Today I went into the forest; Bergherbos. It was a good forest. Under the canopy my sunblasted skin found reprieve from solar onslought. The air was cool, the trail empty, the birds alive with the sound of music.
This section of the Pieterpad I hiked once before (8 years ago), but this morning I found myself like Gandalf in Moria – I have no memory of this place.. the trail gained in elevation, and marked the first climb since starting on monday. Such flat earth.. wink wink. At the highpoint of the climb (total elevation gain could not have been more than 50 meters) I stumbled upon a towering construction and thought to myself: that’s kind of weird-looking and out of place here. I recognized not the building, but the thought seemed familiar. No time to linger however, the first downhill awaited!
This section of the trail crossed through a small chunk of Germany. This didn’t move me in one particular way or the other. There was a church there.
The trail followed the river, and as they do in movies that aim for a pondering, introspective, and in-tune-with-nature-vibe, I let my left hand glide through the reed grass. When there was no more reed on my left side, I switched hands, just for the fun of it.
It was now time for a coffee and a piece of applepie and a smoothie, which I got to enjoy at the roadside café. When I sat down, Africa by Toto was playing on the radio. It was already hot at 1130, the smoothie was bliss. The trail went past villages Lobith and Tolkamer. Neither of them seemed familiar either.
When I arrived at the ferry to cross the Rhine, I saw it moving towards the other bank. Behind me was a sign depicting its departure times; once every hour. Slight sigh of frustration, but quickly composed myself and opted for a lie-down under a tree by the riverside. I set my alarm for 45 minutes, just to be safe. Ten minutes later I realised with a jolt that the ferry was nearly docking on my side of the river! So much for that darned schedual.. A quick grab for my belongings and like Bilbo I came running down the slope yelling: Wait for me!! I’m going on an adventure!! (Ok, that didnt happen, I made it onto the ferry in time, by keeping a defermined and slightly above average hiking pace, whilst saying nothing).
From the other bank of the Rhine, it was less than an hour to the campground near the outskirts of Millingen. Met another Pieterpad hiker there, Marleen, who’s doing the whole thing SoBo, and we talked about her experiences of her first long distance trail. It was fun to hear her relive all those first-time learning points. We talked gear and she asked me questions about the PCT and other hiking adventures (which I gladly answered).
Today I ate one Nak’d bar, two packets of Sultana (natural), two apples (Kanzi), two handfuls of trailmix, one coffee (decaf), one small cookie (came with the coffee), one piece of apple pie, one smoothie (strawberry-banana), two croissants, one portion of pesto, one block of emmental cheese, one pasta-salad, one portion of olives, one portion of sliced mango. I have a blister on my left big toe. My calves hurt a bit today. I’m considering tomorrow as the last hiking day for this trip (not because of the blister).
Ta-ta.
