June 6, 2014

The hotel owner asks where we are going and when we say over the Oberalppass she tells us that it is closed today. At first I thought it was a joke, but then I realised she was serious. Apparently, the road at the pass is being resurfaced. She offers to ring the local police to see if bikes will be allowed through or not – their response is that we should catch the train up to the top of the pass.

So, have we cycled all the way from the sea to here to be denied the opportunity to complete the challenge? We’ve often come across road works on the trip and managed to get through without a problem and so we decide to take a risk and see if the workmen will let us through. The board at the bottom of the road to the pass which tells you if it is open or not says ‘closed’, but we continue. A bit further on an information board warns that the pass is closed from 7am to 7pm on 6 June. So, at the worst, if they won’t let us through, we’ll have to wait until 7 pm.

We climb and pass through a couple of small villages, the wind is blowing through the pass into our faces making it pretty tough going. Ken seems to be struggling more than me which is a bit unusual. He checks his tyres and finds that the back one is flat. We’re just at the start of the hairpin bends where the climb gets brutal. We have to unload his bike and change the inner tube before we can go any further, it feels like we’re not meant to get to the top today.

We get going again. On our left we see the Rhine at it smallest – a tiny waterfall running down the rocks. Shortly afterwards we reach the start of the works. The road is covered in steaming hot tarmac with several road rollers running up and down. The guy in charge says we can push our bikes on the verge past the part they are working on and carry on. Hurray!! Easier said than done on a narrow bumpy grass verge with a steep drop into the valley below at the side, but we’re grateful to be allowed through. The big advantage of the situation is that we have the road to ourselves with no traffic to bother about, just the incline to overcome. The hairpins continue, about ten in total, and then we are there, at the top, 2046 metres high. We’re well above the snow line, although in June there is not much left, but there is a lake at the top and it has ice floating on it. This pass is the source of four great rivers, the two most well known are the Rhine and the Rhone. We’ve completed our journey along the Rhine and now we’re going to descend the other side of the pass alongside the Rhone.

We eat out lunch at the summit before setting off once again towards Andermatt, a ski resort in the valley below. The wind is an icy blast and we need all our tops on to keep warm on the descent. Once there, we set up camp and study the maps to work out our onward journey to Geneva.