Vía degli Dei 2: We broke Jennifer

The first part of today’s walk was on a path beside a stream and the aftermath of yesterday’s storm was very apparent. The stream was surrounded by a wide band of silt and the path was scoured smooth and sandy. The smooth walking in sun-dappled forest made for a pleasant start.

It was soon apparent that the scouring had also made it impossible to differentiate between path and brooks leading into the stream and we had to do some backtracking. Then we had to do some semi-vertical climbing up mud slides. Look closely at the next photo to find Jennifer climbing.

That was followed by several kilometers of awful mud. The only saving grace was that, in stark contrast with the mud on then Camino del Norte, this mud was pristine and created without the help of farm animals. Navigating the mud felt an awful lot like cross-country skiing.

All this was a little trying in spite of lovely weather and views. And then we argued. Now Jennifer and I rarely argue when we walk but we melted down over different directions between our two apps and the paper map – all exacerbated by the fact there is more than one official path. Words were exchanged and there was a period of silent walking. Then all good.

Our helpful guide at the briefing yesterday had warned us not to try the Monte de Adone if it was raining – “…path a meter wide and 350m right down – no good if slip.” We spent some time last night trying to research just what the path would be like and finding little information. When the time came to choose to go up or to go round, we shrugged our shoulders and went up. It wasn’t as scary as we feared, and probably the going up part left us little energy for worrying about falling. The views from the top were absolutely spectacular and we didn’t regret the decision.

Well except that somewhere in there Jennifer’s right foot started to hurt, really hurt. She soldiered on but it was a lot less than ideal.

A stop at a lovely trattoria for lunch helped. But another hour walking did not. We had always, following the guide’s advice, planned to catch a bus the last 4km; it was just as well we did. The plan now is for Jennifer not to walk tomorrow and see if that helps.

(Jennifer saw the headline on this post and says she’s not broken, ‘just bent’.)