Route So far
Travelogue
Today is a standard rest day! We're in an apartment in Schattdorf, about 5 km from Lake Lucerne, and partway up Eurovelo route EV5 on the way up the San Gotthard Pass and our destination for tomorrow, the ski resort of Andermatt. But that's tomorrow. Today we rest and eat and eat and rest.
On the subject of eating, yesterday obtaining food was a bit of an issue due to it being a public holiday. Things are back to normal today so our first job was to walk to the Co-op supermarket about 800 m away. It opened at 7:30 and we were there not much later. We're all set now for today, for breakfast tomorrow and have some energy giving (we hope!) bananas for the tough cycling tomorrow.
M1 has had the bikes outside for their weekly clean and maintenance routine. All seems well on the bike front.
And that's about it. We may watch something on the laptop. We will certainly read. And M1 will harvest the sun's energy to charge his power bank back up to 100%. It's currently at 70% having charged his phone from about 20% yesterday evening. The sun isn't yet on the balcony but when it is, the solar panel is all set up ready to leap into action.
How has solar charging been going?
In short, it's been going incredibly well. Expectations have been surpassed by a huge amount.
Every day, M1 uses his smartphone for navigation, photography and information finding. It's fair to say it's heavily used. By the end of a typical day, the phone indicates it has between 20% and 40% battery capacity remaining. It has a 4400 mAh battery. So, that's quite a lot of juice that needs to be replenished.
Every day except for Day 1 of this trip when we were in an apartment near Dieppe, M1 has charged his phone from his 20,000 mAh power bank. Every third day, his Suunto Peak Pro watch gets charged from the power bank. The power bank has then been charged the next day using the Alpkit solar panel attached to M1's bike, as we ride. On a couple of days when the weather has been wet, the solar panel stayed in a pannier and was not used. So for the last 14 consecutive days, with variable weather, M1 has powered his phone and watch from solar energy. The power bank has not yet been plugged into a wall socket a single time to recharge it.
This is game changing stuff.
Obviously you need the right weather. As long as it's dry, you'll get something from the sun. Less when overcast. More when bright, unimpeded sunshine is shining straight into the solar panels. It's truly awesome.
Photos
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