Day 11: Travel by train & bus to Rodi & walk to Faido. Travel by train to Lavorgo & walk to Giornico. Travel by bus & train to Bellinzona (MAPS 3 & 4).
After breakfast they headed to the railway station of Airolo (1141m a.s.l.), which is the highest railway station of the Swiss Federal Railways (SBB) (BAHNHOF AIROLO). There they boarded the "Treno Gottardo" to Faido. In Faido they changed to a bus and got off at Rodi "Dazio Grande".
The "Dazio Grande" is a building from the middle of the 16th century. It served as customs house for goods, transit traffic, hoarse-changing station, guesthouse, hostel and warehouse until 1803, the year when the Ticino became part of the Swiss Confederation. It remained in operation, until the Gotthard railway line was inaugurated in 1882. Nowadays, it is still open for the public as a museum and provides a rustic restaurant and overnight accommodation (DAZIO GRANDE).
From there they started their hiking, which took them along the "Via Gottardo Süd", passing by the two most impressive gorges ("Piottino" and "Biaschina"), which are shaping the landscape of the upper Ticino, and ending by the village Giornico.
Day 11: Travel by train & bus to Rodi & walk to Faido. Travel by train to Lavorgo & walk to Giornico. Travel by bus & train to Bellinzona (MAPS 3 & 4).
After breakfast they headed to the railway station of Airolo (1141m a.s.l.), which is the highest railway station of the Swiss Federal Railways (SBB) (BAHNHOF AIROLO). There they boarded the "Treno Gottardo" to Faido. In Faido they changed to a bus and got off at Rodi "Dazio Grande".
The "Dazio Grande" is a building from the middle of the 16th century. It served as customs house for goods, transit traffic, hoarse-changing station, guesthouse, hostel and warehouse until 1803, the year when the Ticino became part of the Swiss Confederation. It remained in operation, until the Gotthard railway line was inaugurated in 1882. Nowadays, it is still open for the public as a museum and provides a rustic restaurant and overnight accommodation (DAZIO GRANDE).
From there they started their hiking, which took them along the "Via Gottardo Süd", passing by the two most impressive gorges ("Piottino" and "Biaschina"), which are shaping the landscape of the upper Ticino, and ending by the village Giornico.
Day 11: Travel by train & bus to Rodi & walk to Faido. Travel by train to Lavorgo & walk to Giornico. Travel by bus & train to Bellinzona (MAPS 3 & 4).
After breakfast they headed to the railway station of Airolo (1141m a.s.l.), which is the highest railway station of the Swiss Federal Railways (SBB) (BAHNHOF AIROLO). There they boarded the "Treno Gottardo" to Faido. In Faido they changed to a bus and got off at Rodi "Dazio Grande".
The "Dazio Grande" is a building from the middle of the 16th century. It served as customs house for goods, transit traffic, hoarse-changing station, guesthouse, hostel and warehouse until 1803, the year when the Ticino became part of the Swiss Confederation. It remained in operation, until the Gotthard railway line was inaugurated in 1882. Nowadays, it is still open for the public as a museum and provides a rustic restaurant and overnight accommodation (DAZIO GRANDE).
From there they started their hiking, which took them along the "Via Gottardo Süd", passing by the two most impressive gorges ("Piottino" and "Biaschina"), which are shaping the landscape of the upper Ticino, and ending by the village Giornico.
Day 11: Travel by train & bus to Rodi & walk to Faido. Travel by train to Lavorgo & walk to Giornico. Travel by bus & train to Bellinzona (MAPS 3 & 4).
After breakfast they headed to the railway station of Airolo (1141m a.s.l.), which is the highest railway station of the Swiss Federal Railways (SBB) (BAHNHOF AIROLO). There they boarded the "Treno Gottardo" to Faido. In Faido they changed to a bus and got off at Rodi "Dazio Grande".
The "Dazio Grande" is a building from the middle of the 16th century. It served as customs house for goods, transit traffic, hoarse-changing station, guesthouse, hostel and warehouse until 1803, the year when the Ticino became part of the Swiss Confederation. It remained in operation, until the Gotthard railway line was inaugurated in 1882. Nowadays, it is still open for the public as a museum and provides a rustic restaurant and overnight accommodation (DAZIO GRANDE).
From there they started their hiking, which took them along the "Via Gottardo Süd", passing by the two most impressive gorges ("Piottino" and "Biaschina"), which are shaping the landscape of the upper Ticino, and ending by the village Giornico.
Day 11: Travel by train & bus to Rodi & walk to Faido. Travel by train to Lavorgo & walk to Giornico. Travel by bus & train to Bellinzona (MAPS 3 & 4).
After breakfast they headed to the railway station of Airolo (1141m a.s.l.), which is the highest railway station of the Swiss Federal Railways (SBB) (BAHNHOF AIROLO). There they boarded the "Treno Gottardo" to Faido. In Faido they changed to a bus and got off at Rodi "Dazio Grande".
The "Dazio Grande" is a building from the middle of the 16th century. It served as customs house for goods, transit traffic, hoarse-changing station, guesthouse, hostel and warehouse until 1803, the year when the Ticino became part of the Swiss Confederation. It remained in operation, until the Gotthard railway line was inaugurated in 1882. Nowadays, it is still open for the public as a museum and provides a rustic restaurant and overnight accommodation (DAZIO GRANDE).
From there they started their hiking, which took them along the "Via Gottardo Süd", passing by the two most impressive gorges ("Piottino" and "Biaschina"), which are shaping the landscape of the upper Ticino, and ending by the village Giornico.
Day 11: Travel by train & bus to Rodi & walk to Faido. Travel by train to Lavorgo & walk to Giornico. Travel by bus & train to Bellinzona (MAPS 3 & 4).
Day 4: Explore the track of the famous historical landslide "Goldauer Bergsturz" by foot (Map 1).
The nice weather was fortunately still holding. After breakfast the group started their walk direction to "Gribsch" (960m a.s.l.: approx. 3km distance from the hotel), where they would have a good view to the source of the historical landslide area.
The "Goldauer Bergsturz" landslide event was one of the most disastrous landslides in Switzerland. It took place on the south-facing slope of the "Rossberg" mountain in the year 1806 and was the consequence of heavy rain showers, which took place over two extremely wet years. At that time around 35-40mio. m3 rocks of the subalpine molasses, coming from the western ridge of the "Rossberg" slid, on a layer of clay and marl, into the valley. Due to this natural disaster large areas of settlement in Röthen and Goldau got buried under the enormous landslide material, where 457 people died. Some parts of the rock mass even tumbled into the "Lauerzersee" lake and released an immense tidal wave of several meters (GOLDAU BERGSTURZ).
To go there they passed by the "Tierpark Goldau", which is a popular leisure area. It was founded in 1925 and harbors approximately 100 different domestic and European animal species on a surface of 42ha and is located in a naturally kept parkland with wooded landscape overgrowing the ancient landslide area (TIERPARK GOLDAU). From there they followed a narrow path through the "Schuttwald" forest, where large blocks of rocks were alternating with a mixed deciduous woodland. It took them about an hour walk until they reached the "Sonderwaldreservat Goldauer Bergsturz", which is a special forest reserve (Figure 14). The reserve forest area harbors a natural wealth of different plant and animal species (SONDERWALDRESERVAT).
_corr.jpg)
Figure 14: Special forest reserve with view to the source of the famous historical landslide "Goldauer Bergsturz"
From there they followed a marked circular trail through the pioneer landscape, where vegetation reinvades its origin habitat. On their path they spotted several orchids, among others, "Gelbe Frauenschuh Cypripedium calceolus" (Figure 15).
Figure 15: Special forest reserve with Cypripedium calceolus
After visiting the source of the landslide event, they followed the same path back to Goldau, and from there they continued through the area where the landslide event has deposited large rocks direction to the next village Lauerz (approx. 4km distance from Goldau).
This area is called the "Lauerzersee-Sägel -Schutt" nature reserve (LAUERZERSEE-SÄGEL-SCHUTT). Huge rocks, which have been overgrown by patches of forests, are predominating the landscape. Along their path were several small ponds with sea roses, which grew in small hollows from the collected ground- and seepage water. The deposited rocks provided several habitats for different plant species, therefore vegetation was rich and diverse (Figure 16).
Figure 16: "Lauerzersee-Sägel-Schutt" nature reserve with Gymnadenia conopsea orchid (right picture)
When they reached the charming village of Lauerz it was just the right time for their pick-nick lunch and to enjoy a swim. Thanks to the refreshing swim everybody was again energized to continue the walk back to Goldau. From the shore their path went over wooden bridges, then they came across a pond, the "Seerosenweiher" (Figure 17), with a wealth of water lilies.
Figure 17: Nature reserve "Lauerzersee-Sägel-Schutt" between Goldau and Lauerz with the "Seerosenweiher" pond (right picture)
From the "Seerosenweiher" they walked to the forest and came across another small lake, the "Goldseeli" (Figure 18), which is also a result of the ancient land slide and rock fall event. The lake is a large hollow, where ground water was collected in the huge rock fragments (PRONATURA-SZ.CH).
Figure 18: "Goldseeli" lake
The group had an hour free time, so that everyone gets a chance to enjoy and admire the beauty of the habitat surrounding the lake on his own. Then it was time to move on and return back to Goldau by following a steep small path through the forest.
​
Back at their hotel it got later than originally planned. So they decided to eat dinner in the hotel and Daniela gave a short briefing regarding the next day's program.