TS Day 106

Via Skallinge

Saturday 23 October 2021

Another cold morning and me being reluctant to get up and get going. But of course I did. In the end.

Today was the day I thought to myself that if there was ever a movie made about me on a hike, it would likely be called "The reluctant hiker". People seem to expect hiking to be enjoyable and something you like, or that you are an outdoorsy person or something. None of this is really true for me! I don't like walking or exercising and I don't like being outside unless the weather is nice, which is mostly just true for summer. And if it is, you don't want to be exercising! Just chilling.

But recently I've tried to learn to enjoy the outdoors, enjoy walking, enjoy the different seasons... So people meeting me today find it hard to believe that when I grew up I absolutely hated these things! But I'm trying, alright? I'm trying to change. Your life won't get better if you go around hating things, especially things you can't change. Better to accept and embrace. Right?

Today it seemed like it wasn't my feet that were going to be today's biggest issue as it has been lately, but rather my back that had decided to start hurting, and a terrible itching in a very bad spot that were almost unbearable while walking. *sigh*

This made me take a lot of extra breaks today, but I wasn't walking so far so I had time to do that.

Later in the day, when it got warmer, I could enjoy the sun and just the beautiful views. Unfortunately with my bad mobile camera, it's hard to catch these on photo. I'm trying my best, but most of the time everything just looks dull, not at all pretty like it does in real life.

Recently, as I am now getting closer to my goal (Smygehuk) I have started to think about what will happen when I get back home. What will I do? What job will I get? How will I avoid post-hike depression that everyone seems to get after doing long hikes? If I know myself I will have a few days to "land", and then I will start planning for the next adventure. There is just something with planning, longing and quite not belonging. How will I become a better self? How will we earn enough money to do all the things that I know we want to do? We already have a lot of plans for the upcoming years but economy is always a problem (and time of course). Just knowing I need to get a job and save a lot money is frankly quite boring. But that's life, right?

Now - back to my hike I guess. In the afternoon Via Suecia followed Hallandsleden, but in one spot (Ingemansbo) it detoured from it. First I had to walk through someone's property and a fence/pasture which made me feel uncomfortable. It's totally okay to do that in Sweden, I just feel bad doing it. Then, I crossed an area that was flooded, and then came to someone else's property. I didn't feel comfortable crossing this one either, so now I decided to just get out to the road. I then followed that road (and an old train embarkment) for the rest of the day, until I passed Ryaberg. Here I took a trail to Gyltige where I found a flat spot where I could pitch my tent. And for once, I don't remember last time it occurred, I pitched it before sunset! I also found (tap) water, and a toilet you could pay to use (and pay 100 kr to camp close by) which I didn't feel like doing. On the Internet, several sources said there was a privy nearby, but despite walking around quite a lot in the area, I never found it. Really annoying!

In the evening I had a warm, freeze-dried meal which was also more than a week ago since I had last time, and read old Facebook posts about hiking that I had written, sniggering to myself because of all the things I didn't know. And once again, I realised just how much this hike has taught me!

Today's:

Distance: 25.6 km

Start time: 09:55

End time: 16:24

Ascent: 306 m

Descent: 338 m

Snickers eaten: 4

Totals (from Grövelsjön)

Distance: 1,024.1 km

Ascent: 13,890 m

Descent: 14,633 m

Tent nights: 15