Distance: 26km + 2km by car
Duration: 5.30h walk and 2.30h break in total
Weather: very hot with 29C, no wind, a lot of direct sun
To describe the fifth day, I only need one word – HOT!!! When starting in the morning at 8.30am, I could already tell the difference to the previous days that it was much warmer and hardly any wind. When choosing the route, I made one mistake to follow the walk of Google Maps as it was 2km shorter than the signed out cycling path. With the weather forecast of up to 29C, I thought every km matters. It was a poor decision though as the route took me along a busy road for most of the parts in the morning. Just when I was cursing myself for this silly idea to walk with a 8kg backpack in such a heat along a busy road with an outlook of 26km walking distance, there came this woman out of nowhere ‘get in quickly but you have to rush!’ She was my saviour in that moment and dropped me off in the next village. It was only 2km but such a boost in my motivation and a way to get out of the heat.
From there, I was on the cycling path again which led me through beautiful landscapes along the Elbe and below some trees. In general, there wasn’t much shade though and I had to choose my breaks mainly based on some trees along the way.
In the afternoon, I followed a path which at some point was a dead end and I was standing in front of a massive corn field, joined by a field of purple flowers where thousands of bumble bees were flying around. So I had three options: 1. Go back (no way!), 2. Walk through the flower field with all the bumble bees or 3. Walk through the corn field. I chose the last version, although the field was easily 1 km long. Unfortunately, I had to realise quickly that I wasn’t alone in that corn field. When going deeper, I must have scared an animal hiding and it ran off in panic mode. Judging by the sound and what I learned in the last days, it most likely was a wild boar. This freaked me out quite a bit and I was praying that the man was right who told me previously that they wouldn’t attack me and go in hiding instead. A little further, I heard the same noise again and it couldn’t be further than 5m away from me. I decided to turn up the audiobook on loudspeaker to ensure the boar would definitely hear me long before I get to him. About 10min later, I made it out of the field and it’s a little understated to say that I was quite relieved.
The rest of the trip was fairly smooth and I got into Torgau in the late afternoon. Compared to the previous villages, Torgau was very lively with some bars and restaurants open and a welcome change. After a quick shower, I treated myself with ice cream, a stroll through town and an Italian dinner at a nice place.
Torgau is one of the unexpected highlights so far as it has a well preserved old town with a busy market square, a castle and a lively atmosphere.
Accommodation: https://goldener-anker-torgau.de/
got opened by Martin Luther
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