Lausanne 16 miles

Dreadful night. Hot, sticky, noisy, airless. Sometimes camping isn’t as much fun as you think it should be.

Off sharp as I was due to meet a young lady later. Temperature lovely for walking until the sun came up.

Then another hot one. Forecast is for another couple of hot days and then start to reduce. By Sunday it might be 14C cooler. Can’t wait!

The signs have completely changed in Switzerland. No more of the French signs with their Via Francigena symbols or Red and White flashes for the GR145. Even worse is the loss of the red and white crosses to indicate the wrong way. Now I need to know the name of the next place I am going to and hope that the Swiss have decided to mark a route going there. They have nice big signs listing all sort of places. After that they have large yellow diamond symbols to indicate the way. Trouble is they show the way to something. You don’t know it is the way you want, you just know it is the way to somewhere. And if you do go off route there is just a slow realisation that you haven’t seen any signs for ages to give you a clue that things are not going well.

Reached Lake Geneva. Looked lovely with the Alps on the far side. Long walk along the lakeside, feeling very hot and sticky, carrying that damn great bag, passing all the young things lying about, wearing not a lot and looking a whole lot more comfortable than I was feeling.

Reached Lausanne and then started walking uphill to get to the hotel. Passed a chemist where I got the temperature confirmed. Because the footprints automatically show the temperature for the time and place that I post (usually after 10pm) it has been suggested that I have been exaggerating the heat. Believe me I can tell the difference between backpacking in 26C and 36C.

This city must be about the hilliest I have ever been to. All up, down and then back up again. Managed (just) to get to the hotel, drop the bag off, quick shower, change of clothes and off to the train station to meet the gaffer. By the time we got back to the hotel, via a wee ice cream halt, I needed another shower and change.

Basic, but pricey Vietnamese dinner to follow. One course and a bottle of water got rid of £70. Of course, paying for two doesn’t help.Read more