Bringing the northern border to a close

Today the northern borders officially end for me. I'm basking in the moment as I head back up to Leysin for a celebratory dinner with friends.

Last night Carol Rankin hosted swissinfo’s Dale Bechtel and me in her apartment in the beautiful little town of La Tour-de-Peilz, right on the water near Vevey.

Carol moved down here from Leysin in the late 1970s after founding and running the renowned Club Vagabond in 1961 with her husband Alan. The club was the heart of Leysin for most of the expat community and many of the world’s travellers when we lived Leysin, and in 1965 Dad headquartered his International School of Mountaineering there. Dale and I revelled in a few stories from the old days, as well as others from Carol’s new passion: La Tour-de-Peilz, the greatest place in the world, she extols.

Personally, I still hold out for Leysin, but it’s hard to argue against a charming little port framed by mountains and abundant nearby culture. The list of famous writers and artists who have lived in this close space, from Montreux to Lausanne (with Vevey and La Tour-de-Peilz in the middle), is so staggering that there’s now a little book introducing them, while statues and busts seem to line the shore.

By noon we paddled past Château de Chillon, the most impressive castle I’ve known in Switzerland. Built in the lake, it controlled all traffic that came over the passes from Italy. Of the many prisoners held in its dungeon was the Geneva patriot François Bonivard, the inspiration for Lord Byron’s poem The Prisoner of Chillon.

And then came the final stretch, paddling into a headwind alongside the nature reserve at the mouth of the Rhone until we reached St-Gingolph, when my border journey began last June. The arrival was a bit anticlimactic compared with what I expected last June, as the intention at the time was to finish the entire border by this point, not just the northern half. But it was good none the less, a calm sense of satisfaction. My full report tomorrow will look back at this last month. It’s been a phenomenal experience for me, and I thank you for letting me share the journey with you.