May 17, 2024

I get up to pee and now, in the daylight, I see where I pitched my tent last night in the dark. Not under a tourist information sign, as I had thought, but under a sign for a shooting range. What?? The sign explains how to hunt wild animals—where to shoot a bear or a moose. All around me are warning signs about stray bullets. Not exactly an ideal camping spot… But hey, I didn’t hear any gunfire, so no harm done. Still, a good lesson: even in the dark, read signs carefully—and luckily, Google Translate’s camera function works great for that. Without coffee or breakfast, I quickly head out and find a nice spot for a break later on, next to a beautiful lake.

Since I won’t be passing a supermarket for a while, I stocked up on groceries yesterday. I feel the weight in my cart, but I’m also getting better at adjusting the straps that connect it to my hips, so I can hit just the right balance point where the cart feels as light as possible. It’s different every day, depending on how heavily it’s packed and how I’ve arranged everything.

I notice my mind is much calmer today. Has the great letting go finally begun? The weather is beautiful, though there’s a breeze that makes cooking tricky—my alcohol burner’s flames flicker in all directions. But, lucky as I am, I stumble upon a shelter that isn’t marked on any map, just when I’m getting hungry. I cook out of the wind and lighten the cart a bit—from trolley to tummy. I wash my dishes in a little waterfall and carry on walking.

After more farmland, a wedding venue, and some forest, I pitch my tent in a quiet meadow. It’s by a small road, but apart from one car and three cyclists, no one comes by.