After my last posting here, I was reviewing the list of Jura Mountains summits. I realised that there was one of the major Swiss Jura summits that I had missed out on, the mountain of Le Noirmont. It is tucked away in a corner, between the Jura Höhenweg and the French border. And of course,…
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My last Swiss walk of 2024 was in the snow, walking the Tüfelschlucht and on to the Belchenflue. It seemed perfectly natural then, that my first Swiss walk of 2025 should also be in the snow. When I arrived back in Basel just after New Year, there was snow on the ground in places in…
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In late November, winter came to Switzerland. Of course, we were warned. But one Wednesday, everything was sunny and autumnal in Basel. Then, on Friday morning, it had all changed. More than 20cm of snow had fallen on the Thursday evening and night, transforming everything, as the photos of my local Kannenfeld Park show. I…
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Last year, in 2023, I took part in a 100km walk in Belgium. It was called the Dodentocht, or Death March. Every year, some 13,000 people start that walk, with about 9,000 finish it. I was one of them. But I was determined that this would not be a one-off event, a flash in the…
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Through most of September, I was out of Switzerland, and unable to get back t following Suvorov’s route. But with the coming of October, I was back in Switzerland and anxious to get back to following Suvorov’s route. At the end of September 1799, Suvorov was in Altdorf. But the French had confiscated all the…
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A few days later, I was back on the trail again. The train brought me to Göschenen early in the morning. I stepped off the train and started walking immediately, heading northwards and down the valley. I suspect that the route taken by Suvorov follows closely to the road, but the trail is very much…
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Following my diversions to the Niesen and the Schilthorn summits, I got back to my plans for walking Swiss trails in August. My planned third trail for 2024 was the Via Suvorov. Before going on to talk about the trail itself, it is important to take a look at the background. Alexander Vasilyevich Suvorov was…
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I did not wait too long before coming back to the Chemin de Jura. The guide to the route advises two stages between St-Ursanne and the end of the trail at Saignelégier. I had walked from St-Ursanne to Saignelégier before, when walking the Trans Swiss Trail, and I had done it in one day. That…
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A few weeks later, I was back on the trail again. I took the train to Porrentruy and started out on the next section of the Chemin de Jura. This section would take me to St-Ursanne. It is a route that I have walked before. When I walked the Trans Swiss Trail in 2021, that…
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I started my next stage of the Chemin de Jura several weeks later. Life and work had intervened to keep me away from hiking for those weeks. That meant that when I at last had the time to go hiking, I was going to take that opportunity regardless of the weather. And the weather was…
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Walkingman 