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Wake up on the mountain, drove down to the town did some shopping and filled up our water, we drove through hills and forests and hills lined with forests, sometimes steep with rocks, sometimes not so steep with grass or sand. I got the closest encounter with an animal in my life. Cows and sheeps on the road are usual business by now. There are apparently two types of sheep: Numer one is scared and runs away. But “away” is usually pretty random and not away from the source of noise (me). Number two is pretty chilled. Lays in the middle of the streets, alone or in groups up to three in the shade of a tree. It barely turns its head, as you blow past it. This time there was a sheep, lying on the side of the road, in the shadow of a bush. But instead of doing nothing, it jumped up and ran over the street. I did not only oversee it, but hittig full brakes on the gravel made me barely miss it.
We saw horses, cows and sheep on the street. All the sheep we saw still had their tails. When we took a break at a river, which was rafted by several boats, we discovered that the thread in one of the the gas cookers did not make a tight connection with the canisters anymore. Benni fiddled around some but could not fix it. We used the one I brought as a backup even though that one tends to misfire and is much louder . Unfortunately all the outdoor stores were already closed so this problem has to wait until Monday for a satisfying solution. For lunch we had mackerel with knäckebröd and butter.
After that some more riding of the same fashion and before a toll station we took our next break. We had a snack and cooked coffee but the cooker did its job poorly. We continued the nice pass and once we were back in the valley we followed the track up a loop were we found our hardest obstacle today, a loose and Rocky hillclimb with deep ruts. Benni made it up in one go, whereas I got stuck on a step and dug my rear in due to the lack of ground clearance of my back. Together we lifted the rear tire out of the rut and I could clear the rest easily. We continued riding and got up another tolled mountain pass. There were some camping spots but they were littered with camper vans and we did not like the vibe. We saw some cows furting the stream to our left and took another loop, this time only for the view. Back in a valley after a tiny road we stopped at a tiny bridge and decided to stop for today. We cleaned our chains prepared dinner. Today felt very eventful and it was hard to recollect all things that happened all the landscapes and scenic views we passed by. Today I felt tired of driving and it’s soon time to take some more rest.
