June 6, 2011

The thunderstorms started again overnight, so we have a late start as we try to dry the tent out before packing.  The guy in the reception tells us that rain is forecast for the next 7 days across the whole of the south of France.  Oh no!  We had expected this sort of weather on our way up north to the UK in April not now when we´re approaching the south of France in June.  Nevertheless, it is not actually raining as we set off and we soon start to wish for some nice cooling rain as we sweat and toil our way up the first very long and slow climb.

We are now into different terrain as we travel into the Haute Jura – a mountain landscape of story books.  Meadows full of flowers and cows with bells clanging around their necks dotted with clumps of pine trees here and there, ski chalets and houses that look like cuckoo clocks.  We climb over the first summit and speed headlong down over the border into Switzerland.  One more climb up to the ´Col de Mollendruz´ and we speed on downwards again to the shores of Lake Geneva at Morges.  The road downhill is saturated – it looks like we just missed the storm – so we get stunning sunny views of Lake Geneva with the Alps in the background all along the way.  Switzerland must be one of the most beautiful countries in the world, as well as one of the most expensive.

Our cycle computer tells us that we have now covered over 4000 km – which is sad in a way because it means we are now nearer the end of our tour than the beginning.