Geneva Hiking with Dogs - May 2022 - Bois de la Bâtie, GE

I happen to also be the organiser of a group called Geneva Hiking with Dogs, which I do on a voluntary basis and has been running for a little over five years now!

Walks generally take place around once a month, and I try to do them in different locations to encourage people living in all corners of Geneva and the surrounding areas to attend. It has been less frequent over the last couple of years due to various restrictions put in place thanks to COVID, but these walks/hikes continue to be the highlight of my weekend when I am able to organise them. After organising these hikes intermittently, I hope to get back to a regular schedule of monthly walks!

If you are interested in joining one of the walks, you will find the group on meetup.com, Facebook and glocals.com where I post any walks being organised. We would love to see you on one of the walks and discover new walks together.

From April 1st until July 15th is fawning season in Geneva Canton, meaning that dogs are not allowed off the leash in woods and forests to allow animals to reproduce in peace. This means I am restricted to leash-free zones where dogs are allowed to be off the leash year-round so Bois de la Bâtie tends to be one of my regular spots during this season. You can find the full map of leash-free zones in Geneva here.

We met at the dog park which is the big field directly in front of Sadara buvette right in the middle of the woods. There were already a bunch of dog owners gathered for their usual dog walk there so I was worried I would end up leaving some people behind or recruiting unwitting dog owners by accident to the group walk!

We had 7 high energy dogs who were ready to use up some energy! We had some new faces join us this month which is always nice and some regulars who I’ve had the pleasure of having join the walks over the years.

We headed off past the zoo and cemetery until taking the staircase up to Pont Butin and went across to the other side of the Rhone. Both sides of this section is a leash-free zone so a great option for fawning season if you still want to feel like you are having a walk in nature.

For a detailed route of the walk, click here.

Impressive view from Pont Butin

Once we made it over the Pont Butin, we take the little path that brings you to the other side of the Rhone. We keep taking the path that heads towards the river and eventually you descend down to a lovely beach where all the dogs enjoyed a paddle and cool down. Watch out for those swans though!

Here I tried to get a group shot of all the dogs and their owners, which is always a hilarious challenge!

We kept walking along the river until we meet a building covered in graffiti, we then took the stairs up to join the viaduct. This is always a nice spot for some touristic photos as the viaduct runs directly over the junction of the Arve and Rhone rivers.

Once over the viaduct, we pop out by the Café de la Tour restaurant which also seemed inundated with dog walkers enjoying the sunshine.

We made our way back to Sadara for a post-walk coffee and cake, a perfect way to finish off this walk!

All the dogs seemed happy and tired (although seemingly with plenty of energy to keep going!) so I call it a successful walk.

I look forward to the next hike and maybe see some of you there!

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