A Pleasant Hike Along the Rive Droite

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When you drive around Geneva or walk in the centre it is easy to see Geneva as an urban place with little to offer in terms of nature. If you get on a bike, and ride around you will find vineyards, fields, viticultural villages and more.

Yesterday I led a meetup group as we did the reverse Rive Droite walk. My rational was that if it does start to rain it makes sense to be close to Geneva, rather than La Plaine. We were hit by heavy rain, and could hear thunder, and see lightning as we got close to the Hospital of La Tour.

From La Plaine you walk upwards, away from the river into the vineyards, and from there you walk across a few fields before passing a village or two and re-entering a forest with plenty of signs encouraging to see nature as a living ecosystem that has to be preserved and taken care of.

Along the route there are a number of fountains with a low flow of water where you can refill your bottles. I did not notice many bars and cafés except for one where I have stopped with a cycling group. If you walk this walk, the right way you get to the café near the end of the hike.

There are two to three steeper bits, and we encountered a few horses, so be ready to give way to the horses.

When you walk along the Alondon there are two or three places where you could stop to refresh yourself before continuing along the path.

The advantage of this walk is that it can be done in both directions, and due to the landscape it can be nice in summer, autumn, winter, and spring, although I suspect that in Autumn and winter it could be muddy. Despite rain the path was dry.

During almost the entire walk it was nice and sunny. It's near the end that we could see storm clouds forming over the Jura and eventually the wind started to blow and that's when I started to get notifications of lightning on the Jura side. Eventually the rain caught up with us, just as we had passed the last good place to shelter so we got drenched.

That sudden rain affected the trams in Geneva so we had to walk from one tram line to another before finally giving up and walking towards a train line instead. I had considered planning to end the hike at the train line anyway.

This is the first group hike that I have planned and led in a while and it went well. I was both disappointed when I saw people choose "not coming" but at the same time I was happy to have a small group. It made it easier to lead this group. The experience was positive and I want to lead more hikes.