Hohlichtgletscher

Fine, 22 degrees

We got up early – ie around 7am, but by the time we changed the water etc in Nico, picked up our fresh warm ciabatta and ate it, we didn’t leave until 9am. We were keen to stock up on supplies before we left Italy, but hadn’t factored in it being Easter Sunday and everything was closed. We do have a reasonable amount of food and water, so should be fine. Then we were off for our 5 hour drive to Visp – hmmmmm, how come we didn’t arrive until 5pm? The first part of the drive was on motorways that weren’t straight, and had loads of tunnels. We went up the west coast a bit, past Genova, then past Milan and the motorway got a lot better then, and I could use cruise control. We stopped for gas twice, and once in an Aire for lunch. After we drove past Lake Maggiore (which looked stunning), the roads got a lot narrower, and were pretty bumpy. Going through the Swiss border was a non event, we stopped as it looked like we should, but then had to ask a guard whether we needed to do anything, and he said no just go.

I was a bit nervous about driving in Switzerland in case I got caught up a mountain. Jody did point out earlier today that we would have to go over a mountain pass, and we certainly did. It was sooo picturesque and I would have loved to stop and take some pictures. But we were both feeling rather tired, so just kept going. The road wasn’t too bad, but I did pull over many times to let cars go past. It was more of an issue going down, with a 10% gradient at times. I was very aware of how heavy Nico is, and how wide he swings on the corners, so was pretty careful.

Our campground in Visp is just amazing. The pitches are on grass, and it is a short bike ride to the town centre. When we arrived, we were both very tired – I even had a wee lie down which is not like me, but I had been concentrating very hard for most of the day. Jody got keen though and hooked up the electric, took our bikes off the back, and encouraged me to go out for a ride. We sussed out where the train is that we will walk to in the morning, and found a Coop that was open for us to buy some meat, veges and fruit for dinner. Jody whizzed up some yummy hamburgers and we should be in bed early.

Tomorrow we are intending to take the train to Zermatt which is a non car town at the foot of the famous Matterhorn. We should have loads of wonderful photos from that.Read more