As far as a good nights sleep goes last night was on the opposite end of the spectrum.
The mosquito action seemed to cease at around 3am and I was able to open the top half of the hatch to let what little breeze there was in. Prior to that I just lay in a pool of my own sweat. Sleeping with a fly net on is no fun! It’s warm in there but at least the little buggers couldn’t get me. I think I squashed the final mosquito at 0500 and started packing up camp at 0530. If I was to make one modification to Chappie it would be to have a mosquito net at the rear hatch.
I still had no appetite this morning but managed to eat 2 ration packs of Museli. I set off at 0615 and felt really tired from the word go. The first mile in 18 minutes gave me false hope of a 2000 finish. After that poor first mile I just got slower and slower as the heat of the day took hold.
I still had no appetite this morning but managed to eat 2 ration packs of Museli. I set off at 0615 and felt really tired from the word go. The first mile in 18 minutes gave me false hope of a 2000 finish. After that poor first mile I just got slower and slower as the heat of the day took hold.
I stopped at the 7 mile point to restock Vado. While I was drinking outside the garage a man came over and asked “what’s this?” pointing to Chappie. A quick explanation was given, he shook my hand and off I went. I managed a meagre 11 miles by noon but I was still confident of an 8pm finish.
As I started writing my blog for the night a strange face appeared at my window. He introduced himself as Nikola. He’d brought me some water and a can of beer with “Mitrovic 9” on. It tastes tremendous.
The next 6 miles were pure torture. The temperature peaked at 33 Celsius and I had to pull over at 1600, move the boxes inside Chappie and climb inside to sleep (with the flies). No sleep was had but I did feel a little rested by the time I set off at 1730.
This is one of the hardest days that I’ve ever had around the world so far. I’ve never been to hell but I imagine that it would be like my journey today. I made it to 21.7 miles before asking a lady if I could sleep in her garden. I think she said that she was waiting for her husband. That was the case and when he arrived I got Vlad “the fixer” on the phone to ask permission in Serbian.
Permission was granted and the kind man filled my water bottle and the lady brought me some Cherry juice along with some freshly picked cherries. They were delicious.
As I started writing my blog for the night a strange face appeared at my window. He introduced himself as Nikola. He’d brought me some water and a can of beer with “Mitrovic 9” on. It tastes tremendous.
Nikola is a Partizan Belgrade supporter and he’d been tipped off by Dusan at the British Embassy that I’d be in the vicinity.
What an amazing country Serbia is. What kind people!
i sutra idemo opet
End of day 2 thoughts are here
