I got to the end of the valley to a place called Oberwald. Unfortunately the Furkapass was still closed from winter. I had timed my arrival to coincide with the opening of the pass but obviously with weather there is no guarantee and the opening was delayed. So had to catch a vehicle train that takes you through the mountain to the other side at a place called Realp. I was a bit disappointed about missing the end of the climb (the valley had taken me up to 1300m over the last few days) but the train only skip me 10km or so and only 161m of elevation so didn't feel I'd had too much of a free ride. So the next best thing was the Oberallppass which took you 610m up over 10km.
I smashed it.
Slow for any road rider but with a fully loaded touring rig I was pretty happy. It was almost too easy. Last 4km I was even talking to this German guy the way up. Reached the pass and then did the big long 60km decent with the German guy (I think his name was the German equilavent of Derek) so we had a good chat on the way down back to 500m elevation. I found a another great camp spot near Llanz.
I woke up the next day thinking I hadn't quite yet finished with Switzerland. Hadn't suffered up enough climbs basically. I still have to meet Marlene in innsbruk on the 30th but the direction I was heading was all downhill through leichtenstein and into Austria.
I looked over my map and there was another route that takes you back into the alps, over another bigger pass, but in general is much hillier full of up and downs. I did the distances with 4 days I will just make it. Hopefullly.
So with great excitement I quickly packed camp, and took off. Yesterday was a huge day with epic scenery, riding along a train line to get back onto a road, a crazy tunnel I'm thinking now that cyclists probably weren't meant to go through. Heaps of hard riding. But I am feeling amazingly strong. My legs from the last week in Switzerland are just in awesome form. Route went through Thusis, Tiefencastel, and Bergun which has taken me back up to about 1300m. Intention today is to reach Scuol via the Albulapass which is 2312m.
It's quite cold today and intermittant showers so that will add to the challenge. From there it should be an easy 140km over 2 days to reach innsbruk.
I've had a slow morning eating all my food (for energy and also so I don't have to carry it up) and waiting for it to warm up as it's gonna be mighty cold on the pass.
It's not warming up though.... clouds are covering the mountain tops in the pic below. Best I hit the climb so I can get back off the mountains!
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