Day 185: Here We Go Again

Passo del Giogo to Fiera dei Poggi

Distance: 30km

40 hours without sleep. I'm so, so ready for bed, or sleeping bag I should rather write. Hence, I will keep it short.

The bus ride to Florence has less delay than expected. After an uneventful ride, I get off the bus only 15 minutes late. With the tram ticket already on my phone, I can hope right into it.  Destination: Florence central train station. There, I board a train to Sieve San Piero. Again a 10 minutes delay. My 10 minutes connection to my bus to Passo del Giogo is basically gone. Luckily, this bus is also delayed by a couple of minutes, so I barely make it.

Just before 0900, I'm back on the pass. Already exhausted from all these delays. In hindsight, it might have been a bit less stressful if I arrived a day earlier. 

The pass with its ristorante is still looking deserted. Good for me, as I can use one of the tables to quickly repack.

Then I'm back on the trail! After exactly 8 months. It's perfect hiking weather. Sunny, around 20 degrees Celsius, a light breeze.

The trail: well it continues as it ended last year. Plenty of forest, overgrown in parts but generally easy to walk. This time though it's a lot wetter, muddier. And then the ticks. While I was lucky enough not to encounter any last year, today, well, I wasn't so lucky and got my fair share of ticks. A bummer, really, as they somewhat ruined an other wise quite nice day. 

9 hours of walking. 30 kilometers. My body feels ready, fit. My mind... Not just yet. My thoughts kept wandering around aimlessly. Anyway, I'm too tired to go into detail. I rather catch up on some sleep. Getting my priorities straight. The camp spot I picked is nothing fancy. Nicely sheltered inside a picnic area,hopefully allowing for some good, well needed sleep.