Slightly frustrating start of the day, I wanted to get off the campsite but people kept asking what I did (which I like but it does take time) and then I couldn't find one of my knee support bandages and I had to unpack and repack everything twice before I found it. But my sleeping bag passed the test, the sun was back (I took my things off my camping spot to a field next to the campsite so I could dry my things and have breakfast in the sun) and the huge blister didn't hurt anymore.
I got back to the route at 9.30, and after crossing the highway I went into a nice, pleasant forest. It took me a while to appreciate it again after being so tired of all of it yesterday, but I did. And I made quite a list of ideas and things I learned for my 'real' trip. I met a nice stream which I followed for a while and which turned out to lead to what apparently counts as a waterfall in these parts (taken literally, it is; it had falling water). Not all campsites listed on the map in my gps app are campsites, I met a few that were scouting terrains. I followed the stream to the 'big waterfall', which I wouldn't give that name, but it was a fun place nonetheless.
More nice forests and then I was in Loenen. After that there was a lot of walking on roads, and somewhere between Loenen and Eerbeek, while sitting at the side of the road to perform minor surgery on that blister, I suddenly felt very nauseous. The worst of it passed after a few minutes, but I kept feeling slightly sick and not being hungry for the rest of the day. While I was sitting there, a sort of parade of oldtimer tractors passed, that was fun to watch. And later I passed watermill that had a restaurant and terrace attached, and as I still didn't feel entirely well I rested there for an hour on a couch, drinking tea, eating olives, watching people, and overhearing a conversation in which someone told their friend that their tumors were shrinking despite them not having any treatment of medication anymore, and suggesting they drowned all the cancer cells in alcohol (while drinking half a liter of beer). The things you overhear. While walking only snippets of conversation ("And I? How do I look through your sunglasses?"), sometimes more.
I fixed a bit of extra hot water to be able to prepare my adventure food lunch, in case I did get hungry, because my gas canister ran out this morning so I couldn't boil water anymore. Which set me to a lot of calculating, again, how much fuel I'll need to bring in August, as I'll have 392 km to go before being able to buy some without a huge detour.
After the terrace there was more road, some bike paths that would have been nice if they hadn't been so busy with cyclists (and if they hadn't been only half their usual width due to grass and nettles), another slowworm which was not at all like the one yesterday (different colour, head shape and behaviour), small villages and a stretch of forest with a lot of mosquitoes. And then there was a train track and a station, which I reached at 16.45. Including all the walking to and from the route, that was over 70 km in 3 days. I had absolutely not expected that those would be so easy and pass so fast again, I didn't even really expect to be able to finish the whole thing. Looks like I'm back in shape for hiking! Can't wait till it's August :-)

Geschreven door Jewaontheroad