It turns out that sleeping in a structure with a glass roof during heavy rain is not easy. I could have dug through my (packed and almost ready to go) back pack to find my earplugs, but thought I’d probably be properly awake if I did that and it wouldn’t be worth trying to get back to sleep. So I got up at about 5am, put on my waterproof and set off. I figured that the earlier I arrived the longer all my stuff would have to dry. Plus I’d get first dibs on the bed spaces!
The rain was pretty relentless for the first two thirds of today’s walk. I had my hat on and my hood up. I decided that, as I could hear bugger all over the rustle of my hood, I may as well catch up on a couple of podcasts. I got my weekly
parkrun fix by listening to
With Me Now and my weekly laugh out loud dose of fun facts from
No Such Thing As a Fish. I had to turn both of them off from time to time to concentrate on where my feet needed to go. On a day when it wasn’t constantly raining I’d have been glad of my goretex shoes as I tiptoed through the streams that crossed the path. However, the rain was streaming down my legs, being absorbed by my socks and making my feet wet anyway.
I don’t think I saw another person the whole morning. I did see a troll. I’d have missed it if I hadn’t chosen that point to sit and scarf down some of the seeds and raisins I’d taken from the hotel breakfast. They were delicious, not too sweet and still crunchy. I decided to eat them all, as once I’d popped the KT tape seal they would probably be soggy by tomorrow.
A lot of today was spent on paths with varying degrees of challenge, alongside or sometimes through water. Lots of up and down, and densely forested.
I crossed some precarious bridges…
…I’d blanked this one from my mind until I flicked through the photos. And some bits looked as though a group of cadets had been given a command task to get from A to B without touching C using only a plank of wood and a wish and a prayer! As a (so called) responsible adult I’d have told the cadets to think again!
For considerable periods today I had no ‘phone signal at all. It meant I didn’t get the regular Saturday morning chat notifications from various groups, but it did make me think more seriously about the Garmin satellite ‘thingy’ that my friend John was talking about in Helsinki. I need to do a bit of research…..
At one point I passed a sign that said it was approximately 6km to today’s end point. Silly me thought, ‘Wow! I’ll be done by 11am!’ Not realising that the word ‘approximately’ was doing some heavy lifting and the trail gods decided to have a laugh. The next 2km was up a steep rocky slope, down a precipitous stone path, through a boggy and/or under water rocky bit and repeat! That said I was in the accommodation, showered and having a coffee by 12.05pm.
And accommodation is something that really stands out as being different to the Spanish Caminos. For tonight, similar to last night, I was given a code to open the key safe, and payment is by bank transfer or putting cash in a box. This is an old school house. I’m the room that used to be the school room as I type. There is another large room on the ground floor with two beds, some tables and chairs and two smaller two bed rooms upstairs. There is a composting toilet at the bottom of the garden and an outside shower (loads of really hot water and a fabulous view) and a full kitchen. Tonight has cost me 350NOK, but no one will know if I paid it or not, it is all done on trust! It is quite lovely and I hope that it continues this way for a long time. I’ve seen Albergues in Spain that would easily fit 20 beds (if not more) in a room this size.
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