Carrera to Bad Ragaz. 6th May 2023.

• Todays mileage: 34 miles.
• Total mileage: 102 miles.
• Disasters: One – where the fuck is Heidi ???

After a night of rain, we woke to thick mist. This quickly burned off to show the beauty of the area our campsite was in.

We had a fine breakfast of stale bread and cheese washed down by a banana and instant cappuccino. Although a great weight saving idea instant cappuccino is rank !

We hit the road by 10am and were straight into an ascent to a pass. The climb was hard but the views stunning and the roads relatively quiet.

The weight of gear on my bike is really obvious on the climbs and hairpin descents – it may be time to ditch the cappuccinos.

We both had to stop numerous times to let our brakes cool – Sarah burned her hand testing how hot her disks were !

The gradients eased, we came round a corner to see this descent – 4% for about 2 miles 😁

This bought us to Tamins which is the confluence of the Hinterrhein and the Vorderrhein. From here it’s simply known as the Rhine.

At Tamins we saw cows…

From here it was a short ride to Chur which is the oldest city in Switzerland. Sarah was expecting great things from Chur but we were quite underwhelmed by the architecture. It all seemed fairly new & no cobbled streets !

What we did find was that Chur had a mountain bike race weekend on. Part of the town was the race circuit. Today was the junior races, but the city was busy with competitors and spectators.

We had some more stale bread and cheese for lunch while watching the action.

Shortly after Chur there are two route options. One route is flat and follows the river. The other diverts into the hills to see the Heidi villages.

Now for those who don’t know Heidi is a classic children’s novel by Swiss writer Johanna Spyri, published in two volumes in 1880–81. The title character is a young orphan who is sent to the Swiss mountains to live with her grandfather.

It’s the six-part 1959 BBC TV series starring Sara O’Connor in the title role, with Mark Dignam as her grandfather and Lesley Judd as Klara that Sarah & I remember.

So the hunt for Heidi’s house was on ! It was a hilly search. We knew we were in the right area but we sadly failed. Sarah is now sad…

Feeling deflated we booked a nearby campsite in Bad Ragaz. This is the most expensive camp site I’ve ever been to – £46 for the night ! For 46 quid you’d thought you’d get some grass on your pitch – no !

We were pitched near a nice Dutch couple who gave us a weather update – no rain tonight – Yay !

We made veggie burgers with cheese & tomato for tea & just got cleared up before the rain and thunder started !

Then it was a quick shower & bed…