In the morning, I only leave my tent when it is absolutely necessary. I listen to the raindrops pattering on my tent and spend as much of my morning as possible inside. I cook my porridge (keeping as far away as possible from the heat-sensitive tent walls), catch up on a few blog entries and laboriously start packing my bags. At some point I hear Nick, who has swum across the lake to me, calling out for me to come to them.
When I finally venture outside, I realise that the rain isn’t as bad as I had imagined. It’s drizzling, and under the tree where my bike is standing, it’s mostly dry. I pack my bike “quickly” (it takes me at least half an hour) and join Vlada and Nick for a short while before I heave my bike back to the road via the hiking trail.
I stop early because I spot a shelter by a lake and want to catch up on blog posts. The ride was relatively easy on gravel, but I’m travelling slowly.
After dinner, I take shelter from the rain in my tent. I write, read and drink tea. I am now reading the only book that was pre-installed on my new e-reader: Pride and Prejudice. I will reserve my judgement for later, but I have to admit that I am not ready to put it down.
I hear a bicycle approaching and stick my head out of the tent. A fully packed bike, the same model as mine, a Baden accent; the beard and suntan suggest a few weeks of touring. Daniel started the European Divide Trail from the north and joins me with his tent. We exchange stories about how we deal with the various challenges we encounter along the way (he tells me how you don’t get eaten alive by mosquitoes in the far north when you’re in an outdoor shop), what we like and dislike about our respective setups. He tells me about his route so far, and his description of days of nothing (as in forest) confirms my decision to leave the trail.
We try unsuccessfully to keep a fire going. After an hour of adding more and more twigs to the wet wood in an attempt to get it to catch, we give up.
It was a pleasure to be able to exchange ideas with someone who is in the same boat as me and is currently facing similar challenges. I am grateful that Daniel joined me.
