Weather: ☁️🌥️⛅⛅⛅
Picnic: 🥪🥪🥪🥪 (4 out 5, bread on a square in Joseni)
Track: 🇷🇴🇹🇩 (2 out of 5, start was pretty, got lost, a lot of roadwalk again. Better than yesterday though)
Milestone: 4500 km!
Hotel: 🛏️🛏️🛏️️🛏️ (4 out of 5, nice room, good food, great hospitality and a hot tub!)
Name of followed trail: ‘chickenrun’ day 3 of 5
On a misty morning, we have a good, English style breakfast. That should be enough fuel for a while!
We start walking out of Ditrau when the mist is just lifting. This gives beautiful picture opportunities, so Mark has to be patient with me this morning 😁
We walk through the fields in a gravel road, much nicer than the busy road yesterday. However we do get stuck at some point, when the track that is supposed to go straight, just stops at a house. The 5 big dogs that live there come towards us, barking to make us leave. We really want to, but we don’t know where to! So we go back towards the stream we just crossed, with 2 big dogs on the other side that also don’t want us there… Not the best of situations, but we manage to get across and take a detour along the busy road. Luckily the dogs we met so far only seem to bark, not bite. The road section to Lazarea is not a very nice route, but at least it’s easy to follow and there are no dogs guarding their territory here…😅
From Lazarea we walk to Joseni, where we have lunch. We find a small bakery, where we get some nice bread and profiteroles 😋
On this stretch, we also celebrate our 4500 km of hiking. Now, ‘only’ 2500 km to go!
We continue for the last 12 kilometers to our destination a little outside of Suseni. Along the way, a car stops and offers us a ride. We decline and have a chat with the lady. A little while later, we see her walking in the village. She invites us for a coffee, so shortly after, we are having coffee with Kinga at her house. Kinga is also a hiker and wants to come along for a day. It was very nice meeting a fellow hiker here, on one of our roadwalk days. See you next week Kinga!
After this nice break, we walk to the pub outside Suseni. Unfortunately it’s closed, but the weather is good and we don’t have to wait long for our ride to pick us up.
Before we go home, he bring us along to buy the local Palinka at a home distillery. What a great surprise, as we both enjoy seeing how things are made. Seeing how this internationally loved drink is made is an unexpected gift!
Of course we buy a small bottle to bring along on our travels.
At home we relax before dinner and have a good meal. First the fish and chips that our host made, and then we have to taste the meal the firefighters are
having, Halusky with fresh mushrooms and pork from the oven. Both meals are delicious.
After that,we have a chat with Csontos, our German speaking firefighter. Generous as they are, we get offered quite a few glasses of Palinka during this conversation. Even while skipping more than half, I have had enough 😅, before I get into the hottub to relax and then go to bed.