Its Sunday and I will have been walking for 7 days. 

I continue to get a bit better organised (although I am losing a few things along the way; nothing important so far). My legs are sore, my feet have a few touchy places perhaps a small blister or two coming, but the 50 year old body is holding up. 

I think I am losing weight, I am eating a lot including all those things I cut out of my diet 2 years ago. Great being able to eat anything you want. Last night for dinner :-

• Proscuito and pecorino cheese when I arrived
• A big bowl of funghi tagliatelle
• Veal scallopini and chips
• An Affogato
• 2/3rds a bottle of red wine (I was hanging out at the restaurant as the wifi in the room was poor and my editor had me under pressure to finish the next blog chapter)

I counted up the distance I will walk over the next 6 days before my first rest day at Assisi – 166kms so I can probably continue to eat … everything. Yes I did when I arrived at Sansepolcro

The Hotel Buca Michelangelo was decent, had a good restaurant but had poor wifi and phone coverage in the room and no other inside areas. The restaurant closed for lunch while I was having my shower so no-where to get a much needed cuppacino. The food was good, but you really need Italian in most of these places … ‘basta nutrirmi’ wouldn’t go down well. 

The Walk to Sansepolcro

I wanted to get an early start today. I didn’t have much detail on the walk, 540m climb and 1000m decline over 25kms is what caminoways indicated, which could be hard or easy depending on the pathway surfaces and the existence of steep segments. My walking so far has varied between 6kph on good flat surfaces to 2kph on rough steep rocky pathways. 

There was no food in the village so I grabbed some extra bread, prosciutto and pecorino and a banana for lunch. Lesson 4 – always put the banana into a plastic bag in your daypack ..ohh they can make some mess.

It was a beautiful but cold start as it was only 7 degrees at 830am. I walk with a t-shirt and sleeveless vest on most mornings and this was fine so long as I was moving. This morning I put on also put on my ski beany – toasty.

There was good 4G coverage so I skyped Jack and Amanda as I walked the first few km’s. His first baby tooth is still hanging in there – Tooth fairy on standby.

As it turned out, it was a pretty simple walk today, long but easy, it fell into 3 main sections:-

• [10] km of walking along very quiet roads (not so much fun)
• [6] km of pathways through forests which was full of hunters today (Sunday) carrying shotguns in their Camo gear. Hearing shotgun blasts in the distance kept the walking pace up as I walked towards a major reservoir.
• [10] km of nice flat walking trails following the Tiber River upper reaches, farms and a series of small lakes and ponds that are part of the flood plain. Now this was my favourite part and I went off onto a number of diversions.

 

Overview of the Walk

I never tire of the old farms and buildings in rural Italy. There is one waiting there for everyone; shame its so far from Australia otherwise the cheque book would have been out.

It was holding off from raining proper, I put up with some little sprinkles for some time but the clouds continued to look ominous. It did make for some pretty spectacular vistas though.

Today the written instructions were good, it was a pretty simple routing involving no challenging multiple path options in the forest like yesterday, although I was still happy to see myself joining back up to the GPX routings I had.

The walk itself around the lake was surprisingly boring, limited vistas and all on tarmac.

But at least there are mushrooms 

After I turned onto the route to follow the Tiber, the walk was much more interesting. Very quickly I came across this group of about 10 stone buildings. The place was deserted but the building walls still looked structurally sound and one of the buildings had a TV antenna. I find it amazing a place like this is such a location could be abandoned?

 

 

After the village, I was in farmland. The area was a floodplain and I saw corn, maize and other vegetables being grown. But the area itself is subject to major flooding depending on the release of water from the upstream dams and there are a long series of ponds and dams along alongside the river.

 

I love the Italian signs, either when I try to translate one or when they do. There were a number of them today that I liked.

 

 

I wnet on a bit of a diversion here to see what ‘Area Naturale Protteta di Interesse Locale …’ on the map was about and discovered the flood plain ponds. These were interesting, I wondered over and found the Tiber River which was serene, saw Brown Trout in the ponds and and a freshwater crayfish. It ended up being a good place for lunch.

 

 

And just to make my day, a little Marron wonders along (fresh water crayfish)

After lunch I decided to power the last 8km’s into Sansepolcro to view the medieval town and city walls. It is lovely, unfortunately nearly all the shops are closed – Sunday!! Lesson 5 – plan the trip around Sunday and Mondays.

The walk was uneventful except for seeing Italy’s ugliest church. It anyone has a photo of something worse please shoot it through.

Arrival at Sansepolcro

It’s a nice little town, very historic inside the city walls with much remaining from the 14^th and onwards centuries.

• I walked around town, again I was pretty exhausted. Everything is closed its Sunday!

 

 

 

And my dinner … I went to Enoteca Guido – it was very good. I rated it 5 stars.

And tomorrows Walk

The walk is a BIG one. Its combines 2 stages (an esy 12.5km to Citerna and a moderate 20km stage to Citta di Castello making 33km all up ascending 1000m and descending 1100. Tomorrow I will have to scurry as the walks are scheduled to take 1130 and I have 11 hours of daylight.

And Don’t Forget The Good Cause

In honour of the great work Black Dog institute are doing in helping many families, corporate organisations and communities create awareness and support to deal with the pressures of life, I am raising money for this important cause.

I have hit my $3,000 target – but lets do more – no amount is too small – and I need a new donation.

Ciao Darren