A late start for Max and a slightly early start for me meant a day of cycling with Max. Setting forth the sky menaced storms, with a forecast of rain around noon. Later in the day we could see the rain line descending from the slopes above, but managed to get ahead of the rain.
While Max cycles faster than I, his narrower tires mean I can handle slightly worse paths at higher speeds. Excellent cycling paths meant that only came into play a little, so I occasionally drafted, or just cycled a bit faster. The tailwinds didn’t hurt. We managed to not encounter any of the warned hazards.
We found one castle in Biel, pretty on the outside, with the inside refitted as some sort of office building. Max also visits castles; we spent a while at the castle poking about, but not really worth visiting.
We checked out another campground not on the lake before selecting this one, still not quite on the lake – a two minute walk! After another hot day, and a bit scorched along the arms from not having applied sunscreen expecting rain, I spent a while swimming in the lake until after the afternoon heat passed and I started to feel chill.
I spent the evening hanging out with Max and Carsten, another cyclist arriving after us who came over and introduced himself. Carsten is a German cyclist touring in a reverse path around Switzerland than Max and myself, while the rest of his family spends their holiday in Spain. Based both on his reverse path and other regional cycling experience, Carsten provided a number of insights – very helpful. All three of us suffer sticker shock from the Swiss prices, so everyone’s cooking in camp. Max used his stove to burn fuel and decrease his weight, I used the stove at the campground for my usual pasta and soup mix.
Another solid day of cycling puts me only 150 km outside of Geneva, with five days to get there, so a few short jumps lazily forward. I might find a nice campground to hang out for a few days, cycle around Lac de Neuchatel, or take a lake cruise (adding another mode of transport to the trip). Tomorrow the monastery on the island in the lake begs for a visit.
Max jumps forward tomorrow to just outside Geneva, and I’ll miss his company. Our paths actually align for the next seven days of so of his cycling, our timelines do not. But he’s spending four days in Nice, so perhaps our paths will cross again.