6 July 2025 (sun and cloudy morning, cool, cloudy arvo with some rain and wind) 58km

Being in Montreux while the jazz festival was on, managing to get a pitch on a very busy campground on the Saturday night of the festival, and with the city putting on free transport to get to the festival, we felt there was only one thing to do last night. Yep, go to bed at 9.30pm.

We did toy with the idea of going in especially when we heard the great names that would be playing. Diana Ross, Neil Diamond, Neil Young, Chaka Khan. Then we realized if we picked the right rest home in five years we'd probably get to hear them all for free anyway.

We couldn't distinguish songs as the music drifted across the lake last night, but it was a pleasant vibe on a summer's night.

We heard that the Festival organizers have said that this is the last festival that will be held down on the lakefront in Montreux and instead it will be moved elsewhere within the city.

We were very glad we'd had the early night when we woke at 5am this morning. We had three tents in close proximity, so we "stealth" packed. We were out of there before anyone could say,

"Hey you noisy Kiwi bastards. What's with all the noise at 5am? And why are you getting up so early anyway? Hasn't anybody told you that you're on holiday?" 

The very photogenic Castillon Chateau from the 13th century.

Rode around the lakefront checking out the real estate and attractions. Strange to think that even with a very well paid job, you couldn't even think about what it would take to buy one of these places.

Rode past the Casino and imagined how much money is lost there by people gambling every year. Past the Palace Hotel, where some of your big name Headline acts are probably staying as we speak. Aptly named, the building looks more like a palace than a magnificent hotel.

The cars in the drop off area out front were Porsche, Bentley, Mercedes.

No bloody Mazda MPV for Neil Young or Diamond.

Having said that riding in my car, with a 9.1 longboard from back to front, a boogie board, two wet suit buckets complete with wet suits and then our beach gear, certainly is an experience they'd never forget.

Cycled along the lake after leaving some of last night's revellers sleeping it off on park benches or just the ground and into Vevey.

Supposedly the poorer relation here, but not lakefront.

Sat on a nice bench by the "Vevey Chateau" and watched two guys cleaning the barbecue equipment, empty the rubbish bins and clean around the benches.

Julia even told them what a great job they were doing, which got her "Brownie" points and two big smiles..

I just yelled, "Hey.. you missed a bit!" 

It was here that we checked out a small superette for breakfast, but as Julia said we only had twelve kms to go to the next one and those kms were all uphill.

So we thought better of filling our stomachs and having our digestive system working overtime, whilst trying to slog our way uphill. 

And slogging uphill we did. It was a nice little tester for things to come and had everything.

Firstly it was straight up, then a few twists and turns and finally a nicer gradient.

Still hard work, which went from tarmac to rocky gravel. 

It was whilst on the gravel that we met a lovely, older lady with a Bernese Mountain dog called "Trouf".

She was stunning in looks and beautiful in nature (the dog, not the lady) and it's easy to see why Toff and Linda love their Bernese so much.

Although, eleven of them...that's a "whole lotta lovin". The lady owner was impressed when we told her about our mad dog breeding friends in NZ. We saw another Berner yesterday but he was looking decidedly scruffy, hot and bothered, so we didn't photograph him. This lady was carrying Trouf’s brush as they walked. Very committed to looking after her.

By the time we'd completed the climb, we were now well up in the mountains in the town of Chatel St. Denis (not the first town with this name we've come across).

This was where Julia had earmarked a Migros supermarket to buy breakfast and the remainder of the day's food. 

After the 500 metre climb in the morning sun, we were dripping with sweat and ravenous.

I could have eaten an elephant, tusks and all.

However....the supermarket was in a shopping complex...which was closed.

We were both devastated, Julia probably more than me, as she was looking forward to seeing me eat a whole elephant.

Rode dejectedly into the town centre and spied a cafe.

No good for Julia, being gluten free, but the girl said there was a small shop opposite.

Popped over there and whilst I waited with the bikes, Julia found said shop, which sold her four eggs, some bread for me and two small yoghurts to go with our cereal (gluten free) and prunes (to keep us regular). 

These water fountains used to be in every village but due to water testing, they have realized many weren't up to spec and have simply turned the water off instead of replacing the pipes in the French villages. They seem to be more plentiful in Switzerland.

While I remained outside, a young guy, Alexis came by with his two year old and we got talking about travel and his village.

He pointed at a huge mountain which is a skifield.

However, in recent years the normal two month ski season has been reduced to a month and the summer temperatures of 25 - 28, have increased to 35 degrees plus.

We asked if there was a park we could eat in and as he was going there himself, we all wandered over.

Whilst Tibo, his son, played, we casually chatted from time to time with Alexis. 

Since we'd arrived in town the weather had become cooler, with a look of rain. The sky was cloudy and it was the first time we hadn't sought out shade while we ate for weeks.

We hadn't ridden more than 300 metres up the road on our way out of town, when we found a supermarket, which was open.

Well we weren't going to turn down this opportunity to stock up for the day as shops looked pretty sparse for the next 100km and with it being Sunday, you could never be sure if they'd be open or not.

Looking at Mapy, we saw we had got the bulk of today's climbing out of the way so we now enjoyed typical, lovely Swiss countryside, with fantastic mountain views.

We were enjoying the rolling countryside, but there were now light spits, which turned to light rain.

Not enough to get the jackets out, but enough to move along a little faster.

We seemed to be just keeping ahead of the main rainclouds and in all honesty, it was so nice to have a change in temperature and weather and some clouds in the sky.

Reached the campground, down a hill, so that means tomorrow we'll be getting a sweat on back to the road out. We arrived at 2pm and checked in.

Well I nearly "checked out", literally when the receptionist said CHF 46.

That's basically NZ $100!

Jesus, I thought up in the hills it would be cheaper.

It was only CHF36 in Montreux.

With no other option, we set up camp. And just in time. 

The rain that had been chasing us for the past two hours with sporadic spits, now moved in.

Got the tent up and our power banks on to charge and then snuggled in the tent while the rain came down. Not that heavy, but heavy enough to be glad we had shelter. We made a hot cup of coffee and ate some nuts and half a banana and had a nap. We enjoyed the feeling of being snug in our tent instead of feeling like you're in a sauna!

Once awake, Ju showered and washed some clothes, before we walked up to reception for an ice cream. We sat in a little covered area on top of the toilet block which is the only place you can get reception and it was actually cool enough for Ju to put her polar fleece on.

Back to the tent at 7pm to cook rice and mackerel for dinner with tomato and avocado. But our month old stove decided not to ignite. So we approached the neighbours to see if they had a lighter we could borrow. They didn't, but they had matches, so got the stove going and had a coffee after and then returned the matches to them.

They were Swiss and had been in New Plymouth in January! So had a bit of a chat and then back to the freezing WiFi reception zone where we had a bit of a chat with Brody before posting the blog and heading to bed. The rain by now had moved in for the night. Definitely going to need the sleeping bags tonight.