Day 29: Stage 23: Nyon, 30 km, Sunny, 27°

Reverse Cruising Along The Chemin de St-Jacques!

I honestly wasn’t quite sure how far I would be walking today, so I was up and away early. If I told you that I might have eaten a tin of Libby‘s baked beans and tomato sauce right out of the can, perhaps you would think less of me😂. However, beans are an excellent source of protein that can carry a person for a long time. I might’ve also eaten a couple of bananas.

It was fairly cloudy to the west, but I was heading east towards the blue sky.



Not my hotel! I’m sure those who are staying there had a much better sleep than I did in my lower bunk bed. But it was fine and it did the job.



I was a bit taken aback when I noticed that the fountain wasn’t shooting up into the air. I guess they turn it off at night, makes sense.

I shared the boardwalk with other early morning runners and walkers. Unfortunately I couldn’t stay at lake level, so I took one last photo of Geneva, and then turned north.

Quite by accident, I passed through a nature Conservatory. It was really nice walking along the park trails and past some beautiful gardens.
Yesterday I explained that I have no GPX tracks for this route. A few months ago I carefully plotted some way points on a GPS app then didn’t look at it again until last night. I set off carefully this morning, keeping a close eye on the app to make sure I didn’t get lost. Of course I was aware that there is a Chemin along the lake, but I wasn’t quite sure what the way marking would be like. I eventually saw a marker. It would take a little while until I was confident enough to put my app away and follow the various types of markers. It turned out that I was on route 4 and there were periodic signs to this effect.
Walking out of Geneva is like walking through a high-end neighborhood. This wasn’t expected, but I thought if it continues like this all day that it was going to be a very boring walk. All of these estates, embassies and consulates have huge walls around them, so all I could see was basically the road.
This is an example of the numbered route markers that periodically confirmed that I was moving along in the right direction.

This is looking sort of south eastward down the lake. Clearly the mountains were going to be largely covered by clouds today, but I didn’t mind having seen them in all their glory last August when walking with Annemarie. Actually, I spent very little time along the lake today, so it didn’t matter very much
From time to time I did walk along the main train lines! I really like the trains, and I took some videos for the kids. 



I spotted a little more signage along the way. This is one of several routes that lead to Jerusalem. It’s about 4000+ kilometers, and I’d be lying to say that I’ve never thought of walking it. Wouldn’t it be a fantastic travel experience! It’s not likely in the cards though. 

I was pretty much spot on with my 2000 km estimate to Santiago measured from the far end of the lake. There’s just one small 300+ km section that I have left to walk to complete this route in the European fashion, ie, returning to walk a route a number of times until you complete it. And taking this a step further, when I walk the 300+ km from Geneva to Le Puy I will also have walked Rome to Santiago the long way (~3200 km) in five separate walks. As you can tell from my analysis, the stage today wasn’t very physically or mentally challenging!🙂 

This is one of the interesting things about walking various routes in Europe. Because they are often pilgrimage routes there is a tendency for them to overlap and cross each other. So I just have to walk that one section and the puzzle all comes together!



Looking back about 7 kms. 


Things were definitely getting very Swiss as I moved away from the high-end estates. There were others along the way, but they were more spread out. I started to pass through little towns and communities.

As is typical in Switzerland, there were lots of potted flowers which helped add beautiful colour to my day. 







Things were getting back into typical Camino mode! I stop for a cup of tea and a pastry at about 12 km. In Italy this was basically impossible most days.





I saw the name of this wine bar, but it took my brain a little while to sort it out😵‍💫
I passed this really interesting looking house, before realizing that it was the gate house to a quite amazing property which I was able to get a glimpse of. 
Wow! Fun to look at, but I have no interest in owning something like this. I must admit though that it would be fun to spend a week here with maybe 10 of my best friends! Even the gate house would do!








In the background are the Jarl Mountains which Annemarie and I crossed last August on our way to the Alps. We crossed them about 80-100 km from here as the crow flies. Very beautiful!




I did eventually arrive in Nyon where I was able to actually stop at a small bar for another camino tradition.
My accommodation for tonight. It was built in the 1600s and also has a restaurant on the main floor. I wonder what $100 will get me for dinner tonight?😎
Last stage of this walk tomorrow. I plan to walk as far as I have time for (30 kms?) before catching a train to Zürich. I’ve been told repeatedly what a beautiful city Zürich is, and I’m looking forward to finding that out for myself later tomorrow afternoon.

Thanks for following.🙏