VII. Raaaain

Captain’s Log: Sunday, 9 June 2019 Distance: Bern (09:15) – Vevey (19:30), 104km Accommodation: Camping de la Maladaire Weather: … at least I didn’t take my rain clothes with me for nothing Today’s note to myself: Look at you, you didn’t need to push one hill up, respect!

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As you might have guessed already from the title, today I had almost the whole time rain. Luckily not in the morning, but after I left Bern it started and it did not really stop until I reached the campsite, and even there I needed to wait a bit for it to stop so that I could put up my tent.

I rode a bit around in Bern in the morning before leaving, and I found the Bärengrube, after my host for the night told me about it.

They have actual living bears in there, right in the city! And the do have access to a pool at the river too.

As I said, after leaving the city, the rain started and I was able to use my whole rain gear with jacket, trousers and shoe protections. I think, the latter were not made for permanent rain, but at least they did hold off most of the rain from my shoes. At some point on my route I needed to cross a river over a bridge which was under a railway. The entrance to said bridge looked like this.

I don’t know if you can actually see it on the picture, but I saw that and I just had to laugh, wondering about how on Earth I should get my bike up there with all my luggage, because it was so steep. Luckily for me, some wanderers just came there at the same time as I did, and they helped me up and at the end down again.

After the bridge, almost everything was written in French already, and later the people started to speak French as well, so, I arrived in the French part of Switzerland. Anyway, I continued riding in the rain, mostly uphill, but I did not need to push once, so I am kinda proud. Apparently the thought of putting up my tent in the rain, or going Sightseeing in the rain, is less appealing than just continuing riding my bike in the rain. At least I did not really want to stop at the place where I intended, in Gruyère, so I just went on and on until I reached the Lac Lèman, the lake where Geneva lies at. I thought, after Gruyère it was supposed to go downhill, but I was mistaken. It was still mostly up, but I managed, until I finally reached the point, like, 10km before Vevey, when it was only downhill anymore.

I searched for the camping ground, where, as I waited foe the rain to stop so that I could put up my tent, I got into talks with some lovely travellers; two Australians who were walking from Cambridge to Rome, two from Finland who got here and rented a car to drive around, and one from France, but she was able to speak really good English, I was surprised.

That is the view from the campsite and my place for breakfast tomorrow.