A Rain Soaked Walk in the Swiss countryside

Yesterday I planned to walk so I put on my hiking boots and just as I was about to go out I heard large rain drops hit the velux. I thought "according to the weather app the rain should be light". It wasn’t light. It was heavy and sustained.

You might think "So, why didn’t you just wait out the rain. A few days ago I saw that rain was forecast, so I didn’t go for an after lunch walk. The rain never came so I ended up going for my walk at rush hour, when everyone was commuting home, rather than when it was quiet.

There was a time when the Swiss weather app, and another, were very good at forecasting weather. They were so good that within minutes of rain being forecast it would fall. These days the weather forecast is less reliable again. I believe that they recently changed the models.

You might think "But why would you walk in heavy pouring rain" and the answer is that I didn’t plan for it to last so long, and I also planned to do a smaller loop.

Although the rain was heavy, and I was getting soaked, I wasn’t uncomfortable. I was listening to podcasts and enjoying that there were no dog walkers or other people. It was peaceful. It was quiet.

I did have second thoughts because I heard thunder at least three times. It was to the East, and not getting closer. No reason for me to turn back. If it had been getting closer then I would have changed route.

There is an exposed bit of road, between Grens and Borex where I would be the tallest thing around. Luckily rain soaked cows, a barn and a small wood were on the route so I didn’t stick out.

I had the luxury of wearing hiking shoes. I had freedom. They eventually got soaked through and when I checked them this morning they are still waterlogged. They are now in direct sunshine drying.

When hiking boots get so wet it’s good to keep using scrunched up newspapers to drive out the humidity. I’m hoping the sun will speed up the drying process.

And Finally

The walk was 8.3 kilometres long, over an hour and a half, with an air temperature of around 20°c. If it had been cooler, and if I had stopped, while rain soaked, then I could have felt cold. I was warm, and that’s what counts.

My hands were a little numb by the time I got home but I wasn’t in pain when feeling came back to them. It’s not like when I was lake diving. That was agony.

It’s a while since I was soaked by the rain, and it wasn’t unpleasant. I did see two children heading home from school, and one did look quite miserable. Children often look miserable after school. It’s a logical response.