Sion to Brig (75 kms)

With sore legs from the day before, we set off around 9am to ride from Sion to Brig. The cloudy weather cleared in the late morning, making for a beautiful day. This section of Route 1 continues along the Rhone valley through orchards, vineyards and industrial areas. As the valley narrows, the path rejoins the road in spots and takes you through quaint (and very quiet) villages.

A particular highlight is the beautiful lake at Sierre. We found it taking a detour to avoid a hilly on-road section, along with a gorgeous looking restaurant, swimming pool and picnic area. We got to see it twice as we had to double back and go up the hill after all (which wasn't as hard as it looked).

In the latter half of the ride, you enter the German speaking part of the country, with signage changing from familiar French to unfamiliar German. Despite speaking absolutely no Swiss-German, we managed to order a fantastic lunch from a restauranteur who spoke no English (pointing and smiling seems to work).

The ride ended around 5.30pm at Brig railway station where we got icecreams and prepared to take the 5.59 train back to Sion for another night in our little tent. This section of the ride was 75km, a personal best for Jess who before arriving in Switzerland had never ridden for longer than 60kms in one go. We completed this at a fairly slow pace, taking about 4hrs and 50 minutes of riding. More photos on Flickr.

Aigle to Sion (65 kms)

July 30: Well it's been a long time between drinks, but with our July visitors now dispatched, we have a spare weekend to continue our ride. Monday 1 August is a holiday in Switzerland (Swiss National Day), so with a long weekend ahead of us we decided to do two consecutive days of riding, camping at the middle point: Sion.

We packed up on Saturday morning, arriving at our campsite around 2pm due to heavy traffic around Montreux. It was after 3pm when we finally set off on the day's ride. Rather than choosing to ride down the valley, we decided to catch the train to Aigle to ride back up, taking advantage of the strong tailwind in that direction.

The ride from Aigle to Sion continues alongside the River Rhone, far from busy roads for most of the time. We got caught in heavy rain in St Maurice, but used this as an excuse to stop for coffee and icecream in one of the cafes there. It was after 8pm when we finally reached our campsite, feeling happy, hungry and tired. A hot shower, ham and cheese sandwiches from the campground 'supermarket' and a glass of wine, were welcome rewards after a busy day.

This leg of the ride was 65km and took us about 3hrs and 40 minutes, not counting a few breaks along the way. More photos on Flickr.