And so five days later we are still in Vallorbe. True it is a pleasant town and surrounds but that is not the reason for such as long sojourn. The extra repose is called for to give Samuel’s increasingly bothersome stiff neck some time to resolve itself.

Maybe the long bumpy downhill was too much or maybe it was something else but the next morning after a few kilometers Samuel was in too much pain to continue.

At times like these you really get to experience the kindness of strangers. The first lady we spoke to offered to drive Samuel and his bike back to the camping ground at Vallorbe. The rest of us rode. The campsite operators helped organise an osteopath visit and then leant us their car so we could get there (in Lausanne).

Now after five days and two visits to the Osteo Samuel walks with his head straight and is voluntarily back on his bike. He is still a bit fragile so from here we will continue even slower – more train and shorter and flatter cycling.

During our stay in the salubrious camping of Vallorbe we walked down the river path to the truly magnificent caves of Vallorbe. We were sceptical after our long ago visit to the glow worm caves of Te Anau, but we truly can only echo Aunty Deepa’s recommendation having visited!

We also had the pleasant experience of meeting several lovely people at the campsite over our stay whom we hope to see again somewhere sometime!