The Waterfall in the Mountain

It's a cool, exhilarating, deafening experience; you come away with the roar of the falls ringing in your ears, the smell of water on stone in your nostrils and gleaming beads of mountain water in your hair

My campsite in Grindelwald

Before you see the waterfall, you hear it - a muffled growl, coming from somewhere in the mountain ahead of you. You walk up the pathway, alongside a brook lined with trees, dappled with light and shade. You think to yourself, Hey, here's the water from the waterfall, but where are the falls? That watery growl persists, but as you round the bend, there's nothing to be seen, except a high steel door set into the base of the mountain.

Chalet, midsummer; Jungfrau

Here in Jungfrau Country, in the heart of Switzerland's Bernese Oberland, spectacular scenery awaits you: frosted peaks, alpine meadows, placid lakes and, always, chalets ablaze with scarlet geraniums. The region extends from Interlaken's lakes southwards across lush green valleys and glistening snowfields, with Eiger, Monch and Jungfrau - each over 13,000 ft high - dominating the tranquil scene.

I was here (in summer) back at my favourite alpine town, Grindelwald. This time, I decided to camp, rather than head for one of the delightful and hospitable chalets. Camping is fun - and inexpensive. My campsite cost me just a few Swiss Francs per night. I was therefore able to stay longer and spend more on other things, like the train trip to Jungfraujoch. So I pitched my tent in the shade of a gnarled old apple tree, had a hot shower at the clean facility provided and set out to explore. Situated just outside Grindelwald, the campsite was surrounded by mountains; those closest towered over my tent like green ramparts, while the others, in the distance, glistened white in the afternoon sunshine.When evening fell, the distant Eiger and Jungfrau peaks turned pale pink and then disappeared in the twilight. A stillness descended over the valley, the mountain air sharpened and all around me, lamplit tents glowed orange and amber in the darkness. Camping out in Switzerland is a great way to save money. It's a heart-warming experience everyone should try at least once.

I had come back to Switzerland to visit two places I'd previously missed - Jungfraujoch and Trummelbach Falls, the region's remarkable cascade-in-a-mountain. Trummelbach is just beyond Lauterbrunnen, about 13 miles from Grindelwald on the Interlaken road. En route through this rich pasture country, you'll see, on your right, the famous Staubbach Waterfall. Unlike hidden Trummelbach, Staubbach leaps into the air for all to see, from a terrace 1,000 feet up. This "tail of a pale horse ridden by Death in the Apocalypse" as Lord Byron poetically described it, is a beautiful sight, plunging down the mountainside to disappear in a fine spray before it hits the ground. A short way further on, you'll see the sign welcoming you to Trummelbach Falls. Park your car in the area provided, perhaps enjoy a cup of coffee in the little coffeeshop and then walk up the pathway to the falls.

The entrance to Trummelbach Falls

That high steel door turns out to be an elevator to take you up and into the mountain, so that you can view Trummelbach as it crashes down a steep and twisted fissure in the rock, forcing its way through eroded potholes. A series of fenced galleries, some so dark they have to be lit
by electric light, allow you to view this unique cascade as it gushes its white and frothy way into the great well at the bottom of the falls. At times, you'll be able to look out from the gallery to the sunlit pastures outside. Occasionally, in the darker recesses of the falls, a shaft of sunlight will poke through to illuminate hardy alpine flowers clinging to a rock. The galleries take you around corners and up stairs to different levels. It's a cool, exhilarating, deafening experience; you come away with the roar of the falls ringing in your ears, the smell of water on stone in your nostrils and gleaming beads of mountain water in your hair. Trummelbach Falls can be visited from April 1st to October 31st, from 7 am to 7 pm, for a small admission fee. Allow about an hour to see everything.

Cow relaxes on high meadow; Jungfrau train passes by

Everyone who comes to the majestic Jungfrau region and who has to price of a ticket makes the trip to the top of the mountain. Jungfrau's railway was completed in 1912, an extraordinary engineering feat - and the trip has been much written about, for good reason. From Grindelwald, the ascent, over lush pasture dotted with grazing cows, is enchanting; the valley and town fall swiftly away, becoming, ultimately, just a green handkerchief sprinkled with red confetti, backed by a mauve and grey mountain. The ascent is dramatic and yet, as you head for the sky, you can reach out and almost touch the placid Swiss cows whose bells clonk drolly in the mountain air. Soon, you reach the halfway point, Kleine Scheidegg, 6,762 feet up. This mountain resort, which stands isolated on a ledge above the Grindelwald Valley, is a ski centre, with excellent accommodations. Here, after a brief pause, you change trains for the final ascent up through the Eiger to Jungfraujoch.

Eight hundred fifty feet further up, at Eigergletscher, the train pauses once again so that you can view the sweeping panorama. Now the jaunty little red and yellow rack train moves more slowly, as it enters the 4 mile tunnel cut through the heart of the Eiger. Inside the mountain, two stations have been hewn out of solid rock, one at Eigerwand (9,400 feet) and the other at Eismeer (10,357 feet). Both offer the traveller magnificent vistas, the latter through solid plate glass windows, which look out over the icefields. Finally, the train pulls into Jungfraujoch, at 11,336 feet the highest railway station in Europe.

At this height, the experience and the view is, quite literally, breathtaking. It's like being in a stationary airplane. You're in a mauve, white and silver world, with views, broken by snow-capped peaks, extending hundreds of miles in all directions. A scientific research station as well as a tourist centre, Jungfraujoch offers summer skiing, an ice palace, dog sled rides and (you'll be hungry by now) a pleasant restaurant. The day I was there, the fare, which included Goulash Soup, Bratwurst, Entrecote Steak and Spaghetti, was as international as the customers who ordered their snacks in half a dozen languages. The restaurant is anything but Four Star, but it's fun - and reasonable.

On top of Jungfrau, it's a cold, white, glistening world

The day I visited Jungfraujoch, I even took my little dog with me - paying a child's fare! One of the happy things about Europe is the sight of family pets travelling along with their masters. They are catered to, and accommodated with panache. The sight of pets on mountain trains is not unusual, but as far as I could see, my little chum was the only animal atop Switzerland's premier mountain that day. And no-one gave her a second look.