Monday 9th July – 250.4 Miles Montreaux

It was all conspiring against us this morning. The weather was awful, cold, miserable, wet and gray. Camp took an eternity to get packed up (and it's never a pleasure packing everything wet). Then Rob's Vara wouldn't start. The battery was weak to start with and then died pretty quickly after that. Luckily a fellow camper (evidently a German electrician) had enough wire to light up Blackpool so we took a jump from Paul's Tiger. After much fiddling she was finally alive. Rob didn't dare turn her off for the remainder of the morning. Campsite reception appeared to be MIA so we had to wait for what felt like an eternity to settle up (some guys just did a bunk without paying – hardly surprising really) and then there seemed to be no end to the confusion over the bill as every body was being charged different amounts. Simon argued the toss and we paid what we felt was right in the end.

We followed Fozzy onto the road we couldn't find from Suza before. It turned out to be a lovely sweeping road cutting through lovely rural landscapes. It passed a fabulous looking monastery type thing which we all stopped to photograph. At Suza we picked up the Col Mont Cenis once more (in the reverse direction). We were enjoying the road unhindered by the crappy weather. We stopped by the lake again for an early lunch and to get some warmth back into our frozen bodies. Ham, egg, cheese and chips washed down with strong coffees all round – lovely. The sun shone briefly after that and the weather only closed back in half way back up the other side of the Col D'Iseran... although that might have been just low cloud cover – it was bitterly cold though. On the north side (Val D'Issere and the north) the weather was, once again, relentless. Undeterred we pressed on.

At Bourg St Mauritz and our fuel stop we parted company with Fozzy. I was sad to see him go, he'd been such a diamond geezer and a real laugh. Us four pressed on up into the Col de Petit St Bernard. Another BRILLIANT pass. This is the one that precedes the Col de Grande St Bernard (quite unsurprisingly) which leads up into Switzerland. These roads twisted and turned innumerous times. Lovely sweeps to the left and right mixed with challenging hairpins and staggering climbs and descents. It had the lot! We passed a seemingly desolate Hospice at one summit, beautiful in its architecture with stunning views all around. We could see the cloud line like it'd been drawn with a rule. The pass was dotted with religious statues. Part of the Grand St Bernard was under repair which made it all the more interesting. Streams traversed parts of the road which are always fun. The only down side was the odd traffic lights (which, to be honest, seemed a little superfluous to requirements – we were the only traffic to speak off). Even the weather let off a bit.

Snaking up into the mountain and we re-entered the clouds. In fact, the border was completely engulfed in cloud cover. It was only a brief respite in the cloud that let us see the start of Switzerland. The border was home to a very cold looking lake and a hotel... and then a big twisty road back down the mountain. The rain continued. I'm not sure whether the rain got heavier or we just got wetter but it was verging on the miserable regardless of the lovely roads. It had also taken us an unusually long time to cover very little distance so we decided to reconsider our final destination for the day and to aim for Montreaux on Lake Lehman instead. We still had a long way to go and it was extremely cold and wet in Switzerland.

By the time we got to the lake we all agreed that today's ride was easily as wet as our nautical voyage down to Croyde Bay pre-Stella. Finding a campsite was a bit of a task too. Monteaux was quite busy, busier than we'd been used to over the last few days, it was entertaining a Jazz festival and so was heaving with people in stupid hats and knit-wear. It was slightly surreal seeing a statue of Freddie Mercury sticking out of the lake about five meters from the shore though. My knee was agony by the time we had camp up. It was late, we were all cold, tired and soaked through to the skin. We opted for the lazy option of eating en-site which was a little under par for the price to be blunt but I would have just settled for a sandwich and bed by that stage anyway. We had an early night.