Yesterday's outing was to the same two cascades I visited two weeks ago. It had stopped raining a week ago and temperatures had dropped significantly. This morning it was minus 8C so I brought my Canadian winter Wellingtons, still fearing there might be rough hiking conditions. When parking my car a couple of kilometres from the violent cascade in the Orbe river close to Vallorbe I could not hear the sounds of running water like last time and indeed, what a contrast! Just for fun I have picked a couple of our previous photos for comparison. This is looking up and down from the bridge suspended above the cascade.

The entrance to the tunnel below the cascade was partly obstructed by mighty ice stalactites and I could now shoot from downstream the waterfall without being soaked. The water level in the river had sunk by well over a meter.

It was peaceful and the sun was shining from the pale blue St Valentine sky. It was time to hike back to the car and drive the 10 kilometres to the Nozon river to check out if everything had frozen. Oh yes, the ice stalactites were even mightier here, hanging over the little river on its way to the cascade, now partly frozen and spreading freezing mist all around the canyon.

I was glad having put on my Wellingtons because here there was almost as much mud as last time. Stay tuned for more from wintery Switzerland.

We have not been out shooting for a long time, partly because of our semi-confinement and more importantly because of awful weather with masses of snow and rain falling over Switzerland. The daily avalanche reports signal 5/5 in the Alps and people even get buried under meters of snow in the Jura mountains. This is most unusual. Over the past coupe of days the temperature has risen and it has been raining continuously below 2000m altitude. All rivers are overflowing so it was time to get out our cameras and check out a couple of the nearby rivers this past week end when it stopped raining for a couple of hours. We first drove to the Nozon river close to the medieval village of Romainmôtier. I could hear the waterfall several kilometres away and during the approach I could observe the little river being full and the small power stations in full activity.

The rain had made the small path leading to the cascade muddy and slippery and it got only worse when approaching the uppermost part of the waterfall and while walking down the winding path to its base. The water was roaring down into a small lake some 20m below. When I got down I had mud even in my shoes that were not really well chosen for this excursion...

It was time to return to the car through the mud and clean off the worst before attacking the road to the next river, the Orbe, with its violent canyon, some 10 km further to the north, in the outskirts of the village of Vallorbe. Like with the Nozon, I could hear the roaming water from far away. The hike down to the waterfall was less muddy but water was flowing from everywhere down into the river bed. The sight of the rapidly running water was overwhelming with big clouds of vapour being thrown high up into the sky.

Looking up and down the water fall from a narrow bridge built just above the present water surface was impressive.

There is a tunnel under the cascade, allowing visitors to pass over to the other side. You can look out from the tunnel just before coming ashore on the other side and experience the running water a meter away only.

I walked back thought the tunnel and then followed the river downstream while getting completely soaked by the massive amount of water particles in the air and get a shot of the cascade from the south.

It was a long way back to the car, hiking uphill, but the idea of the Mercedes bar being open and serving a cold been from Spitzbergen invigorated me. It was time to return home but not until I had visited the last cascade of the day, close to home in Crissier, one of the western suburbs of Lausanne. What a quiet contrast to the two others...

Stay tune for more adventures from winter in Switzerland.