Taking the train through the Gotthard Base Tunnel when you don’t like tunnels.

Probably a good idea since it is a lot faster. I am typing this purely to distract myself from being in a tunnel for 20 minutes.

I mean what did I expect? It’s the longest rail tunnel in the world. That’s really cool and all and we are extremely proud of it. It was quite a feat. It was finished in 2016 and it cut travel time from Zurich to Bellinzona or Lugano almost in half. Still nowadays I can choose to take the panoramic route that takes about 3.5 hours or the faster route that takes roughly 2 hours. Since that would cut into my hiking time, I decided to go with the faster route.

Looking at how crowded this train is right now I think it’s safe to say that this connection is very popular. Of course, it is also school holidays. That doesn’t help. I might just have to continue hiking south of the Alps when it gets less crowded. And when it’s also a bit cooler. I’m writing this on the train ride back from a hike I had to cut short because it got too hot for me. Too hot is anything above 80°F/26°C.

I started today’s hike in Biasca and followed the Ticino River to a small town called Claro. I might have attempted and succeeded in walking all the way to Bellinzona (marked as a 6-hour hike) if the weather had stayed as cool as it was in the morning and if the entire route was in the forest or provided other forms of shade. Most of the route was pretty and in a wooded area along the river, but there were two parts with a lot of sun exposure. The first 25 or 30 minutes to make it from Biasca train station to the river and then after about 2 hours when I walked along and through an industrial area. This bit in the sun lasted about 1 hour and I didn’t see any benches or anywhere to rest. Nor was there any shade at all. I finally made it to an area with trees and sat down on a big rock in the shade. Benches were a rare sight all day.

It was probably not the best idea to hike here the day after seeing the movie Oppenheimer. There are quarries with frequent blasts the echo of which then bounced back and forth between the hills on either side of the valley. Scared me the first time. Not in a sense that I was in immediate danger. Too far from the hills for a rockslide to hit me and if they were blasting anything (which is what it sounded like to me before I actually saw the quarry) there would be very Swiss (i.e. very strict) safety measures in place. Still, I kind of stopped to make sure everything was okay the first time this happened.

Route 7 is a very solitary route. I hardly ever see people walking along the same route at least not since Altdorf I’d say. I like it that way. This is not a complaint. I don’t think I’d do well in a setting where I was expected to interact with people. I mean if I see somebody, I don’t ignore them. I just prefer walking on my own without talking to people. I will talk to cows, goats, sheep, dogs, horses even bugs and lizards.

The first benches – proper benches – I saw came after almost 4 hours of walking. This was also the best spot to catch a bus back to Bellinzona. I had a 10-minute rest and then checked the timetable. There was a bus in 20 minutes, and it would take me about 15 to get to the bus stop. Pretty much a no brainer at that point. I had the legs to go on, but I also knew that I couldn’t take another stretch of continued sun exposure.

This was the sign - I love that it says “ora/ore”. Never noticed this before. The one at the station in Biasca just had h instead of the word “ora”.

Just to highlight how much of a good decision this was, I made a rookie mistake at the station in Bellinzona. I got there and the train before mine was still on the screen. You know the one where they show you where first and second class is. So, I walked to the front. Trouble was for my train second class was in the back. Stuff like that doesn’t usually happen to me. Public transport in Switzerland is my thing. I felt a bit embarrassed as this really is a rookie mistake, but there we go.

Anyway, I got a seat in the end. I just had to walk through the train and convince some people who were standing in the aisle to let me get through. They didn’t want to go look for seats and I wasn’t going to stand for two hours. That just wasn’t going to happen. There were some seats left just one car down. It was all good and I got my seat before we entered the tunnel. That was a good thing, so I could quickly type this.

If you’d like to see what Switzerland south of the Alps looks like. Have a look at my video. It was a beautiful day. This was the only area in Switzerland with a low danger of wildfires and where the weather was nice yesterday.

Bit of a random post.