Today. A toilet audience. A wheel jammed in the gutter. A presidential 12000km from Eindhoven celebration. A belly of berries. A wind in all directions. Scree-slope roads. Climbs and drops. The mountains are getting bigger. I liked today.
He was sitting on the ridge – the little shepherd boy. From his perch he could see everything. Every possible toilet spot. And I needed to go. We often get audiences. Often kids. They just stand there and watch.
We only needed to go 4km today for me to reach 12000km from Eindhoven. At the 11999km mark I was greeted twice by a billboard of the Tajikistan president – one standing in a field of tulips, and one 500m further on holding some equipment while inspecting some engineering project. I was disappointed that he waited until 12001km before congratulating me with another billboard. Still, it had all the bells and whistles – and flags.
Reece got stuck in the gutter while getting back from the presidential address.
Today was a day of climbing (and even more often, descending) in the scree. It made for some slow going, but gave me a sense of achievement for getting through it.
And today was a day of mountains of berries – we bought some from some little girls at our lunch stop.