Back to it!

Tonight there isn’t enough signal for pictures.  Perhaps one, but no promises.

After a nice break, it was great to get back on the bikes again and start to experience this strange country in our regular way.  That means seeing all kinds of birds of prey working the farm fields and discussing endless questions about what that crop is, or what is being harvested (carrots we finally figured out).  Our route up towards Grenchen was mostly along the bottom of the valley, with the exception of a couple bumps in the road to get into villages.  It is a pretty densely packed area with villages having smaller gaps between as we progressed.  Luckily the Swiss public water troughs are still most everywhere, as it was again up over 90 degrees today. Many a head dunk occurred as we went through each new town or village.  Hard to keep spirits up in the heat, but the troughs help.  We were had the luxury of several campgrounds in the same vicinity, and so when the time was right we went to the closest one.  We have left the French-themed Canton, and so now are in a German area. This language twist is perfect for keeping negotiations very fluid at sign-in time, with the hosts trying to piece together sentences in French for us, which isn’t always useful, but we get by.  This is an expensive but simple spot, and we are content.  The afternoon ended with some spirited thunderstorms with hail and good drenchings.  We hope that we don’t have too much stormy weather overnight, as we could all use some sleep.  A fine meal cooked and served under the tarp worked as always, and now we are headed to sleep early.

Tomorrow may be a big push, as there are no campgrounds within our usual 30-mile radius; instead, we may need to do 38.  Luckily there is a bit of a mountain range in the way, so while a chunk of that would be uphill, the last 10 miles look like a good opportunity to fine tune our descent skills.

Or maybe it will be something different?

-Dave