Day 5 - from Molveno to 'I'm done'

So dear friends out there at the radio and television sets, uh I mean smartphones, iPhones, tablets, iPads, and computers, or wherever you are following me.

Well, today we went from Molveno, the city that probably has more hotels than Las Vegas, to 'I'm done'. 'I'm done' is a district of Fiavé, where they buried the dog yesterday and today the fox and the goose said goodnight, or I just couldn't see the end of the world by chance because the clouds reached down to the houses.

Today I decided not to walk the stage planned for tomorrow anymore. I must have mentioned the topic of recognizing and acting on your own limits before. But no, seriously, it's enough. I'm afraid of getting injured and I want to avoid that the upcoming week, which I will spend with Carola at Lake Garda, is dominated by wound care and numbness from painkillers. We both don't need that.

I made this decision without guilt or self-reproach. I also wondered if I have to prove anything. Sure, it sounds great to say that I've hiked from here to there, conquered so many meters of elevation, and all on my own. Sure, it feels good to constantly hear your praise, but I didn't do it for that. It was for me and I have achieved more than I ever imagined. Of course, you can still praise and be proud of me.

But enough with the sentimental stuff, you surely want to know how my day was. Well, I would say it was good. The theme of the day could have been something like 'The journey is the destination or somewhere along the way the destination must lie', or maybe 'Expansion of local knowledge until all gray cells are used up'. Uh, how should I understand that? Those who have few cells shouldn't get lost so often. I assumed I still had a few, but they're all gone now. By the way, a little detour into psychology. It helps to formulate something positively, to avoid negations, like 'I don't eat sweets!', it's better to say 'I eat a piece of chocolate after dinner!' That's a completely made-up example, there are certainly better ones. What I mean is, Sophia called getting lost an expansion of local knowledge, she gave a positive name to a mess. Thank you, Sophia, you have no idea how often I thought of you today. And if there's a positive name for it, then you enjoy doing it much more and unfortunately also more often.

Wow, I'm galloping today. But now to today's stage. The plan was to walk 25 km from Molveno to Fiavé, mostly downhill and a lot of flat terrain. I started at 08:40 am, quite leisurely after a standard breakfast with cake stuff and 2 cappuccinos (plural con cappuccino, it's not called 2 espressos either) and, what should I say, that's the wrong start for such a day. But never mind (that will probably be the word or phrase of my journey). The main thing is it tastes good. I think I already mentioned breakfast, didn't I. Yeah, that's enough about gray cells. So, off I went. Through the ugly town (my very own opinion) and then along the lake. On a straight path, I can really pick up the pace and keep going quite well, unlike on the alpine sections in the past few days. As I cruised along the lake, I thought of last night. You sometimes hear strange noises at night, like foxes or the neighbor's cats. At 03:50 am, I heard very loud techno music 'Dischdischdischdisch....', which woke me up. When I was awake, it sounded more like a fight. Some animal was trying to convince another that it is lower in the food chain. Ewww, what noises, now I was wide awake, by the way. Fortunately, I fell asleep again while one of them was eating the other.

So, back on track. I had a real wow feeling because I could overtake a man, okay, he was moving very, very slowly, strolling around, almost walking backwards, but never mind (there it is again), I was faster. At some point, I couldn't believe my eyes, I caught up with the two guys from yesterday, huh, how did that happen, they wondered too, especially because they started about 20 minutes after me. That made them think a lot. I suspect the two of them passed me when I took a detour to a viewpoint that wasn't really a viewpoint. But I didn't have to tell them that. But somehow it has something to do with 'Back to the Future', because at some point in the movies you reach a point where it becomes difficult to follow the time travels.

I took the opportunity to change my clothes, after the two of them had moved on, because being all covered and wearing a jacket was clearly too warm for me. By the way, it was briefly cooler again, but never mind, I had to keep going.

That was also the moment when I didn't start thinking about expanding my local knowledge yet, sorry Sophia, you'll come into play later. Man, I was proud of myself, one hour on the road and still on the right track.

So I continued, many straight paths, high tempo, and then I got lost. Funny enough, I ended up back on the path. But don't ask me how I managed that. Suddenly, the path was just a narrow trail, trees were lying across it and then there was more than just a narrow trail. So, on one, then back, then the other, looked over the cliffs, didn't see anything, and kept going. And then there was my path again and then suddenly gone.

But when I encountered the llamas, I got suspicious. Where do they normally live? Damn, how far did you get lost? It's still bright out! Will you ever find your way home again? Won't they spit at you? They're looking like they will. But a few meters further, I realized that I am still on the right path. Whew, lucky me.

Around 11:30 am, it was time for an extensive break. According to my GPS, I had already covered 14 km. I had sandwiches with sausage and a can of cola. Suddenly, the two guys who were ahead of me this morning appeared. The classic small talk among hikers in this situation (I assume), about where we had been, how I could have overtaken them, but they also saw the llamas, which means that we were at least on the same path for the last few km. I had to smile, internally I hoped that the two of them, who are clearly more experienced than me and always look at the map together, would also think about expanding their local knowledge.

Well, the punishment for my schadenfreude didn't take long. Right at this place where I took my break, there were several signposts that confused me a lot. Because there were places mentioned that were next to, but not on my route. And that's when the misery began, I was soooo wrong and walked back and forth and even in circles around a mountain that I had just climbed down only to go back up again. The worst thing was, I could see my correct route on the GPS, about 200 m away, but I didn't want to walk off-road and besides, I wasn't really sure if everything was correct. It was correct because I later passed by exactly this spot. Well, that resulted in a good laugh again.

Then I ended up on the right route and continued, unfortunately again on the road for a while, but then back on a path. Oops, the wrong path with the right destination. I reached Ponte Arche and had to buy some drinks. I used the waiting time until the supermarket reopened to relax a bit. Then shopping, also got something to eat on the go and a peach iced tea for my nerves. And behold, in my planning, I had once again included a section on the road. But no, I don't walk serpentines. So I walked a bit behind the guardrail, then on a path, and back on the road. And behold, the two guys who had overtaken me twice today were standing on the road. They must have gotten lost somewhere too. The three of us then walked along the road until I stopped in a town because I absolutely wanted to follow my GPS. I didn't know the exact address of my hotel, of course I did, but I didn't have it handy, I was just sure that the route had to pass by the house.

By the way, it had dripped several times by now. Who needs that shortly before the destination?

I then walked my way, which fortunately at some point no longer followed the road but went through cornfields and past cowsheds. No, dear hiking god, please don't let my hotel be in one of these farms.

At some point, it got too strange for me, so I took the next crossroad towards the main road. Oh man, where am I and where is my hotel? I took shelter at a car workshop and googled. I was only 400 m away from the destination. Cool, but which direction? Before I set off, I asked the workshop for directions. Phew, lucky me, I would have walked in the opposite direction.

I arrived at the hotel around 5:37 pm. They don't speak German, but the young woman speaks decent English. That made communication much easier. She found a bus for me to Riva, which departs at 2:04 pm. I can even stay in the hotel until then. Very nice. The alternative would have been somewhere around 6:50 am.

When I looked out the window from my room, which, by the way, has 2 functioning radiators, I realized that I had only walked about 100 m behind the hotel. I took the wrong path, or rather the right one, I just planned it wrong.

In the meantime, most of the things have dried, I had dinner in the hotel restaurant, schnitzel, fries, salad, and a cola (had to be, and there was no pizza) and now I'm lying in bed and typing.

That was yesterday, as you probably noticed.

Well-rested, completely relaxed, packed my backpack, I'm sitting in front of the hotel the morning after 'I'm done' with a latte coffee. The weather is gorgeous, but some parts of my body are hurting, which doesn't make me question my decision.

So here I am, digging into my thoughts from yesterday, figuring out what else I could report.

The shower was funny. The shower itself has about the same floor area as a beer coaster and a shower curtain, which is not a problem right now. It got interesting when I turned on the water. It was more like a gentle drizzle, not a proper stream. The temperature was also lacking and it took forever for it to get warmer. I turned on the tap at the sink, strange, even less water came out. I turned off the shower and there was more water, turned it on again and there was less. Great, well, at some point the water was warm and I could shower. By the way, this morning there was suddenly a proper stream in the shower, even at the same time as the tap. Allora, isse mire egale, water comes, water doesn't come, as the Italians say. If water doesn't come today, it will come tomorrow.

Well, those Italians.

Wow, it's really dead here. Nothing's happening, the season is probably over. Such a large hotel, 40 rooms, huge terrace, large restaurant, but dead. Only grandma is sitting in the bar, the same one who was there yesterday. She probably won't find any company to travel with here.

Oh yes, by the way, Wander-Sveni, my inspirator, motivator, terminator, and trainer, seems to be concerned that the tour may not have been well-planned. Never Sven, everything is great. You suggested the rough route and I worked out the details with my naivety, like when to go over rough terrain or on well-developed and busy country roads. I will pay more attention to that next time, but you will always be my number one contact person. The borrowed jackets and the buff scarf were definitely in use, thank you very much for that too.

I think that should be enough. I will continue soon.

Check in again tonight here at SoloHikingToLakeGarda (even if that's not true anymore) and read the latest.