Down Under – Part One

After I visited the ‘Senkenberg Museum’ I asked myself all the time how it could have looked like in those past eras on this earht. But with the help of brilliant scientists and modern computer graphics it is possible to bring those eras back to life. BBC presented in the past years three series of documentaries which try to present us an example how those animals could have looked in reality.

In fact the series started with ‘Walking with Dinosarus’ but to be in the right time order I would start with the series ‘Walking with Monsters’ which includes the complete Paleozoic and ends in the dawn of the Early Triassic (already the Mesozoic):

Walking with Monsters (Part 1/12) – Intro
Walking with Monsters (Part 2/12) – Cambrian/Ordovician
Walking with Monsters (Part 3/12) – Selurian
Walking with Monsters (Part 4/12) – Devonian
Walking with Monsters (Part 5/12) – Carboniferous
Walking with Monsters (Part 6/12) – Carboniferous 2
Walking with Monsters (Part 7/12) – Early Permian 1
Walking with Monsters (Part 8/12) – Early Permian 2
Walking with Monsters (Part 9/12) – Early Permian 3/Late Permian
Walking with Monsters (Part 10/12) – Late Permian 2
Walking with Monsters (Part 11/12) – Late Permian 3/Early Triassic
Walking with Monsters (Part 12/12) – Early Triassic 2

Moving Continents

I searched at ‘Google Earth’ for some usable paleogeographic maps but did not find very useful overlays. So I decided to search for actual and good maps (2D) in the internet and laid them over the globe. I took the maps from

http://jan.ucc.nau.edu/ 

Here you can find the KMZ-file:

Paleogeographic Maps

Jurrasic Day

In my vecations I had the chance to visit the ‘Senkenberg Museum’ in Frankfurt. It is a Museum of Natural History and concerning fossils and paleontology one of the first addresses in Germany. I am very interested in paleontology so it was very exciting for me to see all those ‘dead’ animals.

In fact it is an awesome feeling to stand beyond such an huge skeleton like the Tyrannosaurus. And when I imagined what this dinosaur had looked like with flesh on the bones – that made me very perplexed.

The whole museum is worth a visit. There are a lot of interesting fossils like dinosaurs, fish, and ‘modern day’ bones like whales. They have even some hair and real blood of a mammoth. What I found really interesting are some very old fossils dated in the Cambrium, a epoch I am especially interested in.

In the 2nd and 3rd floor there were mainly primed wild animals what was quite boring. After a short visit in these floors I returned to the 1st floor and studied some samples in detail. Have you ever seen real dinosaur skin in real? They have a mummified Edmontosaurs, very interesting!

Videos of the Baerentrek

Some time ago I released some videos of my Baerentrek so you can get an impression how it looked like. Enjoy it on Youtube.com. Here are the links:

Day One – Rosenlaui to Alpiglen
Day Two - Alpiglen to Stechelberg
Day Three  – Stechelberg to Gespaltenhornhuette
Day Four – Gspaltenhornhuette to Kandersteg

Mmmmh … Donuts!

As every authentic Simpsons fan I needed to simpsonize me. I made it finally! What do you think? Is it a good approach? … write me you opinion!

Day Four – Gspaltenhornhütte to Kandersteg

After I had listened to the weather forecast in this morning I was not sure whether the rain will hold until the evening. So I decided to hurry a little bit because the radio talked about storm and hailstones.

The last night I slept next to some old freaks who made some very strange noises while they were sleeping. Because I forgot my earplugs at home it was very hard to get some sleep. Remember: never forget your earplugs!

I stood up very early to be one of the first to have breakfast so I could start very early in the morning on the next part of the trek. The first few footsteps on this day I had to decend to the Gamchi glacier and cross it. I was very facinated about the glacier-cannyon in the middle of the glacier. There is a brand new bridge which made it very easy to cross. When I was on top of this glacier I was on an altitude of 2100 m. But there was the Hochtuerli pass waiting for me with an altitude of 2778 m.

I was pretty suprised that the pass was short but tremendously demanding. I had to made a few breaks to get breath again. But I watched the stunning landscape and the rough slopes there. The path up to Hochtürli is along a small creek which washed out the path by time – not very good for the balance.

For the last 200 m ascent I changed the side of the slope and climbed along a large rock face. When you are very quiet there you can hear rocks rolling down, and when you are lucky even some birds of prey. At 11:30 am I arrived the peak where you can look back to ‘Hintere Gasse’ with the ‘Bund’ valley and on the other side you can see the ‘Bluemliesalp’ glacier.

Because some dark clouds came nearer and nearer I decided to decend to Kandersteg over the Oeschinen lake very fast. There nothing very special about this valley and the decent. Maybe only the taste of the water of the Bluemliesalp glacier. It tasted like saltpeter and sulfur so I could not drink it. Bad luck!

I took a rest at the ‘Obergaergli’ hut and ordered a beer. I did not realize that there were pigs and dogs running around. That was really disgusting! I will never come back there again and I hope I won’t get some bad diseases. If I had spend only a few more steps down the path I could have a rest at the ‘Unterbaergli’ hut which looked much more cleaner. There you have a very nice view to the ‘Oeschinen lake’.

After about 3 hours from Hochtuerli I arrived at Kandersteg. The weather looked really bad and the local wather forecast promised nothing good. I thought it would be the best to end my trek here because Kandersteg had the last train station for the next two days. Afterwards it was a very good decision becasue there was a heavy storm this night and ongoing rain the rest of the week.

This was the end of the Baerentrek - a very nice trek!  

Day Three – Stechelberg to Gspaltenhornhuette

“This part of the trek was rather demanding because I had to climb over 1300 m (4250 ft) to the Sefinenfurge.

This night my mobile phone had some problems and the alarm clock did not work. So I had to wake up by chance. The first rays of the sunset woke me up at 6:30. I started again with a shower and tried to repair my mobile phone. After a nice breakfast in an old-fashioned breakfast-room (looked like being built in the proud 80ies) I started my third trek.

The first 30 minutes from Stechelberg into the Busenwald were again wery steep. But I was paid off for this morining sport. Because there exist a gondola lift from Stechelberg to the peaks in the surrounding it was very quiet in these wonderful woods. On the picture on the right you can see how it looks like when looking down from the Busenwald to the Lauterbrunnental.”

By the way: when I looked outside the window at the hotel in the morning I spontaneously thought of ‘Rivendell’ of the ‘Lord of the Rings’-Movies. If you want to see it by yourself take a look to the first scenes of my videos at youtube.com. And I was very supriesed to find this at Wiki:

The Lauterbrunnen valley also provided the pictorial model for J.R.R. Tolkien’s sketches and watercolors of the fictitious valley of Rivendell, and possibly also the name of the Bruinen river (meaning ‘Loudwater’) which flowed through it.

— Lauterbrunnen @ Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

“The path through the woods was following along the torrent Sefinen-Lütschine. After quite a while I had to leave the valley and climb to the Rotstockhütte. I did not like this part of the trek because it was very warm and wet. So there were a lot of silly insects. On the other side I met those cute marmots, the people of the Alps, as we call them.

At 11:30 am I arrived at the Rotstockhütte. This mountain hut lays between ‘Schilthorn’ and ‘Horn’ and I took a rest to enjoy the panoramic view. After a short rest with a sandwich and a ‘radler’ I hit the path again. I had to walk a pass to the ‘Sefinenfurge’ which meant to climb another 500 m. On this part of the path I was again on the UNESCO trek and I really enjoyed the panorama. For example, there is a tiny lake hidden between the slopes – the ‘Hinterm Horn’.

On top of the pass I took a little slepp to have enough strength to continue. On the last part of todays trek I wandered through a very strange landscape. It was just like being on a different planet – only gravel and not a single plant. [...]

I passed the ‘Trogegg’ very quickly and arrived finally at the ‘Gspaltenhornhütte’, my accomodation for this night. The keepers were very nice and the service was good if you considder that the hut is at ca. 2400 m.”

Day Two – Alpiglen to Stechelberg

“Today I’m gonna see the legendary Eiger!

This day started at early 7 o’clock with a shower and an extended breakfast. The bill was payed quickly and soon after I was back on my trek. The first part of todays route was the so callled ‘Eigertrail’. Altough this trail is well-known I met not more than a few other people this morning.

My first problem was fresh-water because I had forgotten to re-fill my bottle at Alpiglen. The day before I spyed out a nice waterfall near the trail and not so far from Alpiglen. So I wanted to hit two birds with one stone: visit a breathtaking waterfall and enjoy the picture and fill my bottle. But you were wrong, Mr Rademacher – the waterfall was way to high and I had not the slightest chance to get water from it.

The acutual ‘Eigertrail’ is very beautiful, although I walked the whole morining in the shadow of the mountains. These rock faces on the left and an idyllic Swiss valley on the right made it to a real pleasure to climb (would I have written in directly in that moment?).

There is still one open question: did I get fresh-water at least? Fortunatly, there are a lot smaller creeks flowing down the slopes where I could fill my bottle without risking my life. After a first mouthful of this water I found it really tasty. Some people say that snowmelt does not taste good but I do not think so. I just tastes a little like snow. And it should be much more healthier than the water we drink generally like the ‘Aquarell’ what is know to be filtered Rhine-water.

At 10:00 am I arrived at the North Face of the Eiger. It put me in awe because I thought of all the people died when climbing this legendary route to the peak of Eiger. This face must be so cliffy that falling stones sound like bullets.

My next destination was the Eiger glacier station and I arrived there at 10:40 am. I had now idea how beautiful the view over the Jungfrau, Mönch, and Eiger really is. Here I missed the crossroad directly to Wixi, the next waypoint, but that did not matter. I took the route over ‘Kleine Scheidegg’ and enjoyed again my beloved tourists.

At Wixi there is the starting point for a UNESCO Nature World Heritage of the Jungfrau-area. My trek started there and lead down to the Truemmelbach. In the beginning (for 2,5 km) it was an easy path with no decend. But after that I had to decend over 900 m in only 1-1,5 km. That was really demanding.

My back was hurting and my feet were hot but I arrived just on time down in Truemmelbach (the village named after the creek) at 3:40 pm.

I deceided to sleep in Stechelberg where you can sleep either in the hotel or in a ‘Friends of Nature House’. I chose the hotel because I thought I had booked a room there. The grumpy keeper of that hotel had one room left. The room was quite okay. In the evening there was a heavy thunderstorm even with hailstones.”

Day One – Rosenlaui to Alpiglen

“Later on I would realize that this was quite a horror-trip because it was very demanding for one day.

When I left the bus I realized the stunning landscape at first. But it was just the first glimpse to what will follow the next days.

My fist destination was the nearby Rosenlaui-Gletscherschlucht. To put it into few words: ‘Cold and fresh, very loud but a little bit short!’ This cannyon is a little bit narrow and I had some trouble to pass thorugh with my large backpack. One time I had to walk behind a granny for long time because I was unable to pass her. Secondly, I lost my slepping back because I scretched the rocks all the time. I had luck that my slepping back wedged into the handrail otherwise I would had the chance to watch it swim down the river.

This was enough of loud water. Now it was time to travel to the ‘Große Scheidegg’, a middle-sized peak right in the way to Grindewald. [When you translate the name of the mountain directly into English it would be something like 'Big Seperating Fin']. Climbing this pass was demanding because I needed to learn to handle the high (and unusual) load on my back. Nevertheless I arrived at the peak in a good time. There I bought something to drink and deceided to leave it very soon because it was overrun by tourists.

I don’t want to forget to tell you the story where I lost the trak and run through the woods. At half the distrance between Rosenlaui and Große Scheidegg I did not find the small red-white arrows which guided me all the time. So I decided to walk straight on (what seemed to be quite logical in that moment). But it was a large mistake because I strayed totally. In the end I found the path again and I met some very nice insects.

The decent to Grindewald was not very interesting but long, and I want to emphazise long. [...] At 6:30 pm I arrived at my destination – Alpiglen. The people there are very nice and the beer tasted wonderful after such a demanding decent and climb. [...] On night to stay was at 45 CHF incl. breakfast. “

Day One – Outward Journey

Now I will quote directly out of my trek-diary (translated from German in English with a special adaptation):

“I started the day very early at 3:45 am. Not yet fully awaken I packed the rest, took a strong coffee and started right away. Shortly after my departure I realized that I forgot my special hiking-socks and, even worse, my ear-plugs. But I was already late and had no time to drive back.

I drove mainly on the Autobahn and passed the German-Swiss border after 2,5 hours. Finally I arrived in Meiringen, my starting point, at 10:15 am.  It was hard to find a parking-lot at this time and in the end I had to pay for it (5 CHF per day). While paying for the parking I bought a bus ticket as well. The busses in the Swiss mountains are called “Postauto”.

At 10:40 am the bus started to Rosenlaui. You can get there by foot but I would not have fit into my time-frame to walk this 3,5 hours journey. On the other hand it is very hard to travel by Postauto when you do not like those tourits who drive from every tourist-attraction from the other and who even do not know where they are exactly.

Finally, I arrived at Rosenlaui. It is the smallest town in Switzerland. They are very proud of it. Maybe there are a lot more even smaller villages but a village can be promoted to a town when it has a post-office despite the number of residents. Rosenlaui was my starting point. Now I traveled only by foot …”