So this was the big day, the day that I had been fearing and relishing in equal measure. While the Surrey Hills are great, nothing beats proper mountains where climbs can last for hours. Today would be a shortish day, but hilly.

After a great Youth Hostel buffet breakfast I set off @8:15 along the Rhine embankment, into a headwind. However, I soon got overtaken by a ‘semi-professional’ but managed to hang on to his wheel for 8 miles before he turned off.

The Rhine Cycle Route book is split into 27 stages; I would be completing the first three stages today (as it starts from the source near the Oberalp pass), which would therefore make it the hilliest day of the trip. While the change in elevation between my start in Vaduz and Sedrun (my finish), is just under 1,000m, that masks the undulating nature of Stage 2, which the author has to point out for all those doing it the ‘easy way’ has 250m of ascent.

An excellent coffee stop in Chur after 27 miles set me up for Stage 2. On country back roads, the hills were steep and my low gears were jumping around, but I made it up to Bonaduz. I was down to 4.5mph in places. Noticing a bike shop I thought about getting a new chain, but it was closed. I then headed out on the main road up to the viewpoint at Ruinaultra canyon where the view over the Rhine valley was spectacular and justified the effort on a long, steady grind.

There was then a short descent through some bridges and tunnels before a steep hairpin climb up to Versam, followed by a long descent to Ilanz for my final stage.

There are two routes from Ilanz; an off-road route and a road route. Given that I had done far more gravel tracks than planned, and didn’t fancy any mechanical dramas on the last day I opted for the the A19. This would join the off-road route at Dementis and continue up to the Oberalp. Although busy, drivers were courteous and the gradient was manageable, a pleasant surprise after the previous hills.

So I made it to Dementis, downed a coke (purchased with a CHF10 note found outside Epsom station, but that’s another story) and then continued 6 miles up to my accommodation at Sedrun, making 73 miles for the day and passing 1,000 miles since I left home.

While this was still 6 miles from the summit, it was the closest place where I could get reasonably priced accommodation. As such I celebrated with a beer (and CHF4 carafe of tap water…. watch that trick)

So that nearly marks the end of the journey from sea to source. Tomorrow, I will summit the Oberalp and then descend to Zurich via Andermatt for a flight home on Wednesday. So much seen and so much to take in, as they say, I need time to process it all, but needless to say, it’s been a fantastic trip which I’ll remember Everlong.