After an exciting overnight rainstorm and thunderstorm, the thunder booming across the valley, and lightning which was so bright it woke us up, we had a very gentle start to the day, with Clara feeling worse for wear, and eating breakfast was a bit of a struggle.
We decided to have an easy day today, and took our time departing, leaving the hotel at 9am, a tailwind helping to push us down the valley. The route followed a river, beautiful blue the day before and today it was an angry white colour with all the excess water.
The route was enjoyable and we were able to make good time, eventually finding ourselves at the edge of Lake Geneva at Villenueve ; a huge expanse of water which looks like an inland ocean!
The cloud and cool weather then started to dissipate and we had bursts of intense heat, when the sun came out. We followed the edge of the lake, slowly gaining height, and we stopped for Subway lunch in Vevey whilst waiting out a sudden rainstorm. We were both a bit surprised that Lausanne was still a fair distance to travel.
Back on the bikes, we passed hundreds of vineyards, and had super panoramic views of the lake. The alps we had travelled through were covered in clouds and mist.
A few short climbs later and we made it into the centre of Lausanne! We found the Tourist Information, and got our Brevet Cards stamped! One checkpoint completed and 177miles under our belts! We spotted two other North Cape participants enjoying coffee but we decided to keep going.
But then…we ended up in the heaviest and most intense rainstorm! We even had thunder and lightning, and then the icing on the cake…HAIL. Giant chunks of hail came raining down. We sheltered under some trees and waited for it to pass.
Everything was drenched. Luckily our hotel for the night was 5miles away and we pedalled damply to the outskirts of Lausanne, finding ourselves in a business park/industrial estate. Luckily it’s got a Lidl and a McDonald’s so we are going to be fine!
Above is a taste of Swiss city industrialism.
Tomorrow we are setting off early, today was a easy ‘rest’ day and tomorrow we’d like to add some more mileage to our progress!