Blog Archives

Favourite Alpine furry friends you could see when walking

10/4/2019

Ibex or Steinbock or wild goat
Mostly they live above the tree line, even to 4000m. Some hoofed animals (such as a donkey or a horse) have difficulty walking on rocky and steep trails even though donkeys are used in Nepal they still slip from time to time. However the hooves of a Steinbock have two parts, an elastic part and a hard part. The elastic part, the sole, “sticks” better to rocks than the soles of any hiking boot. Also the two “fingers” of the hoof can spread enabling “grip” on sharp protruding rocks and also helps while braking on a steep descent.
Photo: Steinbock by Gregoire Wallert

Chamois or Gemse
These live lower than the Steinbock and also look like small goats. You will often see these from the Gondola as it approaches the Mannlichen station from Wengen. These guys are fast. You can be walking downhill through forest and hear a whosh, scramble and a rush of rocks maybe, Yep, it was a Gemse that you woke up and now in full flight down the hill, you might see it or probably not.
Running at a speed of 50 kilometres per hour and able to jump 2m, they can live to 15 years if they avoid problems like hunting season, avalanches and natural predators of Wolves or Lynxes. These predators are also making a comeback in some alpine zones but they are so shy , it is difficult to determine their movements.
Photo: Gemse by Wolfgang Sojer

Foxes are typically found in the forests. One day when I was walking down from Mannlichen to Wengen and shortly before Wengen in the forest there, I stopped in amazement. Crossing the path in front of me, in no hurry at all, was a fox. He turned and looked at me – honestly! And then kept on his way into the forest.
They live in small family groups, not in packs. Mostly feasting on rats and mice and a marmot if they are lucky, they do bother the local farmers around lambing time.
Photo: Fox by David Mark

Rothirsch or Red deer
Beautiful and majestic, they are rare to find even though they live around 3000 metres and for about 15 years. Quite the fashion animal, the colour of their coat varies depending on the season, gender and age. Apart from the facial hair on the mouth, all hair is changed twice a year.
I have only seen one once in a forest on the way to Oberberg. The trail leads along the "Sefinen Lütschine" to Flirten, then climbing, around 400 vertical metres, up to Oberberg. The trail continues to the Rotstock Hut.
In autumn if you are making an evening walk up high you could hear a roar and that will be the male deer. You could then hear several of them as the males compete for female attention. All deer make short barking sounds when frightened and they are able to move their ears independently to accurately detect the direction of sounds.
Did you know that Red deer were used to pull coaches during Roman Era in the festivals related to the worship of goddess Diana, the hunting goddess?
Photo: Red deer by Steve Bidmead

Marmot
When you are walking along a trail and hear a high pitched whistle, it could be the Marmot security guard whistling to its community that someone is coming through their territory. Marmots live in communities, usually in complex burrows with 'emergency exits" often made under piles of rocks above 1500 metres. As you walk from Kleine Scheidegg to Rind Hut to Wengeralp, there is a community on the left as the path bends to the right before dropping down to Wenngeralp. Several times I have seen them sun-baking when I have been very quiet to come around the corner. It helps that it is not a well walked path.
These vegetarians hibernate through the winter after gorging themselves over summer. Pregnancy is about a month and the young stay home for the first 3 - weeks and drinking milk. They can live for 15 years if the foxes and hunters don’t find them.
Photo: Marmut by Francis fda54

What about bears?
There is the bear on the Bern flag and that is likely all in this area.
After a brown bear was shot by a hunter in 1904, they were extinct from the Swiss Alps. On July 28, 2005, a student from Germany photographed a bear in the Swiss National Park - the first bear in Switzerland for 100 years! (www.kora.ch)
Brown bears are an unlikely threat hiking in the Jungfrau region. You may have seen them on the ZDF Bergdoktor program in Austria but since March 2008 there has only been a few wild bears sighted in Switzerland and in the east.
In July 2006 Switzerland set up a "bear plan" to promote coexistence between humans and bears. A bear, known as M13, was believed to have killed several sheep and was first seen in the Engadine in April 2012. He was fitted with a transmitter, which showed him wandering between Switzerland, Italy and Austria. Towards the end of 2012 M13 appeared in the Val Poschiavo, where he killed a donkey, destroyed beehives, and broke into a holiday home. His behaviour led the environment office to classify him as a "problem bear" posing a safety risk and shot on February 19, 2016. There were hundreds of messages mourning his death on his face book page. https://www.facebook.com/OrsoM13

Simple Swiss cooking at it's best

1/4/2019

Sometimes the simplest of recipes are just fantastic. So often people want to overcomplicate a recipe and confuse the taste buds. Here are 3 simple recipes for a soup, a salad and molten cheese over boiled potatoes for an easy winter supper.

Of course there is nothing tastier than home baked bread direct from the oven enjoyed with a Lauterbrunnen Berg Käse (Mountain cheese).

The world thinks "Fondue" when they ponder Swiss Cuisine. It is still fun to dunk rustic country bread into melted cheeses. Like a delicious molten slow cooked mix of Gruyère and chemerin cheeses, infused with lashings of wine and garlic, bubbled over an open flame. Paired with white wine and chased with schnapps or tea for an epic winter meal.

Easy Macaroni salad (Hörnlisalat)
To serve 8 people.
Ingredients
4 eggs
7 pickles
6 Cups elbow pasta (Hörnli)
220 gram Cheese Emmentaler
2 Hot peppers (red)
120 gram ham
10 pieces onions

Ingredients for the dressing. This dressing is also delicious on a green salad.
2 Garlic cloves
1 dash herb vinegar
4 dessert spoons mayonnaise
2 dessert spoons natural yoghurt
1 dessert spoon olive oil
1 pinch paprika
1 pinch Salatgewürz
1 dessert spoon chives
1 dessert spoon Mustard, mild
1 shake of Tabasco

For the Hörnlisalat boil the pasta/ Hörnli in plenty of salted water until crispy and quench with cold water.
Next boil the eggs in a saucepan - depending on the size of the eggs, simmer for about 8-10 minutes in water.
Then chop the cheese, chilli peppers, gherkins, boiled eggs and ham into small cubes and place in a large salad bowl.

For the dressing: mix the mayonnaise, the mustard, the spices, the herbs, Tabasco, yoghurt, vinegar and oil well. Add the chopped onion and the peeled and chopped garlic cloves.

Add the Hörnli to the salad bowl and mix with dressing.
Let the salad soak in the fridge briefly (for about 20 minutes) then serve with a crusty bread loaf (not toast bread).

Simple Soup. A broth with Flädli that makes a great starter. (Flädli is a thin pancake or crepe cut into pieces)
Ingredients for 4 servings
70 grams butter
2 eggs
100 grams Flour
250 ml milk
1 litre beef (or chicken) broth
1 pinch salt
1 dessert spoons cut Chives

Preparing the Flädli:
In a bowl, add flour, milk, eggs and salt to a dough and let it swell for 15 minutes.
Bake in a pan with heated butter 8 thin flädli / crepes, drain on a plate with kitchen paper and let cool.Roll up the flädli, cut into thin slices and spread on four soup plates.
(or you can buy pre-made Flädli in Co op)
Then Boil the beef or chicken stock and pour over the cut flädli and sprinkle with chives.
Serve with a crusty bread loaf.

Melted Mont-d’Or Vacherin cheese over boiled potatoes is also a simple favourite. Only in Switzerland does cheese have seasonality. And between September and April, when the mountains are snow capped, Mont-d’Or Vacherin is seen in cheese shops, as it has for over a century. This soft, pungent cow’s milk cheese is freshly made from the villages around the Jura region. Covered with white wine and garlic, then baked at 180 degrees Celsius for 20 minutes in its own round wooden box, produces a gooey, creamy cheese, to serve warm over boiled potatoes. Tasty.

Remove the lid and any cellophane or plastic from the round cheese box.
Place the lid underneath the box to provide a base and to prevent any leakage.
Set the cheese back in its box on top of a piece of heavy-duty foil and bring the foil up snugly against the sides of the box but not over the top.
Insert a few slivers of garlic in the top and drizzle white wine over the crust.
Bake the Vacherin at 180 degrees Celsius for around 20 minutes or until it looks plumply.
Remove the box from the oven and spoon the molten treasure over boiled potatoes and accompany with pickles.

About Staubbachfall, Waterfalls, the Jungfrau and Swiss Things

Favourite Alpine furry friends you could see when walking

Simple Swiss cooking at it's best

Eyhus 5

Categories

Archives