Day 14 – Petershagen

The morning

The night in the hotel was good, very good. I slept well, and woke up, as usual for this trip, way too early. Around 5am. I managed to get 1 hour more sleep, and then took a shower and went down to the breakfast lounge. I was the first one, or maybe it wasn’t really busy in the hotel.

After breakfast I packed my bag, checkout out and started walking.

The walk

The stage today brings me to Petershagen. A walk of around 26km. No problem considering the walk from yesterday, which went great and without problems. I left around 8am and the temperature was still below 20 degrees Celsius, great for walking. I felt a pain in my right leg that I did not know. I’ve had some pains during walking, but they were mainly from blisters. This was different. After 4km I took a little break, and after 10 minutes I continued. When I walked around 9km the pain was back and more painful. I considered stopping, but did continue, to get to the 50% mark. And I did, I walked 375km in total since May 19th.

After about 2km, there was no mobile phone signal during that time, I gave up and called my wife when the signal was strong enough.

The leg

I could not ignore the pain anymore, and had to do something. My wife agreed that it was the smartest thing to do. My lower right leg was bit red and warm. Warmer than my left leg. So, something was definitely wrong. My guess is that it is an allergic reaction gone bad. I have walked through high grass yesterday and that usually gives me red rash for a while. But not this bad.

Hitchhike to Petershagen

After I disconnected the call with my wife, I started hitchhiking. One car passed, two cars passed. And more passed. The 6th car stopped. I walked to the passenger door and this friendly guy Heinrich took me in, and brought me to Petershagen. A trip that took is about 10 minutes. In those ten minutes we discussed our families, my adventure, our work, and we missed the exit to Petershagen…

Heinrich turned the car around and dropped me off in the street were I needed to be. He wished me all the best, I of course I returned those wishes. Thanks Heinrich!

My route can be seen here. Try and find the sport were I hitched a ride.

The hosts

I called Annabelle, one of my hosts for today and said I was coming over a bit earlier. She was doing groceries and asked what was wrong. I explained the situation of my right leg, and she explained that tat the drugstore. In the meantime I met Marco, and their two children. Who were about the same age as my children.

When Annabelle got home, she brought a creme, that I applied to my leg, and took a little nap. After an hour or so, I came down and sat down in the garden. The red rash was almost gone and so was the pain. It was still a bit sore, but it looked promising. At the time I’m typing this, 8pm, I’ve applied the creme a second time. Hopefully a good night sleep together with the creme will do some magic.

Also, when I slept, I got an email from Mindener Tageblatt. A local newspaper. You might remember them. The same reporter asked if she could come to the house to do a follow up interview and some pictures. Around 2:30pm the reporter was there, and I explained the situation and told her about me experiences so far. We took a few pictures for the website and the article in the paper and that was it. So cool to do, and let the local readers know I am, or was, here.

Marco prepared a Caprese salad with real buffalo mozzarella, and OMG that was so tasty and good. We drank a few alcohol free Weissbier, and Annabelle prepared dinner. It was a lasagna / pasta dish, with bread and homemade tomato pesto. Again, so yummy!

After dinner I took a shower, brushed my teeth, and said goodnight to my hosts. It was an interesting day so to speak,

The animals

Yes, another edition of “What animals has Marcel seen today”! #WAHMST

Sadly no pictures, because the two wild deer I saw, where hiding when I got my phone out of my pocket.

Tomorrow

Tomorrow I have to go to Barsinghausen, a trip of 36 kilometers and where I will be picked up and taken to Hannover. And yes, the next day I will be brought back, I don’t want to cheat.

Depending on the conditions of my leg, in combination with the warm/hot weather, I’ll see what I will do.

See you tomorrow.