Giromagny - Bas-Évette / Belfort
Effective km: 13.5
Total km: 22.5
Elevation: up 50m, down 150m
Min altitude 386m, max altitude 590m
Active hours: 5h17m
Steps: 39213

I slept until 8.30, which I really needed, and woke up slowly. I decided to make use of the tea and table as long as possible and just took it really easy. Bought yoghurt and pain au chocolat for breakfast, then started to slowly pack my things. When I woke up, it had been sunny, by the time I left the hotel (at 11.00, checkout time), it was cloudy. And it remained like that all day, clouds with the sun sometimes peeking through, but no rain!
First, there was a gravel road through fields, then it ran through forest, became narrower. I passed an old fortification and something in the forest that sounded like a drunken crow. After that it was back through the fields before reaching an area with several lakes (I still haven't really figured out when they call something an étang and when a lac; small ponds are definitely étang but some big things are called étang too. Though really big lakes will always be lac). The road passed trhough a village, where I went to take a look at the sream, which crossed a road. Different implementation of a ford I guess. My road went the other way so I didn't have to cross, took a while to get out of the village again, and after that ran between some more lakes. It was a nice area; but I just felt as if I were walking to the train station rather than hiking. The train station just happened to be 12 km away, but I hardly call that a hiking day.
The problem was that when I got to the train station, still feeling tired, it was 14.45 and the first train would run at 18.16. I wasn't going to wait that long, so I'd have to walk to Belfort, which added 5.5 ineffective km. I had to choose between the campsite and the hostel, and had decided to go to the hostel, because it had computers with internet, a kitchen and the possibility of meeting people. But when I got there I got an individual room because the dormitories were full. The room felt cramped and dark, and when I went exploring, the areas for doing things and meeting people were either totally unattractive or locked, the kitchen had no pots or pans or anything, the computers turned out to have been in the restaurant which were closed for refurbishing. All this combined to make me feel pretty bad, and it took a phone call with someone who knows me well to realise I just shouldn't stay there. So I repacked the few things I had already unpacked, had a somewhat awkward conversation with the desk employee about why I was leaving, then went for another 3.5km of walking to the campsite.
It's a big campsite with a lot of facilities (and even information in Dutch...), not the kind I like, but I do feel better here.
Tomorrow is another rest day, there is a library in the city where I can finally post some of these logs online, and I'm going to Decathlon to buy new fuel fuel and see if they have any maps of Switzerland. After tomorrow, there is only 55km of GR5 left before I reach Switzerland. I'll be there in a few days!

Geschreven door Jewaontheroad