Switzerland

Last night, before going to sleep I had a thought. If the meeting time is 05:15 then I can’t wake at 4am as planned, I need to wake half an hour earlier, to be there in time for the warm up, and possibly earlier to pick up the running stuff.

In the end, after struggling to sleep properly I woke at 03:20 and decided that it was time to wake. I turned off the alarms and got ready. I then drove to Morges and when I got out of the car I was struck by how warm it felt. I had expected to be cold. I removed a layer and left it in the car. There was no need for it.

The hike from Aminona to Leukerbad is a 22km+ hike with 1200m+ of climbing. You begin by catching the cable car from Sierre to Crans-Montana, and then the bus to Aminona, before walking along the road for a bit, before turning right and disappearing into the woods and walking along trails that head downwards for a bit before heading up a “steep” gradient.

During the steep gradient I found myself thinking about the mechanical difference between cycling up a hill or mountain and hiking. When you’re used to cycling up hills, your cardiovascular system adapts, but so do your leg muscles. They have to lift you, the bike, and cope with gradients. In contrast, on foot, the effort is constant. We way the same at the start of a climb as the end, without changing gears. We’re biologically optimised for the climb.

If you’re like me, you might read “driving to the sun” and think I’m speaking of driving to Spain or to Southern France. This wasn’t the case today. Today, as I saw we were in the fog, or in a layer of cloud I decided that I would drive up to an island above the fog. The island, in this case was Pampigny.

You might say “but Pampigny is a village on a slope, not an island. You’re right, of course. Today though, it was an island. If you looked towards the Léman you saw low lying clouds until the Alps, and if you looked towards Neuchatel then you also saw clouds.

A few days ago I was sitting at a desk when I noticed unusual shadows on the tiles outside. I went to see what was causing them. When I looked up I saw hundreds of storks flying in circles above my home. They were heading towards Geneva. I considered getting on the bike and trying to follow them, to see if they would land. I didn’t.

Yesterday I finally had the discipline to take things to be recycled and on the way back I looked to my right, at a field, and I spotted storks again. This time I drove around, found a good place to park and then walked up to the storks to take a few photos.

This morning I woke naturally at 05:30 before getting up and ready. By 07:00 I was on the road cycling towards Geneva and I arrived 20 minutes early. By my standards that is quite close to the expected time.

Familiar Climb

I chose this ride for a simple reason. It was a climb to La Baudichonne. This is a hard, sustained bike ride. The course that we took involved 1300m of climbing. Due to my Nyon start it involved 1500m of climbing. This was a pinnacle ride, as well as a peak ride.

Yesterday I arrived to the cycling meeting place by 08:07 and the Peak group were still there, getting read to set off. It was understood that I had planned to ride with the group and I was tempted to try. The issue is that I already rode quite hard with the Wednesday group and the Thursday group.

The other issue is that they were going on a 100km ride with quite a bit of climbing so I would have struggled to keep up. I was also not ready, food and snack ride to do such a long and physical ride.

On Saturday I went for a ride with Bike Club Switzerland from Geneva. The ride itself was planned on an 80km loop that went from Geneva via Vich up to Begnings and then towards one or two more places before heading back towards la Rippe, across the top, and eventually down to Grilly and Geneva.

The Planned hike was meant to be moderate, at around 22km/h and 82km in distance. To get to the meeting point I had to cycle 22km just to start the group ride, and then 82km with the ride, and then 22km or more to get home.

On Sunday I took the car rather than the train. This allowed me to wake up slightly later, and to drive up to the meeting point within an hour. By train I would have had a half hour walk, followed by a two hour train ride. On the way back it was meant to take an hour and ten minutes but didn’t, because of a crash on the A1. I didn’t see any news about it so I don’t think it was a bad crash. It did however block the motorway. A drive that should have taken an hour then took two hours.

I considered going for yet another hike yesterday. I didn’t, for two reasons. The first reason is that I had to commit on Wednesday night and I wasn’t ready to commit on Wednesday for Saturday. The second reason is that the group has a black list for people that don’t turn up with a valid reason. I much prefer the “If you’re late we won’t wait” school of punctuality.

I decided instead to join a Bike club Switzerland ride. I have been thinking about joining them for a few weeks, but because of hikes, or logistics I didn’t bother. The logistics are ’needing a light for an evening ride’ or having to get Geneva, going for a ride, and then having to get back.

Someone suggested going to see Sinners last night so I went with the EV. I plugged the car in, started the charge and went up to the cinema. I went to see Sinners for the main reason that I haven’t seen an imax film in a long time. I haven’t seen a film at the cinema in a long time. Having said this I was at film screenings several times a week ago.