July 6. Day 9 Walking.

Wake: 7am. Slept well in the beautiful bed as a thunder storm occurred outside. Took an anti-inflammatory/pain killer before bed and didn’t wake up from pain like the nights before. My feet were particularly tight last night. I self-massaged my lower legs and feet. Felt okay this morning.

Start: 9:05 from Kapp. The place we stayed last night used to be the home for the leadership of a condensed milk factory, which we passed this morning. Beautiful brick buildings.

My bag felt heavier to start today. No pills.

Beautiful walk. Broken sky but mostly overcast to begin.

Flat to begin, soft forested ground, beautiful smells and sounds (waves from the lake, birds calling, breeze through leaves).

5.2 km: little break lakeside. The morning walk was mostly alongside Mjøsa (again, the largest lake in Norway at 117km long/15 km wide). I would come back and camp here. Or rent a cabin. The rocks along the beaches are heavenly…so many rounded ones and different colours. Gentle breeze and not a single mosquito. Wow!! Can’t feel my blister anymore. No tenderness even. The Compeed (like a second skin) cover helped a lot.

Raindrops. Then heavier rain but always while we were protected by the tree canopy of the forest. The rain stopped after a bit.

8.6 km: lunch on the beach. Little foot soak in the lake to revive the feet. Raindrops break the break.

I’ve started to feel my shoes aren’t a perfect fit. I’ve noticed how my big toes are hitting the ends… is that new? Am I suddenly becoming more aware of my feet?

12 km: cramping on outside of left foot. What is that about? (I later realised it’s from walking with my toes up to protect my blister from the ground when I’ve got my flip flops on).

14.2 km: we followed the sign posts (mostly stickers in Gjøvik, the city of 30,000 where we’ve arrived) but then they just ended. So we looked at the map and we had been led the wrong way by the stickers. It all worked out because being misled brought us closer to the hotel. It’s easy to get back on the trail tomorrow.

3:05 hotel in Gjøvik.

We visited the spa with hot tubs, cold tub, steam, sauna…all fixed up now. Not quite. But better. Today was a difficult day. I am physically tired. We only did 15km but I’m feeling shattered. We are doing 27 km in two days. One step at a time, Kim

Chin-Yu took me to a Chinese restaurant and ordered food for us. It was authentic Chinese food, off the menu. It was super tasty. Who knew I’d try authentic Chinese food in Norway?

15.3 km total today.