Asphalt causes knee pain
N 23°16'33.4" E 148°32'31.7"
Day: 233 Stage three / total expedition days 624
Sunrise:
05:24
Sunset:
18:56
As the crow flies:
22,3
Daily kilometers:
27
Total kilometers:
6554 km
Temperature - Day (maximum):
38° degrees, sun approx. 58°
Temperature - Night:
22.8° degrees
Latitude:
23°16'33.4"
Longitude:
148°32'31.7"
Railroad crossing camp – 04.01.2003
Margret, Greg, Maly and Paul accompany us as far as the road, then we say goodbye to each other. “We’ll get back to you when we find the opportunity to make another phone call,” I say and give the command to start running. We see the waving hands of our visitors for a while longer until we enter a slight valley depression.
“What do you mean? Do we want to sell our boys to Paul?” Tanja asks. “I would much rather sell them to the other two, but if that doesn’t work out, Paul is fine too,” I reply thoughtfully. “What obligation do we have to give them to Paul? We can sell our animals to whoever we want.” “We can, but in this case it’s not up to us. Greg doesn’t want to jeopardize the friendship. I can understand that. However…” “What do you mean by however?” “If we call Greg and explain to him that we will only sell our boys to them and assure him that we will also make this clear to Paul, it is in our hands. Then Paul can’t be angry with his friend, he can only be angry with us,” I mused aloud. “Hm, you’re right. We should give him that explanation with the next call,” Tanja replies.
Tanja gets severe knee pain on the rest of the walk. “It’s probably due to the constant asphalt running. My back hurts too. In a few kilometers, we should be on a dirt road again. Judging by my map, this should be a dirt track,” I explain.
Around midday, the tar strip disappears into the red earth. We now walk alongside a railroad line that leads to the various coal mines. The landscape around us is stony and dry. Then we have to cross the tracks. From here we have a fantastic view of the plain stretching out in front of us. Green trees grow on a water dam in the valley. “Our camp site for the night is down there,” I say and pull Sebastian onwards.
As is the case almost every day, dark clouds appear later, but they disappear again. Because of the heat, we decide to sleep on the camp beds again. Just as we have fallen asleep, the fickle weather changes its mind again. Dark clouds quickly gather over our heads again and wet drops quickly fall on us. As usual, we jump up and erect the tent to take refuge from the rain.
