Day 19: Die Föhn
When we first landed in Austria, we learned about "Die Föhn" from Nate's friend Rachel and her friend Joe. They told us Die Föhn is a hot wind that blows out of Italy and heats up the alps. Joe went on to explain that everyone in Innsbruck believes Die Föhn is to blame for various ailments, such as a fever or the flu. "Even reasonable people, like doctors" Joe said, "would attribute misgivings to Die Föhn." We are currently experiencing Die Föhn.
Today started in Zermatt, and after a slow morning off eggs and general laziness we started off down the road out of the valley at around 9am. We were all sad to leave the Zermatt and the Matterhorn, but our wallets were happy. The road out of Zermatt was quick and we averaged 30 km/hr down to Visp, and we were all in a good mood as we set off toward Martingy. This is the last time you could describe our mood as "good" for the rest of our day of biking.
The path down the Rhône was flat and fast. A few signs were missing and we got off track a few times, but all in all the biking was easy, except for the heat. The high today was 93F, and we biked around 90 of the 132 km we did today in that heat. (That being said, we also went down nearly a vertical mile today.)
Arriving in camp around 3:30pm we debated even setting up a tent because of the heat, but opted to set one up just in case. We also ran into ran into one of the groups of kids that we had seen camping in Zermatt, but they had taken the train here. Apparently tomorrow is the first day they start hiking, good luck to them and their instructors.
After the tent was setup, our day involved lying in grass complaining about the heat. Around 4, Matt and Nate went to the store to pickup a dinner of pasta with a red sauce and some peppers and onions. After eating around 2 lbs of food, we showered and returned to our regularly scheduled program of lying in the grass. At the time of writing this, it's finally bearable to were a shirt and pants and not move. Some serious thought went into going to the hardware store that's 5 minutes away and buying an extension cord and a fan. It's going to be a long night.
But no worries, we're in for more tomorrow. Luckily, tomorrow we only have 70km to go and the campsite is on a lake, so we're looking forward to that. Sorry, not many pictures today, but we'll try and get more tomorrow.
Nate and Matt assuming the position to maximize surface area to radiate heat.
In summary, Die Föhn is in full swing, and giving us all sorts of issues. Tomorrow hopefully we can post this from a lake.