Saturday, 27 September 2014

I won't do that again!

I've just had a good night's sleep in a comfortable room in the bar/restaurant/pizzeria/hotel of the village of Macanono. I booked this on Thursday night.
Yesterday I converted from tourist to walking pilgrim, but I did it too quickly. I should have spent the day in Spoleto, which is a very historic town, and also have done more planning.
I was late starting yesterday, because I was repacking and reducing the load, so I only started walking at about 10.30. Big mistake.

The path out of Spoleto was a climb of about 450m along a zig-zag track up the hill. The path was good, but steep.
The rest of the path here was through the hills. There were some slippery parts with loose rocks and it was mostly level or descending. The problem was the remoteness. The were very pretty views of the hills, but I was often a couple of kilometres from the nearest road or other human being and mobile signal was not always available. Not good. If I twisted my ankle, I might still be there.

My GPS recorded the day as 23km, 8 hours, total ascent 750m, total descent 800m
I was pretty tired at the end, then I discovered that this hotel was another 4km away, along a main road. I rang the hotel and I thought the woman was saying that there would be a taxi at the main road, but she was actually offering to pick me up herself.

When I got to the road, there were half a dozen people chatting and they told me there was no taxi. I must have looked pathetic, because the man offered to drive me, but at that point the woman from the hotel arrived.

I had a good meal last night (brochetta with rocket and cheese, gnocchi, and the local speciality of boar).
Anyway, I've decided to stay here for another day and do some planning. I feel ok, a little sore, but thankfully no blisters.

I'll make sure the days are shorter from now on and that I bypass the long remote tracks. I have plenty of time, the guidebook suggests 14 days from here to Rome, which would mean I arrive on 11th October and my return flight is on 18th October.

They told me at breakfast that there is an old monastery on the hill above here, so I'll look at that and do some washing as well as planning.


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