14 July 2025 (rainy morning, sun and clouds in arvo) 48km

It rained throughout the night and all morning. When we finally stuck our heads out of the tent at 10am to walk to the supermarket, it was eleven degrees and it had just stopped raining.  The fly sheet took a hammering last night, but thankfully Nessie is keeping us warm and dry. It was a miserable outlook over the mountains and valley and all the while we were thinking about having to stay another day, everyone else was packing up and shipping out. 

But aside from not wanting to cycle in the rain because it's unpleasant, we would not be able to see any of the mountain scenery we were cycling through, so what's the point in slogging your guts out if you can't see what you came all this way to see? The surrounding mountains are all between 2,500 and 3,000 metres so we figured when the rain cleared, they would look pretty stunning. 

Got what we needed for the day from the town shop and back to the tent for a late breakfast. Whilst Julia was in the ladies, I spoke to two young Danish guys. They've just done three weeks and 3,000 kms, in a car of course, but nice guys. We were talking about how expensive Switzerland is and they were saying it's well known as the most expensive country in Europe. We can well believe that. 

As the time passed, the skies cleared and there were even patches of blue and the odd bit of sunshine. Even the flysheet was nearly dry as there had been a slight wind this morning and we were on the road at 12.15pm. 

First up, a 640 metre climb out of Andermatt, a famous ski resort.  We lost track of the amount of switchbacks, as we started up to the Oberalpass, but we now had amazing views of mountains and valleys and Andermatt itself.

We passed several skifields and as we were struggling up the switchbacks, we had a train chug up beside us, fully laden with passengers obviously dining as they went.  As we were slogging it out up the incline, we thought we'd give them a wave, to break up the monotony.

Not expecting much response, we were staggered when everyone on the train began waving and as they were taking the same bends as us, they had to go a little wider, consequently they kept on waving. 

Well, that was a real morale booster for us. This train rolling slowly along, with two cyclists, pedalling in a high gear, so legs are spinning and we're all waving to each other. What a blast. Really made us smile, and them too!  It was shortly after that we rounded a bend, thinking that was the summit. Wrong..... You would think we would learn. Another three kilometre stretch of testing incline awaited us. 

I haven't mentioned the traffic yet. When we started, even at 12pm, the traffic was light. We thought that maybe because it was a Monday, people were back at work.  Wrong.....an hour into the climb, they were flying past. Maybe the rainy weather this morning put the motorists off as well?

We again encountered guys who fling their cars around all the bends, believing they are on a racetrack.  At one point an oncoming driver overtook another car. I watched in horror as this guy came straight at Julia and only just veered away.

Anyone thinking that I should be in front may think I have planned it this way, but No...I ride at the back, to protect her, like a rearguard defence.  Placing my life on the line, for the woman I love. The fact that I increased Julia's life insurance before we left, is purely coincidental.

We reached the top of the Oberalpass at 2048 metres in less than two hours, which we were pretty pleased with. We were very grateful that we'd managed to dodge all the rain as it's very unpleasant, sweaty work, cycling uphill in rain gear. We were happy we could do it in shorts and t-shirts. 

At the top though it was very cool and we had our descent to come. In preparation for this we put on cycling longs, coats and gloves and glided downhill for 38 kilometres. The first 5km were very steep hairpin bends with brick walls at the end of each corner with a massive drop on the other side. This made us very cautious with our downhill speed, especially because despite the gloves, our hands were getting cold and losing feeling. We had to keep squeezing the brakes to make sure they were still working and our hands were still working too!

As the descent became not quite so steep that it needed every bit of our attention, we noticed a white helicopter flying around us, with a red bucket dangling underneath it at the end of a long rope. He was flying up and down the mountain and appeared to be looking for us. I wondered if he somehow knew we didn't get breakfast until 10am this morning and it was now 1.30pm so he was looking to bring in emergency supplies.

And then it hit me. Ernst and Margrit had sent up a picnic basket! I'd no sooner told Pete what I thought and the helicopter started descending to a valley just below us….to a concrete truck. There he deposited his now empty red bucket and picked up a full bucket of concrete and flew it up the mountain. That bucket circled around below him but I guess the centrifugal force kept the concrete in there. This pilot was slick and was back to swap his empty for a full one in no time. A bit disappointing when we realized it was not in fact a picnic, but fascinating to see in action.

As we descended on this beautiful, smooth, tarmac road, we rounded a bend to see a long, lush, green valley, stretching down into the distance with all these chocolate box Swiss houses dotted around the countryside. There was one picturesque village after another and it was lucky there were so many power lines ruining pictures for us or you could have been subjected to three times the amount of photos.

Cruising into the scenic alpine town of Camischolas, we pulled over for lunch, close to a cafe/restaurant, but with a separate bench to eat our lunch on. By now the sun was shining in full force with only the odd cloud. We gratefully sat on our chosen bench and let it warm us up as we ate. Our fingers went from white, to reddy purple, to a healthy pink as we sipped our milky coffee at the end of another delicious meal. Just Philadelphia cheese and tomato on bread for Pete and my gluten free crackers for me from Margrit and Ernst, but after all that work, it tasted so good!

Noticed the Police and Ambulance were in attendance at a flat, just above were we were sitting.  At one stage another guy turned up, we believe him to be the coroner, as after he arrived, the rest took off.

I herein surmise your honour that the said victim was dead before the arrival of the transient pair of hungry bikepackers.  The fact that the rest of the neighbourhood could smell the tasty aroma of freshly baked apple strudel, but there was only a crumb strewn plate left on the window sill of the deceased's home was most certainly just a coincidence.

Pedalled on and further downhill with our full tummies, now in the Swiss valleys....beautiful.

Arrived in Disentis/Munster and had to ride two kilometres downhill to get to the camp for the night. Was not looking forward to cycling up that in the morning. 

Then the lovely guy in reception told us the price.....CHF56, that's NZ $120!!  It's just a tent pitch, not a bloody apartment.  No freaking way! I told them they were the most expensive camp we'd been to in six weeks and said sorry, (very sorry, as we now had another 2km climb to add to our day), but we're going back to town where we'd seen a room for 40 CHF advertised.

I was still swearing when we reached the top of the climb and then we had to ride another km back up through town to find the cheap room. Well we either didn't pedal far enough or they had taken the sign in. Stopped at another hotel to enquire and they were charging $300NZ, so we rode on, looking for freecamps.

We pedalled for another 10kms and from high up on the road at Sumvitg, we spied a camping ground, so cycled a kilometre down to it.  So we have that uphill ride waiting for us first thing tomorrow.  The camp was quiet and lovely.

After setting up camp, Julia showered, I did some bike maintenance, then we ate, before Julia cooked dinner and I wrote the blog.  After a shower for me, while Ju added to the blog, it was into bed before 10pm. I hope the fact that we have a train station just below us won't interfere with our sleep.