season we did not really care. So pushing on, we started on le chemin de 14 contours which would lead us to le Creux. The path was pretty steep meaning we picked up altitude pretty quickly, and I won’t soon forget the look on Mia’s face when I pointed out that the rain had become snow, which was falling quite heavily by this point. The climb was short and sweet, and we were lucky enough to have a close encounter with an ibex that was more than happy to just keep eating as we passed some metres away from it.

Arriving on the plateau, we could not see much due to the cloud and the vanishing light, so we found ourselves a somewhat sheltered spot (a necessity as the wind was really picking up) and set up as quickly as we could. We quickly made up our dinner and then headed to bed. All our gear is designed for high altitude, so it has no problem with cold/wet/snow, but due to the unexpected snowstorm, we didn’t have quite enough clothes to be super toasty, so the night was a little fresh – which did wonders for the cold I was dealing with at the same time. But we knew going to sleep that, provided the weather played along, we were going to wake up inside a “winter wonderland”.

We’re happy tonight…

Walking in a winter wonderland

We awoke to the sounds of snow melting on the surrounding trees and sporadically dripping onto our tent. Upon gazing outside, the weather was a little cloudy, but mostly fine. Given all the fresh snow and the landscape, it was quite a sight. Due to the poor visibility and low light levels when we arrived, this was the first time we really got to see anything. We didn’t quite have a view of the whole creux, but we were on one side and could see across to the other, which was still quite spectacular. It was still extremely fresh, so we chowed down on some breakfast, packed up our gear and then headed out on our way.

The day’s plan was to walk around the creux and make our way back to Noiraigue via Ferme Robert for the train at 1452. Walking around the creux was not to be a challenge as we had already done the climbing, so we were really just ambling for the most part. I would estimate to have had between 10 and 20 centimetres of snow on average, which was super pretty and as we were the first up there, it was all pristine. This made following the track a little non-trivial, but in the beginning we were just walking atop the cliffs, so it was pretty easy to know which was the right direction. The creux itself is extraordinary – glacial erosion resulting in a 1.5 kilometre wide, 150 metres deep amphitheatre-like cavity. The clouds were continually pouring out from over the cliffs, which made for quite a sight. There was also a small dry rock wall running most of the length of the cliffs, which was rather pretty. When we were at the highest point, we were able to see across the lakes to the south and into the Alps, which was a nice bonus!

Due to the deeper snow in sections, the map would prove extremely useful in helping to find the path down into the valley. Unlike our ascent where we came up a spur, we were descending down the face, meaning it would be a much shorter – and consequently steeper – walk. The terrain was a little hard going, as it was all loose rock and uneven ground due to tree roots which were all covered by the snow, which was itself not deep enough to support any weight, meaning one was stepping into the unknown. We were also descending the north face, so the snow was not going anywhere. But after about 45 minutes, we were down in the valley and as we had some time, we decided to take a detour via la fontaine froide, which really should have been called le robinet froid, but it served as a minor distraction. It also allowed us to get closer to the base of the cliffs, where many climbing routes were visible. We did a little bit of wandering through the trees which, due to the sun having just risen above le Creux, were very mysterious and foggy. But 15 minutes put us at Ferme Robert and another 30 minutes had us back at Noiraigue. Knowing the train left at 52 minutes past each hour was good, since we made sure to arrive appropriately and we took the 1252 train for the 23 minutes it takes to return to Neuchâtel.

You can really see why it is called a cavity

We had some time to spare before leaving back to Geneva for my connecting train back to Paris, so we decided to explore Neuchâtel a little. Being a Sunday, the place was absolutely dead. We were practically wandering the streets alone. We saw the town’s namesake, well, the scaffolding surrounding it, as well as the rather impressive Collégiale de Neuchâtel. But then we headed to La Place des Halles, the only place which had places open other than the train station, grabbed some lunch and just relaxed a little. Then it was back to the station, back to Geneva (with a quick stop in at a pharmacy to purchase some drugs for my developing cold; along with the associated theft of a mini ice-cream bucket to serve as a cup to dissolve an effervescent tablet) and ultimately back to Paris.

Adventures

Les Gorges de l’Areuse and Le Creux du Van

Just Gorges

Walking in a winter wonderland