We visited the salt mines in Bex where they have been producing sel des Alpes for centuries.
Early passages and caverns were chiseled by hand and the marks are evident.
We took the miner's train into the mine. These are working salt mines and the miners take these same trains into the mine at 6am every morning. They go another 2km past where we got off.
Sam loved the mining bulldozer
They age wine in one of the old rooms of the mine.
Salt crystals were evident on the ceilings on some of the rooms.
Spring water filtered down through the mountain was saturated with salt - equivalent to the Dead Sea. Mmmm, tasty!
Mining motorcycles.
Boring a wooden pipe for flooding the caverns to extract salt. Metal would rust. Today they use high pressure injection to dissolve the salt for extraction.
Hammer and chisel is tough work!
On the miner's train on the way back we got the outside seats. The tunnels are close quarters!
For scale...the tiny miner's train.
The entrance to the mine.
And a little treat for us on the drive back...snow!
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