Via Alpina

A lot of time has passed since the last entry. The retreat was great, even if it was quite an emotional rollercoaster ride. I was able to see things more clearly and it was great preparation for my hike and crossing of the Alps.

My sweetheart came to Croatia so that we could spend 5 days together on holiday by the sea and then he drove my bus home and dropped me off near Trieste on the Via Alpina route.

Since then I have been running about 20 km every day.

Here is the entry for stage 3 (day 3)

9.40 a.m. Coffee break in the sun and drying my things. It rained all night, so I'm very happy that the gray, low-hanging clouds creeping over the mountain ridges are leaving gaps for the sun, which is currently drying my tarp, my sleeping pad, and my rain pants. As I change from long pants to shorts, I find more and more ticks that must have crawled into my sleeping bag last night. Some are in such inconvenient places (basically everything behind me) that I'm slowly collecting torn tick heads. I had one behind my left armpit, just enough that I could still see it blurry. After 10 attempts, I finally got hold of it and was able to pull it out. That's the disadvantage of the tarp. All kinds of crawling things can crawl up to me without asking and bite into me. And yet. I love this tarp and am sooooo happy about it. It is so quick and easy to set up and take down again and it dries in the sun within 5 minutes thanks to its manageable size. And I can see what is creeping around me at night, and if I can see the stars, that's fine too. And above all, it is airy at lower altitudes (so far max around 400 m) and just right for not sweating at night with the sleeping bag slightly open at the top.

The biggest issue, however, is water.
I was lucky enough to find an open supermarket in the village at 7.30am this morning, where I bought 3L of water, plus 1 cucumber, a roll with cheese for breakfast and an apple for later.
This makes my backpack really heavy again (without water this morning it was really light!)
I plan to walk 20 km today to leave the motorway, along which the Via Alpina meanders today, and civilization behind me and climb up into the Alps. Then it's already 1200 meters.
Let’s see how far my feet will carry me!

It is such a luxury to be able to spend the night near a water source. Unfortunately, that is rarely the case here (once so far, near a small stream) and I really (!!!) hope that the marked water source, which I should come across tomorrow during the day, has water! Otherwise it will be tight if the huts are still closed!
I can always practice trust and carry as much water as I can!

And they have the biggest slugs I've ever seen! I have a shoe size 40 (about 28 cm, for size comparison!!!) see picture;)