The path that wasn’t there 3

June 7th – third day

Total distance: 7,4 km
Total time: 2 hours 10 minutes
Vertical distance: 115 m uphill, 135 downhill

A bad night with little sleep, due to village festival outside our hotel window.  At breakfast, I still couldn’t swallow anything solid.  Neil also ill (he went out to enjoy the fun outside).  Nevertheless I set off slowly.  Many detours needed as the whole frontier area here is marshland.  Many obstacles – trees across the tracks – there must have been a strong storm recently.  See photo – this was the first of many.  Then the crux:  I followed the only possible “path” on the map but it was completely overgrown and impossible to find without a GPS.  For some 600 – 700 m I battled with brambles, giant stinging nettles (that stung your knees through the trousers), boggy areas, shrubs, fallen trees, etc.  By the end I was quite exhausted and soon contacted Sally to be “rescued”.  Difficult, because of weak mobile networks in this area.

Night: Hôtel de la Gare, Porrentruy