A journey involving a transit of the Alps is bound to have it's ups and downs, and today we certainly encountered the downs, in more ways than one.
Awaking to a bright, sunny but chilly morning the team had breakfast then started piling on the layers. Plan A was to glide effortlessly down 58 miles to Montreaux, find a cheap place to stay and swing the night away at the jaz festival.
Pah! About 2 miles into our descent, travelling at re-entry speeds round hairpin bends that had no crash barriers and precipitous drops (journalistic licence, we were actually taking it very slowly with brakes glowing to restrict our speed to around 20mph) there was an almighty bang. Expecting a bandit attack we were surprised to look round and see Marco nursing a punctured rear tube. But it was worse - the tyre wasn't in great shape either so after replacing the tube we had to ride down even more gingerly, expecting the worst at any moment, at which point we'd have to choose the best of the many contingency plans that we'd dreamt up, Thunderbird 2 being probably the least practical, if only for the time constraints.
Fortunately the tube and tyre held together long enough to reach a town with a railway station and Marco was left to catch the train to Martigny, where there would surely be a bike shop, while the remaining trio continued the 15 miles or so down the valley to meet Marco. All went to plan, everyone arriving at about the same time and the re-united team set off to find a cheap (this is Switzerland, don't make me laugh) hotel and a bike shop. The fact that it was Sunday explained the bike shop being shut, but with racks of suitable tyres in the window shouting out "buy me" we read with disbelief, and not a few made up Swiss swear words, that the shop was also closed on Monday. Quelle Horreure!
After analysing the options Marco decided to reluctantly bale out, make use of the railway connection, and head back home to Italy the next morning. Heads held high the team went to investigate what Martigny had to offer, and after a ridiculously expensive MacDonalds visit we looked around a Roman amphitheatre and somehow blagged a free visit round the St Bernard dogs kennels (take that Switzerland)
Another funny old day on the Probert challenge 2011.
PS - blog updates are likely to be even more challenging, and infrequent, over the next few days as we move into camping mode with less opportunities for phone charging and wi-fi access. Everything is being done via iPhone which explains the less rich content than blog readers from previous Probert challenges have been used to.
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