Rhine Ride

A 39-day adventure by Beks Read more

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Trip start
August 21, 2016
Rhine Ride Traveler
Prep time
August 21, 2016 in Australia ⋅ ☀️ 21 °C
Packing, repacking and general list making
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Rhine Ride Traveler
waiting
August 24, 2016 in Australia ⋅ ⛅ 16 °C
Pack is done
And now we play the waiting game
Bike is in!
Ash PrakashMeh... hungry hungry hippos?
8/23/16Reply
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Rhine Ride Traveler
dubai
August 25, 2016 in the United Arab Emirates ⋅ ⛅ 29 °C
Just chilling for couple hours after uneventful flight
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Rhine Ride Traveler
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in the air
August 25, 2016 in Switzerland ⋅ ☀️ 18 °C
I am on the plane...trying to sleep but bored...
Traveler This is the Rhine...
8/25/16Reply
Traveler Over Iran
8/25/16Reply
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Rhine Ride Traveler
zurich
August 25, 2016 in Switzerland ⋅ ☀️ 29 °C
Bike and I have made it to sunny Zurich
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Rhine Ride Traveler
Bike time
August 25, 2016 in Switzerland ⋅ 🌙 25 °C
I have found the Parrotts, reunited with Illy and met Bernadette.
We have set up bikes tonight...
Ash PrakashYay! What a day!!!
8/26/16Reply
Ash PrakashIs the deal you buy Dave a beer for every part he has to put together for you? How'd it go?
8/26/16Reply
TravelerWe were a cohesive team with bike set up... all contributing with our talents... With the skills to pay the bills (well to earn some deserved beers)
8/26/16Reply
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train to Ilanz
August 26, 2016 in Switzerland ⋅ ☀️ 21 °C
morning started with Sheril cracking a soft boiled egg on her forehead...definite highlight...imagine sitting at a nice restaurant and then unexpectedly having egg yolk covering everything...gross but funny
Then we had a train journey to ilanz where we dropped off our gear

I am without words to describe the views today- spectacular rolling mountains, aqua coloured streams set against a clear blue sky
(possibly due to some spontaneous loud singing we discovered Ilona has yet to experience the wonder that is The Sound of Music)

Train travel had us hustling to get our fully loaded bikes to the connecting service but it was achieved by creating delays (and it seems the Swiss are quite pedantic about keeping to a very tight schedule)!
Sheril ripped open her thumb on moving the bikes (which is the pic)...the Sharon Strzelecki pose is 'cause she is specialRead more
Traveler Zurich
8/26/16Reply
Ianthe Gibson Oh Sherelle!
8/26/16Reply
Ash Prakash Ooooh pretty
8/29/16Reply
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high in the hills
August 26, 2016 in Switzerland ⋅ ☀️ 19 °C
Up to Oberalpass by train...
And then ride down Alpine road with Sheril Joy and Illy (olds were not up for this section)

Easily the coolest thing I have done on a bike to date! I was on the brakes whole descent and couldn't slow enough, there was hairpin turn upon hairpin turn, we went from 2044m at oberalpass down to tschamut at 1450m in about 5km.

Once we got off the road and on to some gravel Sherelle took a fall (on to her bad shoulder!) just after Disentis.. her bike was not good (trip to mechanic tomoz) so we caught train at Sumvitg back to Ilanz... So only 26km on the bike!

Today was cows in the fields with bells ringing, smells of freshly cut hay and mountains upon mountains as far as the eye can see

In terms of risk management concerns I honestly thought the Alpine descent would be craziest thing for today but no...we rode our bikes through an active rifle range! So so so scary... I have video but no photoRead more
Ianthe Gibson Stunning
8/26/16Reply
Deborah Hennessey wow
8/31/16Reply
Deborah Hennessey Gorgeous
8/31/16Reply
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last train out of sumvitg
August 26, 2016 in Switzerland ⋅ ☀️ 22 °C
Ianthe Gibson Beautiful pic
8/26/16Reply
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Rhine Ride Traveler
Ilanz
August 26, 2016 in Switzerland ⋅ 🌙 21 °C
Beers and Italian as reward for today's effort... Dinner at 9.30pm as not dark until 8.30 ish
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Rhine Ride Traveler
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dont take your touring bike on mtb track
August 27, 2016 in Switzerland ⋅ ☀️ 25 °C
We started with fresh bakery treats for breakfast...
Sheril got a new wheel and we started out for Chur
Group A- Sherelle and Jan headed on the train and had their own misadventures (but will leave it to them to share that story)
Group B- Bern, Dave, Illy and me set out on our bikes
It wasn't the best start with us heading off on the wrong road and also taking a MTB path which was scary/fun/time consuming/energy sapping
Oopsies... We made it to Castrisch in a very unspectacular timeRead more
Ianthe Gibson Colours are amazing . Looks like you're having lovely weather
8/28/16Reply
Deborah Hennessey At least you had nice scenery during your folly
8/31/16Reply
Emma NichollsBakery treats!
9/17/16Reply
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up up and away
August 27, 2016 in Switzerland ⋅ ☀️ 26 °C
Castritch 722m to Valendas at 810m...
Epic hills to rival the feeling of SB (lemons), straddie (Em), or Frog flats (overland)...
Amazing Amazing views
Ash PrakashWoah. Thanks for posting - it's like a mini break on my couch right now xxoo
8/30/16Reply
Deborah Hennessey Wow! What a gorgeous postcard view. You've captured some amazing pics Bec
8/31/16Reply
Deborah Hennessey Love this photo
8/31/16Reply
Emma NichollsLooks way better than Straddie! Much wider roads. Effing frog flats...
9/17/16Reply
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Versam
August 27, 2016 in Switzerland ⋅ ☀️ 26 °C
Another climb to Versam (910m) for a break for lunch

It was a great lunch- cheeses and meats all local products... Cooled down here with picturesque fountain and quaint surrounds...Illy went for a fountain walkRead more
Deborah Hennessey Quaint!
8/31/16Reply
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Rhine Ride Traveler
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down time
August 27, 2016 in Switzerland ⋅ ⛅ 28 °C
And then we went down...
Got to pass over Rhine quite a bit ... Some epic hairpin turns and a significant amount of more unwelcome climbing...
Ianthe Gibson Only for bikes?
8/28/16Reply
Traveler That's a dual lane road for cars...lucky motorists here are very considerate
8/28/16Reply
Ash Prakash Neat-o!
8/30/16Reply
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chur chur chur
August 27, 2016 in Switzerland ⋅ ⛅ 23 °C
And eventually we got to Chur and meet up with girls and listened to tales from their day....
So ended up as 37km today with all our detours
Late night Dutch blitz (Bek holds victory)
Meaghan Brown You all look so joyful!
8/28/16Reply
Traveler Illy is loving Sheril in this one!
8/28/16Reply
Deborah Hennessey When I was showing these pictures to Abigail, she said "There! That's Aunty Bet. She's my favourite girl" :-)
8/31/16Reply
Traveler Woot woot! Back on top!!
8/31/16Reply
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Igis this is done
August 28, 2016 in Switzerland ⋅ ☀️ 21 °C
Set out from Chur (all six of us) after an early-ish start... And all went to plan until Sherils pedal went caput near Igis (it was all a bit Dan Brown on the MTB)
So Sherelle and Dave headed back to catch the train to Buchs and the lucky 4 continued on our journeyRead more
Emma Nicholls Magical!
9/17/16Reply
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Hi Heidi
August 28, 2016 in Switzerland ⋅ ☀️ 27 °C
Sooooo Jan, Bern, Illy and I set out towards Maienfeld.
We headed up to visit HeidiHaus
Traveler Heidi's House
8/28/16Reply
Ash Prakash Like, as in Johanna Spiri grew up there or?
8/30/16Reply
Helen Tallack So what's going on here? Bikes replaced by walking sticks??
8/30/16Reply
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down in a flasch
August 28, 2016 in Switzerland ⋅ ☀️ 28 °C
Then we enjoyed the descent to Flasch, and riding on the river path.
Illy and I went to dip our feet in which ended up as a swim in freezing Rhine!
Meaghan BrownYou found the path by the river!
8/28/16Reply
Helen Tallack Now this is what I thought you would be doing...riding peacefully (?? with Rel??)along the Rhine...
8/30/16Reply
Ian GilmourAmazing
9/3/16Reply
Emma Nicholls Absolutely stunning....
9/17/16Reply
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home to Haag
August 28, 2016 in Switzerland ⋅ ☀️ 26 °C
And then powered on to Haag with a brief stop over in Liechtenstein, and met up with mildly intoxicated Sheril and Dave...

Nice day out... We did just over 55km today!
Emma Nicholls How nicely Liv blends with the scenery. I like this picture!
9/17/16Reply
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Rhine Ride Traveler
storm chasing
August 29, 2016 in Switzerland ⋅ 🌧 18 °C
It was Jan, Bern and me heading out early on our bikes today. Sheril and Dave went to the bike shop, and Illy needed a rest day...
The dark clouds were looming... and as we decided to pull over under the eaves of a barn to don our wet weather gear the skies opened up... The lovely owner ran over from her house to unlock the barn and let us in...and we enjoyed watching the lightning showRead more
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riding the storm
August 29, 2016 in Switzerland ⋅ 🌧 19 °C
We got back on our bikes and it just kept raining. I was soaked through and had water pooling in my shoes...

Most of todays riding was on path on the side of the canal... But we greeted the Rhine near the end...Read more
Helen Tallack Ha ha ha...Rel wasn't there so someone had to do it...right???
8/30/16Reply
Helen Tallack Your own private mayo???
8/30/16Reply
Helen TallackThat's gold!!!
8/30/16Reply
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Rhine Ride Traveler
mighty shall fall
August 29, 2016 in Austria ⋅ ⛅ 21 °C
And so we powered across the border to Austria and on to Bregenz....
I had a fall trying to jump a kerb, and Jan may have fallen from a stand still at lights which prompted the nearby ambulance to check she was ok...

We realised earlier in the day that I did not have offline maps of Austria on my phone which meant that we had no easy way to find the accomodation. We ended up using the coordinates and it was like ultimate caching...
We found the others at the accomodation...all is good with Sherils bike...
We did 58km today

Illy, Sheril and I went and had a swim in Lake Constance (Bodensee) which was lovely cause I am a little bit sore in the legs and shoulders (my bum is doing good though)Read more
Lyn GStill nice though Bek - dried out yet? Are you and Jan OK?
8/29/16Reply
TravelerIn process of drying out... All fall-ies are ok (everyone just with grazes and bruises)
8/30/16Reply
Helen TallackThanks for sharing these stories and photos. Amazing! I only just got the link tonight so have read all the entries until now in one go, but from now will be able to follow at a more leisurely pace, as you ride at a more leisurely pace??! Fantastic blog thanks. Stay gold!
8/30/16Reply
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Rest day in Bregenz
August 30, 2016 in Austria ⋅ ⛅ 24 °C
Relaxing day at pool and more swimming in lake.
Some beers and ping pong and general relaxing
and letting things dry out
Traveler Sleeping loft...As close as Sherelle has come to realising her dream of tiny house living
8/30/16Reply
Traveler Slide time
8/30/16Reply
Traveler Some randoms that happily let us take photos
8/30/16Reply
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Rhine Ride Traveler
Lindau Island
August 31, 2016 in Germany ⋅ ☀️ 20 °C
So we have said goodbye to mountains...
and the full fellowship set out again this morning...
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Rhine Ride Traveler
Bodensee
August 31, 2016 in Germany ⋅ ☀️ 24 °C
Beautiful ride around the lake and through orchards
Lunch at Immemstaad
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