June 5, 2014

The rain kept beating on the tent all night long, so it was a slow start to the morning packing up the wet stuff again.  The sun is bright as we set off, ready to begin our hardest day for a long time.  When we were camping last night we could hear gunfire nearby which we thought must be clay pigeon shooting.  However, we discover that it is actually an army rifle range just behind the camp-site.  The cycle track passes literally only a few metres away from the soldiers and the targets – we cycle by as quickly as possible.  Shortly afterwards we join a road for the first time for a long time.  Fortunately, it is a quiet alpine road climbing its way up the valley through woods to start with before opening out onto alpine meadows.  The views are just breathtaking with snow-capped mountains all around.  We can see the Rhine below in the valley bottom with the Glacier Express rail line running alongside.  The road makes its way through one or two little villages which are so pretty you feel that they cannot be real – do real people actually live in places like these?

The cycling is hard work, but there are sufficient distractions all around for us not to notice too much.  After eating lunch sitting in a bus shelter in the middle of a small village (just as an aside, 5 buses passed by during the 30 minutes or so that we were there – not a bad service for half way up a mountain) we set off again to be somewhat disappointed by the marked route.  It took us onto a rough track, really just a footpath, full of rocks and boulders.  With the steep gradient and the loose surface it wasn’t possible to ride the bikes, with an unloaded mountain bike we would have just about managed it.  So at this point we had to divert on to the road which was much busier than the one we had ridden along earlier.  It was a real shame as we could no longer take in all the scenery, but had to concentrate the entire time on watching the traffic.  It made the climbing seem so much harder.  We also had to contend with three different sets of road works along the way – not pleasant with the traffic backing up behind us.  Still, we make it to Disentis in good time, but then discover that the camping is right back down below in another valley.  We’d have to cycle back up again to Disentis in the morning before setting off over the pass, and on the main road again.  Neither of us can bear to go all the way down, so we check into a hotel in Disentis. At least the WiFi might work, the camping WiFi (when there is any) is hopeless.