We ordered fresh croissants from the Campsite office for breakfast this morning….and a loaf of bread for later. When I went to pick it up the lady (who spoke little English) tried to charge me again ….but I eventually managed to convince her that we had paid the night before….which we had….there was no way you’ll get me to pay twice!
We had a bit of wait to try to dry out our tent as it had rained heavily the night before….it fact as we were setting up camp it started…. forcing us to blow up our thermorests inside the tent! Back on the road we headed North and found ourselves in an awful traffic jam….the benefits of being on a bike, even one as big as the ANIMAL, allowed us to do a bit of lane splitting and this enabled us to get ahead without too much delay. However, Vince missed a turn and we found ourselves accidentally in the 16.9km Gotthard Tunnel……it was nightmarish hot and we had no option but to plough on through! It brought us out near Andermatt, we skirted the town and took the Susten Pass……….fantastically beautiful.
There were heaps of motorbikes and sports cars also taking the pass in the warm sunshine. We made a pit stop in Wyler at a little shop and bought some ham as well as some toothpaste (must get supplies when we see them!). Wanting to avoid the mistake of the night before….we wanted to suss out Campgrounds before committing and stopped at 4 campsites, but only the last one offered any shade. Camping Grund cost around 25 Swiss Francs per night but you had to pay for hot water for showers (1 Franc)….at least they had toilet paper!. We found out many places in France don’t! – Cernay had one large roll find at the entrance door – that you had to estimate from before going into the cubical, Paris and Chamonix were devoid of any paper – BYO!
After putting our tent up and making sure it was dry (inside and out!), we went for a ride to the Grimsel Pass. Vince needed to charge up the GoPros (as everything has gone flat without access to electricity) and we finally got to use the double USB charger we bought from BMW in Annecy. It was 34km out and 34km back and took us to Glestch (where we had been yesterday). The ascent was magnificent, taking us high into the snow and where we crested a dam and frozen lake. In some sections snow and ice falls covered the road but generally the snow ploughs had done an excellent job in opening up the road from the deep snowfall. In many places water was running fast across the road surface, gushing out onto the road as the snow melted. It was late in the afternoon, and on the ascent we passed a lot of oncoming vehicles on their way home after a day of exploring the mountain passes. The descent followed a steep twist and turn all the way down the mountain. We turned tail at Glestch and retraced our path back over the Grimsel Pass to our Campsite in Innertkirtchen.
We had bread and ham for dinner, and watched a wicked thunder and lightening storm from the comfort of our Helinox Chairs!
