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08:27: Sitting up in the bag. It’s a muggy, overcast day. I first woke at 07:09, but because the first part of the night was a bit hellish, I decided to have a lie-in. Even after dark there were still groups of people moving around in the park, yelling, chatting, playing music. Well, at least one group. There’s also a light next to the campground that illuminated my basha which makes it hard to be discreet. It was also too warm in the bag, but opening the foot end helped. Eventually it started to rain: first, fat thunderstorm drops — there’d been constant lightning flashes going on to the North — then a steady, light rain. I fell asleep when the rain came, because I knew no-one would be out in that after dark. I woke several times after that, but fell back to sleep promptly. I’m going to get up now, use the facilities if I can and see how the body feels.
08:32: Amazingly, the legs and feet feel okay — a bit achey, but that’s normal. I spoke to the cleaning lady, who gave me more detail about what’s required to get access to the showers. I pay a €20 deposit at the swimming baths and €5.00 fee for the use of the showers. Pretty awesome price. I’ll have some breakfast and shower afterwards. I’m just standing around in my t-shirt. There’s no wind.
09:27: Finished a delicious chocolate, honey, walnut and sultana porridge. Now I need to wash up, pack up and head to the swimming baths.
10:33: I’m pretty zapped today. I can’t say for sure, but yesterday’s walk can’t have been more than 36 km. Maybe it was the heat that made it so hard. Anyway, I’ve had a look at the next day or two’s walk. Tomorrow is a 22 km day to a basic camping and there’s an option of a Privatzimmer listed in the book at Beuron. The next stretch after that, from Beuron to Sigmaringen, is 31 km. Sigmaringen to Riedlingen is 34 km.
11:39: Got the keys to the showers. They’re available at quite a classy swimming baths which is impossible to find without Open Street Maps. You’re actually only entitled to stay one night in the campground, but they don’t know I’ve been there since yesterday. Looking forward to a shower, clothes washing and then an afternoon parked up in a café in town with a book.
11:48: Bloody hell, the shower is super-civilised.
12:55: OK, I’m off to Lidl. I’ve left socks, jocks, t-shirt and towel drying on the basha and I’ve put my rucksack in the shower, which I’ve locked. I need to get nail clippers, factor 50 sun cream, bin bags and maybe get the pharmacist to look at the toenail on my right foot.1
13:22: At Lidl. €2.99 for a 100 ml tube of factor 50 cream. €11.88 for asparagus soup packet, factor 50, bin bags, and a women’s leather belt.
14:01: Sitting in a riverside café under an umbrella looking at a fountain in the middle of the river and steep-roofed building on the opposite bank. The anxiety I experienced in France on rest days has completely evaporated. €5.20 for a hot chai and a large Apfelschorle. I will get back to the campsite and on into town eventually!
14:07:47
14:07:58
14:22:35
Moving again. The muscles in my ankles ache.
14:33: I’m having a 45-minute sport massage for €50 at 15:00. I couldn’t resist.
15:56: That was mind-blowing.
16:59: In the main town square. It’s quite buzzing! No noteworthy architecture but laid back and buzzing. I’ve shown my right toenail to a pharmacist who tells me there’s no lotion or cream for toenail funguses. I’ll just have to wait for it to grow out, but I’ll need to keep an eye on the nail bed to make sure that it doesn’t get infected, otherwise I might lose the toenail.2 Then he charged me €8.50 for a toenail clippers. He got his money’s worth for that consultation. I expect this nail clippers to be a Swiss army knife of nail clippers. Now, to find a nice terrace to sit and read and maybe get dinner. I appear to have skipped lunch. No harm.
17:11: Sitting down to an egg and spinach pide with mixed salad.
17:55: Most excellent. Off to have an ice-cream now.
While I was eating, the Tunisian lady who is the cleaner at the campground greeted me. She told me she’s lived in Tuttlingen for 44 years and plans to move back to Tunisia and divide her time between there and New York. “Trump is trying to set Muslim against Muslim — but the Shia aren’t real Muslims, they hack off people’s heads and shout ‘Allah hu Akbar’”. She’s doing a good job without Trump’s intervention.
21:26: Getting into the bag as dusk falls. €32.10 for dinner, bed and breakfast.
The pair of shoes I’d worn from Dublin to Rennes had been about half a size too small, despite the size indicated on the shoes being two sizes up from my normal shoe size. As a result, I’d badly bruised the big toenails on each foot. While in Reims, I’d bought another pair of the same brand and model of shoe, but this time half a size larger again. These ones were roomy enough for my toes, but the damage had already been done.↩
It didn’t get infected, but I lost the toenail anyway. It wasn’t a painful process.↩
