Sem and Switzerland

Meeting Sem

I arrived to Basel in a downpour, I cycled my way through the city to Aesch in the South, where Sem, my couchsurfing host, lived. I knocked on the door and must have looked like a drowned rat. Sem took my bags, pointed me towards the shower and by the time I returned downstairs had food on the table. We put my clothes in the wash and my tent to dry and suddenly all my problems had vanished.

Sem was also hosting a Polish cyclist, Magda, who was on a trip back to Poland. We shared a great meal discussing our trips, equipment we had – Sem especially liked my waterproof socks – and past travels. It was so relaxed; just what I needed after two long days on the bike.

Sem had spent three years cycling the globe with his girlfriend,so was a font of knowledge on everything from route planning to bike maintenance, evening showing me a more efficient way to pack my panniers.

Tragically Sem’s girlfriend, Karim, had died a year earlier and I wasn’t100% sure how to approach the topic. Sem was so laid back and full of positivity he made it easy to talk about and I was full of admiration both for his trip and his strength to deal with what life had thrown at him.

Sem was such a great person to meet on my trip that I decided to take an unscheduled additional rest day in Basel. The push to Switzerland had been exhausting, I was only halfway to Zermatt and still had the Alps to cross but the information and ideas were invaluable.

We spent hours looking over maps as Sem excitedly explained his favourite sections and the must see places. He gave me some great ideas for an overview of the global route and, perhaps most importantly, reminded me that it was my trip and therefore my rules, if bits didn’t interest me there was no rule saying i couldn’t hop on a train and skip them. This laid back philosophy was important for me to take on board and realise that I was not in a race, but on a journey.

Next up was plotting the route across Switzerland. Switzerland has an incredible bike network of routes across the whole country. It was simply a case of finding the one that is going in the right direction and connecting to it. The routes would weave through the small villages on minor roads or dedicated paths, never going near the busier roads. Sem explained the only route possible to get to Zermatt in two days was the direct one over the mountains. The altitude profiles and distances looked tough, but it was too far to go around.

We spent the next day walking around the city and in the evening Sem invited me to a BBQ at one of his friends house. There were perhaps 15 people, a mixture of old friends, neighbours and anyone else who wanted to turn up. It was a great atmosphere and fun night, but i headed home early to get some sleep before an early start.

I rolled out of Basel and climbed up the Passwang valley, the top section was steep switchbacks which wound up the mountain side. I made it up and met some Swiss cyclists on top and stopped to chat forawhile and take some photos. The decent was epic and I found myself hurtling towards Berne at up to 70km/h!

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Passwang Switchbacks

As I was approaching the city my phone beeped, it was a text from a couchsurfer, Fabian, inviting me to stay. I’d met Fabian at a CS meetup in Edinburgh earlier in the year and it was good to catch up with him and his girlfriend.

The next day started hot as I headed towards Spitz and Thun, through amazing scenery and passing huge lakes. After Thun started the steep climb up to Kandersteg. Towards the top the path got incredibley steep, it required incredible force, standing out of the saddle, to get the bike to move forward and when the path turned to gravel the tyres would slip and make it impossible. I pushed a little and then would try and get back on when the surface smoothed out. All of a sudden i heard a huge crack and my legs flew forward – under the pressure of trying to haul 50kg + my body weight my chain had buckled and snapped. Inspecting it I was soon covered in oil and not sure the spare link i had would even fix it. 5km away from the next town on a steep climb I made the decision to continue forward, rather than roll back down the hill undoing my progress.

I’d been following cycle route 64 the whole way and the map showed it continuing all the way to Kandersteg. Just 5km from the end, without warning, there was a blockade. As the path was climbing the opposite side of the road of the valley to the highway there seemed no other way up. I climbed over the sign and continued past some fallen trees before my progress abruptly stopped as half of the mountainside had fallen away, taking the path with it. I returned to the blockade to find a steep wanderweg to the side which was signed to kandersteg.

Hauling the prone bicycle up a muddy forest work was hard work, especially with the panniers making it hard to find a comfortable pushing position. On the steep sections I would only be able to push one bike length at a time,before having to apply the break and shuffle my body up. It was painstaking and took a couple of hours to push up the slope. I then managed to roll back down into the town and immediately find a bike shop to replace the chain and wash some of the oil off my hands and clothes.

In Kandersteg the road continued through a tunnel into the next valley. It wasn’t allowed to cycle through the tunnel so I had to hop on a train to take me through. Five minutes later and I was on the other side and about to be repayed for my efforts in the morning. I descended down the highway from 1600m to 600m in just a few kilometers, again hitting scarily high speeds, but on the smooth wide road it was no problem to fly around the corners, testing how far I could lean before the panniers on the front wheel scraped the floor. In about 10 minutes the 6 hours climbing had been undone and I was on the valley floor. I had another 20km to Visp, where I would turn and head up to Zermatt.

My two friends who I was meeting to go climbing with, Bag and Rocky, had driven from England and somehow, despite setting off two weeks before them, it looked like we were going to arrive within a couple of hours of each other. It was 6pm as I got to Visp, I’d hoped to see Bag and Rocky for them to take my panniers, to make the 30km climb, 1000m ascent, to Zermatt a little easier. I checked my phone to discover that they had passed Visp perhaps 10minutes before me and were keen to get to camp to set things up before it got dark. This made my evening much more difficult, but as it turned out we only just got the last camping spot in town so was probably a good decision!

I’d been told it was possible to take the train up to Zermatt from Visp, or even the towns you pass on the climb. I decided to set off on the climb, and perhaps take the train from the next town or when i got too tired. I had underestimated the climb massively and with my tired legs progress was slow. There was no sign of any train station where i would be able pick it up and I later saw that the train was in fact climbing the opposite side of the valley. There may have been a road but i didn’t fancy descending back to the bottom to climb the other side!

I continued on as it got dark and quickly cold. I set my cycle computer to show me the elevation and was mentally ticking off every 10m to the summit, after I passed 1300m I realised the end was in sight and finally made it to Tasch at 9:30. A quick phone call and I rolled into the camp to see Bag and Rocky. High Fives all around, it was great to see some familiar faces and catch up with old friends (it seemed a lot longer than the 2-3 weeks since i last saw them!). After eating some pasta I collapsed into the tent and slept very well that night!

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