Distance: 10km
Elevation: 600m

I feel really proud of myself for listening to and protecting my body, and knowing how far I have come since the days of pushing at any cost. Those days truly feel done for me. My body is handling the elevation in a much more measured way and I think if we had carried on with the original plan, I would have been injured, and I think Mum too.

So today revealed some of the less glamorous parts of these trips. We stayed in a dormitory last night with six other people, all men, and although the auberge was stunning and clean, the six other men came in at 2am, drunk, loud and inconsiderate, and then proceeded to snore in turns until 6am.

That’s the hostel life I have never really loved.

But we paid them back by sneaking out at 6am and maybe disturbing their snoring rhythm for a nanosecond.

We packed up and left at 6:45am. I was feeling a bit out of sorts, partly from the disturbed sleep and partly from a conversation with the barman about the bears, wolves and vipers in this particular region.

As we were walking, I had two voices in my head. One asking God to put His protection around us, and the other reminding me that Mum and I have zero idea what to do if we come across a bear or a wolf on the path.

Is it best to eat or throw away our biltong?

Would carrying food attract them?

Is that bear poo or cow poo?

Is that a marking on the tree?

Yes, this is what it’s like living in my head.

Exhausting.

I kept reminding myself that fear exists in the future and that if I just focused on how unbelievably beautiful our surroundings were, I would feel far happier.

And then voice number two would chip in.

“Is that a bear poo?”

So I decided to give my inner child some love and went on an inward journey to understand why she was scared and how I could help her.

Often she just needs to feel seen in these fears.

Life has not always felt safe for her.

That seemed to help because shortly afterwards we emerged from an incredible forest into a clearing that we later discovered was a pilgrimage site. It was stunning. A large open lawn surrounded by stone cottages and a stone church. Mum and I decided to stop there for a coffee break, which was so lovely.

It was also the first day we shared a rusk.

Always a welcome addition.

The mountains towered above us on every side and honestly, we had them 360 degrees around us.

How epic.

As we continued, the heat picked up and so did the elevation, but we were doing well and the incline felt fair. It helped that the path was so walkable and lined with wildflowers in every colour imaginable and an abundance of butterflies.

By the time we made it into town, we were feeling properly cooked.

We made our way towards our refuge, which turned out to be very underwhelming. It looked run down and completely uninviting, so we decided to walk towards a hotel to see if there was space for the night.

Midday heat, very little food and a desire to secure accommodation meant that I found myself watching the staff manually count keys against bookings for what felt like ten minutes, only for them to tell me there was no space.

My sense of humour was hanging by a thread at this point.

They also spoke zero English.

Thankfully, Mum managed to find us an apartment on Booking.com, which was a huge relief because everything else was full.

We hadn’t really eaten properly all day, so before moving on we had a cold beer and tucked into the chorizo, cheese and crackers we had been carrying in our packs.

When we walked into the apartment, we were so happy.

After sharing a dormitory the night before, we each had our own room, there was a washing machine and the space was clean and cosy.

Luxury.

I promptly lay down and passed out for two and a half hours.

My body felt exhausted.

Later, we wandered down to the small central square, sat at the bar and made a few more adjustments to our upcoming route.

Finally, at 8:30pm, the town’s only restaurant opened.

So late.

But we sat down and enjoyed the most delicious home-cooked meal. The beef stew was incredible, rich and tender and exactly what our bodies needed after the day.

Another really good day.