Walking the Simmenfälle
The whitewater channel carrying the river Simme from the mountains is not what it seems.
Rain fell steadily as we climbed, mixing with the whitewater spray and running down our waterproofs. Beside us the Simme crashed its way down the mountainside. It seemed enraged at being confined to its channel, straining to break free.
Breaking free is exactly what it used to do: when rain and snowmelt swelled the river, it slipped out of its banks and flooded the valley below. Then, in the 18th century, the people of Lenk im Simmental resolved to lock the water up. They decided to divert the Simme, and the result is the whitewater channel we were exploring on our walk.
Such a dramatic re-engineering of nature strikes me as very Swiss. Mountain too steep to walk up? Build a cable car to the top. River keeps flooding? Redirect it. Nowhere to build a railway station? Bury it in the hillside. This is a country defined by rock and reinforced concrete.