Day 22

Adalsvollen to Vuku
Distance: 17.0 miles / 27.4 km
Cumulative: 258.9 miles / 416.6 km

“Raise your arms Maurice! It’s more fun when you raise your arms like this!” King Julien, Madagascar: Escape 2 Africa, 2008

I had fully expected to use a different quote, from the first Madagascar movie. The one when the penguins disembark into a blizzard on Antarctica and one of them proclaims “Well this sucks.” But our day didn’t turn out that way.

For the last three days, I have been dreading today. It was going to be a really long day (I think the longest of the trek), and the forecast was for lots of rain. I imagined walking for seven hours cold and completely soaked.

This morning it looked like my fears would be mostly realized. It was raining when we woke up. The forecast for the afternoon, however, looked a little better and it was warmer than the last couple of days. We slowly got ready. Around 9:00 am there was a break in the rain so we headed out. The rain was never more than a light drizzle and by 11:30 am it stopped all together. 

Then it turned into a beautiful afternoon. We had to peel off all our rain gear. Plus we found a shortcut that took a mile and half off the distance. All things considered, I’d call it a win. Wave your arms!

Before we get into today’s adventure, has anyone else ever encountered an incinerating toilet? I don’t want to get into TMI territory, but it took me a while to figure out. There were filters, and a cup of water, and buttons. On the plus side, the seat was warm.

Back to our story. As we started, the trail quickly became a narrow, steep, single-track through the woods up a long climb then back down, just as steep, the other side. The rain made it a little treacherous. Fortunately this lasted less than a mile. Then we hit a gravel road that turned into a nice wide path through the forest. 

First we encountered these guys:

Every time we got within about 25 yards, they turned and ran down the road ahead of us. This went on for at least a half a mile. Highly entertaining. 

And then it turned gorgeous. We followed this mountain stream for a mile or more and it is possibly the most beautiful stretch I have ever hiked. 

When we finally came out of the forest onto to the paved road, we paralleled a classic mountain river for several miles.

As the day wore on the scenery became less interesting but the weather got better. Even so, the last four miles was tough. 

We reached our accommodations, a creative arts center with several rooms for pilgrims, around 4:30 pm. Our hostess, Mona, made a terrific spicy vegetarian stew with falafel balls. AND she gave me gin! Also here are Ivonne (I discovered the correct spelling of her name) and Merel, both from the Netherlands. Our hostess joined the four of us and we had a terrific evening of conversation. 

Tomorrow is a scheduled rest day and I am looking forward to sleeping late.