Minor aches and pains

Day: 13

Sunrise:
06:59

Sunset:
17:20

As the crow flies:
12

Daily kilometers:
15

Frenches-Camp – 24.05.2000

Today doesn’t start so euphorically. We all suffer from different kinds of pain. Jo and Tanja have run into some serious blisters. Our shins and almost every muscle in our bodies hurt. My shoulders have tensed up from always carrying the cameras, my lower back is sending out massive alarm signals and for some reason I’ve run myself into the first wolf of my life. Nevertheless, we want to continue.

After breakfast, I treat Jo’s blisters on the balls of both feet. They don’t look good. To relieve the pain a little, I pierce it with a sterile needle, disinfect it and tape it up. Tanja treats her blisters herself and after we have treated our aches and pains, we set off at 12 noon. It soon takes us forty minutes to find a suitable ford through the river. We breathe a sigh of relief as the caravan then crosses the water without difficulty. On the other side, we now follow the railroad line in the direction of Goomalling. It is a branch line, so we hope to have few encounters with trains. In fact, we are undisturbed for the next 4 ½ hours.

From 3 p.m. I start looking for a place to camp, but the path is bordered by fences to the left and right. We pass huge sheep farms and if I didn’t have such back pain it would be a wonderful day. I’m starting to think about where we should set up camp here. It is impossible next to the rails. Firstly, there is not enough food for our camels and secondly, there would not even be enough space to set up camp. Half an hour later, near the village of Frenches, we reach a large area that looks like a parking lot with a car parked on it. A woman with children is obviously watching us with great interest. “Is this place also bordered by a fence?” I ask her, exhausted. “Yes, it goes on behind the trees,” she answers kindly. I learn that she has been waiting for us here for some time. A friend of hers saw us walking along the railroad line and informed her about it. She wanted to give her children the chance to see our camels and drove out here. After a short chat, she offers us to go into the nearby fence where we can set up camp. “The site belongs to friends of ours, I’m sure they won’t mind. There’s a gate right there. It’s not locked,” she says in a very friendly manner. Shortly afterwards, we find ourselves in a perfect, paradisiacally beautiful clearing. It is bordered on one side by an enchanting forest through which a lovely river meanders. Satisfied, I pitch the tents while Jo and Tanja take the camels to feed, as they have done for the last two weeks.