After watching more than a dozen of their friends being swept to their deaths in the worst-ever disaster in the adrenaline sport of canyoning, two South African cousins have retreated into the arms of relatives in Amsterdam.
Pretoria residents Denise Buiten and Werner van Gruenewaldt, both 18, travelled to the Netherlands on Friday after trauma counselling. Now they must try to come to terms with what happened this week in the picturesque Saxentenbach gorge in the Swiss Alps.
The families of two other South Africans, Jan du Raan and Carolynn Grieg, whose battered bodies were recovered from their watery graves, have flown to Switzerland to help identify the dead and make burial or cremation arrangements.
One other South African, an unidentified man who lives in London, is among the survivors.
The five South Africans were among a group of 50 holidaymakers from Australia, New Zealand, the United States and Britain who were swept away by a flash flood while canyoning through the narrow gorge near Interlaken. A total of 21 lives were lost.
The victims were mainly spirited youngsters hovering between the carefree days of school and the responsibility of adulthood. They had travelled through Europe on a Contiki tour.
While at a resort near Interlaken, south-east of Bern, and at the end of a 21-day sojourn, they were offered a choice of two optional extras. They could go up the Jungfrau peak by funicular rail or try canyoning, a risky business of sliding, jumping and abseiling down water courses.
Persuaded
Forty-four people - 36 tourists in four teams with two guides for each team - went canyoning.
According to Werner's brother Robert, 21, he and Denise had initially decided to spend the day at the resort, but were persuaded at the last minute to join their friends on the Luetschine river.
It was a decision that could have cost them their lives. But fate was on their side, as they were part of the second group of canyoners and were higher up the gorge when the wall of water suddenly smashed its way downstream.
"They were on a ledge and were about to abseil down when they heard a noise from behind, and then saw this huge wall of water heading for them.
"They grabbed onto trees and were swept down a bit, but managed to get higher up," he said.
Denise's mother, Gesine Buiten, said the stricken survivors waited an hour before rescuers could get to them.
The traumatised tourists were kept together for days as investigators questioned everyone about safety aspects, particularly the weather conditions at the time.
"Denise called at midnight on Tuesday and told her father what had happened. She was tearful because by then she already knew that 13 members of her group had been killed.
"Only when I saw the television news coverage did I realise the magnitude of it all.
"Our hearts go out to the families of those killed," she said.
Werner, who has been upset by the loss of his new friends, had joined up with his cousin after spending this year tutoring at a school in the UK.
The family of Jan du Raan, 29, of Panorama, Cape Town, are in Switzerland, where they have been asked to help identify the bodies.
Police
On Thursday morning Rosemary Greig of Durban North got the call every parent dreads. It was the Swiss police, saying they had recovered the body of a young woman and were almost certain it was that of her daughter Carolynn.
The family have flown to Switzerland with their daughter's dental and medical records, to be used for final confirmation of the identification.
Carolynn was in London on a working visa and was taking a well-deserved break after her studies.
"She had just completed her articles, and this trip was an opportunity for her to see a little bit of the world. She had worked so hard and just wanted some time off," Greig said.
Catherine Goodwin, director of Contiki Southern Africa, said it was too early to comment on the safety aspects of the canyoning operation.
"There is always an element of risk in such adrenaline sports, but 10 000 clients have done canyoning over the past four years and we have never believed it to be a danger to them.
"Adventure World, which specialises in canyoning, is run by local Swiss operators," she said.
Ever since the incident hit the news Goodwin has fielded calls from frantic parents, but through a process of elimination she narrowed her list of possible fatalities down to five.
Only later in the week did it emerge that Jan du Raan of Cape Town and Carolyn Grieg of Durban were among those killed.
Surprisingly few of the survivors suffered serious injuries, but they carry terrifying memories of being sucked into a maelstrom of boulders, trees and muddy water. They fluctuate between acceptance of their loss and disbelief only they can know.