7 July 2025 (cloudy with rain, windy) 50km

Last night it went cold and I was more than happy to retire at 9.30pm to the comfort of our little tent.

The rain was on and off all night, but when Julia and I popped over to the loos at 4.30am it was still drizzling. 

Just before we started to pack up the tent, I noticed a ripple of wind under the flysheet, appearing to come from the southwest, which meant one thing. I glanced at Ju to see if she noticed, but she was deliberately averting her gaze from me. That was a sure sign that she too had noticed, and knew that when we started riding, we would have a tailwind.

The reason she wouldn't make eye contact is there is an unwritten code with cycle touring. If you should be so lucky as to have a tailwind, (because it almost NEVER happens), don't mention the tailwind or refer to it in anyway. If you do, not only will it disappear, but it will change direction and double in strength.

So in no time we had our wet tent packed up and headed up the inclined driveway to get on our way before the tailwind disappeared.

Across the road was the cycle way and wouldn't you know it, a ruddy great hill to start the mornings campaign. 

Still, it wasn't raining, and we had a tailwind!

The terrain though was letting us know that we had a tough ride in store. Some climbs were short, but extremely steep. 

Didn't take long and the lake we had camped beside completely disappeared from view. It's down in the valley somewhere.

Others were a nicer gradient but long and then there were those in between. The countryside was your typical Swiss terrain. Crops and or cows in the foreground with trees splattered around and climbing up the mountainside. No big rock faces today, but lovely all the same.

Julia was doing really well on the climbs and her route was giving us a selection of everything, from higher riding along the ridges, with steep downhill descent, to valley riding through tiny hamlets, decorated with your Swiss style homes.

As we came down one of our descents, there at the side of the road were some wallabies, cats, chickens and rabbits, in an enclosure.

The owner, a German guy told us a story about the kangaroos, which they definitely weren't, but he was a jovial sort, so we laughed and pretended we understood and then rode on. 

We had picked up breakfast at a Co-op in the small village of Treyvaux, but with nowhere to enjoy eating, we carried on. We saw three wild deer this morning and yesterday saw two storks, stalking about in a farmer's field.

Most hamlets don't have your parks with benches, so today we breakfasted in a bus stop in Ferpicloz. No one waiting for the bus, as has happened on occasion elsewhere and we enjoyed our usual delicious meal and watched the rain clouds moving overhead. 

At 10am we began our second session of the day and it was tough. Plenty of steep climbs, long descents and repeat.

It was after one of these such sessions at the summit that we took shelter in a farmers machinery shed, with two massive trailers of some sort, to wait out the rain squalls that came through.

Twenty minutes later, having been looking at a road winding up another steep hill from our hideout, Julia suddenly says,

"I don't think we have to go that way."

On Mapy, she had found a beautiful undulating valley, through which we rode with big smiles and a lot of relief. 

Now on our way to Neuenegg, where we could pick up lunch and dinner from a selection of supermarkets, Mapy sent us along a beautiful small road, but then it became someone's driveway then we had to cycle through their front lawn, in through the front door and then out the back past them sunbathing by the pool……well, not quite, but you get the idea. At the end of the road was a driveway on the left and a steep downhill slippery walking track.

It was so steep in fact that we couldn't ride it and had to apply our brakes whilst walking the bikes the whole way down. 

Neuenegg appeared at the bottom and we rode leisurely to the first supermarket. 

The biggest difference we noticed today in Switzerland, was the change in language from French, to German. Not sure just where they decided to go from French speaking Swiss to German speaking, but it is a real oddity to have the language change mid-country.

The other huge difference we've found in Switzerland are the prices. It is seriously expensive.

Food and accommodation of course for us are what we are spending our money on and whereas France was similar to NZ. Switzerland is off the planet. 

We have also noticed a massive improvement with the roading surface. Even the bike lanes were smooth as silk today and made for very pleasant riding.

Just out of town was a campground and as we'd done 50kms of tough riding, we decided to hold up here for the night.

At first we couldn't find anyone to check us in, but when we did, a couple of very nice guys got us sorted.

The price was CHF33, but we gave him cash and he let us in for 30.

His offsider Marcos, was a really helpful guy and set us up with our pitch and gave us useful info.

He has worked here for eight years over summer and spends winter in Spain or Portugal for the other six months, with his little thirteen year old French bulldog Nala, who he adores.

He was saying this is his last year here as they have sold some land off to build fifteen houses. Three of them had already been completed. Just one bedroom homes, but well presented. 

Tent up and we started our late lunch on the bench outside but half way through lunch, we adjourned to the tent, when the rain and thunder started rolling in.

Temperature also took a massive drop. So much so that Ju got her thermal pants on.

Now guys, we appreciate the fact that you've probably all been praying for it to get a bit cooler for us, but you need to figure out a roster because with you all doing it at once, you've been far too effective. 

Here we were thinking we could have left all our winter clothes behind with all the outrageously hot weather we've been getting and two days of your prayers and it feels like a NZ winter. Save your prayers for those that really need it, like QPR football team. Or the Warriors. 

We were going to go and get something to drink, but we've got all we need for dinner, so we'll see.

By 5pm, it was throwing it down, so we just lay around. Talked about tomorrow's route options. How long it will take us to get to Margrit and Ernst's house near Lucerne.

They are friends of Dad's and have invited us to stay.

The weather that came through at 5pm is expected tomorrow as well.

Hopefully we'll be lucky and avoid most or all of it, but Wednesday when we're cycling to their house, is supposed to be sunny again, but not quite as hot. 

Just after 6pm we rode the couple of kms back into town for a few supplies and then back to camp where we cooked up Chilli con carne with lentils and rice. It was delicious and just what the doctor ordered on a cold night.

Finished off with a hot milky coffee and some chocolate and thought how nice it was to enjoy those things again when previously it's just been too hot.

Jumped into our sleeping bags at 9.30pm as the rain danced on the flysheet.