Sierre to Morel: Another fantastic day except for the wasp
Another incomparable day. We had the promised sunshine and the scenery was consistently spectacular. The bike route was easy to follow and while a gradual elevation gain, nothing very taxing. We stopped before we wanted too, in the little village of Morel. We decided to take the cautious approach to accommodation and stick with the 'a bird in the hand is worth two in the bush' philosophy if I can go all cliche on you. All the upcoming villages are small and we weren't sure about hotels. It is the one downside of not camping. You don't have to carry a tent (or pack one up in the rain) but you do give up some independence. However, every time I think of the German tourers who were sleeping in hammocks in all that rain at the beginning of our tour I appreciate my fluffy white duvet in the room even more. We will save our camping for the Canadian wilderness.
Our hotel in Sierre. Once more, clean, quiet and comfortable with great people.
We left our hotel and had an initial climb but then things became fairly flat. The bike path was paved 90% of the time and there were brief periods where we shared the road. Swiss drivers are as courteous as French ones. Sometimes I am stunned at the care they take. Having unfortunately been reminded by the Grampies (https://www.crazyguyonabike.com/doc/?doc_id=20084) of how quickly things can go sideways when bikes and cars mix I was particularly grateful today for the drivers who slowed down, gave us lots of room and miracle of all miracles, if things were tight they waited. They probably all ride bikes so they get it is my theory.
Random old stuff looking particularly fetching this morning.
An on the trail companion. His shell was the size of a golf ball. I have never seen a bigger snail. We seemed to be the only ones on the bike path, but I regretted that I didn't move him to safety. He was pretty hard to miss though.
We stopped often for pictures or just to stare in wonder. We weren't sure about this route...we were concerned it might be a bit dull...but it is the complete opposite. It is stunning and has just the right combination of climbing and easy spinning. It would have even more easy spinning if we were going down the river, but as I have mentioned before, we seem to like going up rivers.
I had one little tiny drama today when Keith stopped to take some pictures of intriguing Swiss wooden houses. I waited for him at a bus stop, with my bike casually leaning on a trash can for the stop. Just as Keith arrived a wasp must have dozingly emerged from that trash can. I didn't see or notice it. In fact we haven't seen wasps all trip. So my first clue was when the aggressive little bug&$@ stung me on the hand. Yikes! I haven't been stung in years, and I had forgotten how hard it hurts. I was using every non primary school teacherish word in my vocabulary, and I seem to have acquired a few in my retirement. Of course it got me on the right index finger, which promptly swelled up into a little sausage and reminded me it hurt every time I changed gears or hit the brake. Sheesh.
Keith took a picture of me letting that wasp know exactly what I thought of him in very clear language.
A little navigational glitch. Oops. We laughed when we came to this. We rode by the Swiss Army to get to it, but were a bit worried about picture taking for that bit.
We zipped through Brig, and were in Morel very quickly. I wanted to keep going, so did Keith, but Oberwald was another 44 km so we decided to stop. Now that I am relaxing and writing the blog I am perfectly happy to have stopped. It just seemed a shame, we both had the legs to keep going and the weather is so gorgeous today, but hey, we are going for a beer, so who cares!
