16 July 2025 (cloud, sun, drizzle, rain) 63km

Woke in our lovely tent pitch, high in the mountains, to no rain, but clouds gathering. It was 5.16am and we were the first and only ones to break camp early.

Just as we were finishing loading the bikes, a Swiss guy, who's wife Julia had been talking to last night, came down to the benches to have his morning coffee. We slipped silently away. 

Big day today. Lots of climbing, but through beautiful scenery. It began straight away. We pedalled down the driveway and into the gorge we had finished the day before in.

As you can imagine, we were stopping every couple of minutes, as one after another view appeared round every corner.

You can see the switchbacks we'd just ridden down behind Pete.

At this point it was 6.50am and the road was busy with people going to work, so we had to be aware of where we stopped.

On the far side of the gorge, we met a scientist who had worked on the Covid virus.

He was right into the history of this section of country, living just down the highway in Bonaduz.

Was telling us about the mountains collapsing 9500 years ago, causing a dam to form.

Trouble was he wasn't that comfortable with English and it was taking him 9500 years to explain.

Anyway, we managed to shut him up
when Julia suggested he take a photo of us, as we don't get photos of both.of us very often.

The view of the gorge behind us was stunning, but the guy was virtually on his knees taking a shot of our faces, with no scenery in sight.

We eventually got him to take a better shot, but common sense to him will probably be another 9500 years away. 

At this point we had spent a lot of time climbing and weaving our way through this magnificent landscape, but now we were on our way downward for about 5kms, into the town of Bonaduz. 

Here we bought some breakfast, found a very nice little park and enjoyed our meal.

Took a little track out of town and found another supermarket on the other side of town and bought our lunch supplies.

As with most of our trips, food is first on our "to do" list.

It was while we were here that Regeena cycled up.

She was going the same way as us, but the section of road we were taking, she had travelled before and found it too busy.

Consequently, she was taking a train for part of the journey and meeting us at the campsite tonight.

Further out of town, she took a track and we took the main road, which was running smoothly and without too many vehicles. 

At one stage we diverted off that road to bypass a busy town and a lovely Swiss lady, who spoke no English, helped guide us back to the main road.

Funny thing was, we knew exactly where we were, but didn't have the heart to tell her. 

Not too much further on we encountered our first tunnel of the day.

In Norway in 2023, we rode a lot of tunnels, but it doesn't matter how many you do, they are not enjoyable at all. With sounds of heavy trucks echoing off the walls as they drive through and cars coming up from behind at a fast rate, it is truly scary.

Fortunately, we only had two to contend with, one 450m long but the second one was 1.1kms. They were both well lit but the noise is so disorienting , you really have to hold your nerves and hold your line while the sound waves reverberate off the tunnel walls all around you.

Lots of electric cars, e-bikes, electric rubbish trucks as well as phones and computers. All the power needs to come from somewhere. Power pylons aplenty and we cycled above this dam to get over the third tunnel.

It was with relief we came out of that second tunnel and were able to take a small road up and over the third tunnel. Yes, it meant some climbing, but so much nicer than the main road.

We’d no sooner climbed up and we were plunged down into another valley. This was a real rollercoaster ride today. It was a steep descent into the village of Tiefencastel to face another climb out to Surava.

You might just be able to see that Julia has had a pass named after her. They didn't quite get the spelling right, but not bad. All I got was a loaf of bread.

From there we took a river gravel track, passing a camp full of teenagers on a holiday camp.

A bit further along we found a sunny bench with a view over the river where we decided to eat lunch.

We encountered a few spits of rain and were preparing to don our coats, but the sky cleared and we cycled on down the track , passing a nice looking golf course.

We decided to divert off the track into the town of Filisur where there was a Co-op. They didn't open for twenty minutes so utilized the time using the Co-op WiFi, doing the blog and photos.

Had ice cream and drink when they opened and finally finished the blog and posted it.

Shopped for dinner and decided to continue on the main road from here as it wasn't too busy, had a great surface and was direct. 

That was a brilliant decision as we had not only our toughest climb yet, but some special views, which we would have missed out on, had we gone back to the forest gravel track. Also, climbing that hill on gravel would have been a nightmare.

The road was another popular one for motorists and motorbikes as it wound it's way through the mountains, with stunning views all the way. Lucky for us there were little spaces we could pull off the road to have a breather and get some photos as there was one tempting shot after another as we edged closer to the top.

We were very high up here and amongst the massive mountains, we could see some rain clouds unloading a downpour in the distance.

We were wondering if we were getting rain spots ourselves, but it was just us, dripping in sweat.

Reached the top of the climb and asked a young German guy, (Sebastian) who was with his mum and dad, if he'd take a photo for us.

He was great.

Teenager who knew his way around a phone camera and he rattled of some shots, before we all carried on with our journey. 

The road evened out a bit and we cycled past your typical, beautifully kept French farms into a village and realized it was the village where the camp was. We couldn't believe we were finally there.

And what a village. Bergun was another of those absolute stand out villages, where every building was restored beautifully with flowers overflowing on every window box. A real delight to wander through.

After stocking up at the local shop, we cycled up through and out the other side to the campground.

Had a nice chat with the managers of the camp. A retired Swiss couple, they moved from Italy where they were living, due to the heat, up here and were asked to run the camp.

They've been here now four years and love it.

Regeena welcomed us with some beer and wine and we sat in a little hut, chatting and drinking/eating.

Also had fun with two Swiss girls flatting together in Berlin, Lio and Raja.

They've been hiking in the mountains and we all shared stories and had a laugh. It was a fun night but at 9pm we all retired for the evening.

It had been raining since 5pm.

Julia managed a luke warm shower before dinner, but I didn't get in early enough, so no hot water.

It was too cold for a cold shower as the temperature had dropped, so I went to bed clammy.

Slept well, but the rain continued throughout the night.