Flaach to Waldshut. 11th May 2023

• Mileage today: 29 miles
• Total mileage: 255 miles
• Disasters: Nearly an explosion.

OK it’s 9:55pm & I’m knackered so this will be a short one.

Woke early because a bloody woodpecker started hammering at 5am. Bastard… Don’t get me wrong I love nature but 5am puts me in a grump.

We got up at 7am and started packing – rain was forecast & we wanted to get the tent away dry. It doubles in weight if put away wet.

We breakfasted with our Dutch friends in a covered area near where the tents were. We seem to meet a lot of Dutch cycle tourists and they’re all going to Rome !

I smelt a strong smell of gas while we were both using our stoves which was worrying. So myself & the Dutch guy had a good sniff around. We concluded it wasn’t our gear leaking & it must have come from upwind on the campsite. Phew…

We started cycling about 9:30am. Again lovely cycling on cycle track or quiet roads.

For lunch, yep you guessed it bread, crisps, cheese and tomatos. Food of the God’s 😋

We were in Switzerland for most of the day. Everything is so perfect here – even the graffiti is nice…

The idea was to do about 40 miles today but weather & campsite availability conspired against us. We we ended up only doing 29 before finding nice site for the night.

The site had a covered ebike shelter with electric sockets we were allowed to use. We parked the bikes and made a brew. While relaxing with my brew I could smell gas again. That’s two much of a coincidence!

The stove was checked and checked again – no leaks. Then I remembered Sazz had a spare canister in her bag. I opened her pannier & got a huge blast of gas. The canister valve had broken and was leaking. This was in the pannier that was about 18″ from the stove I’d used to make a brew 💣💥

To celebrate being alive we ate at the site restaurant before a walk to the shops for bedtime chocolate. Night all x

…oh and I spotted one of Switzerlands four nuclear power stations.