DAY 228 - SAVERNE TO BERG: 21 MILES (42,400 STEPS)

7 December, 2011

21 miles (Total: 2219.7 miles)–42,000 (Total: 4,748,401 steps)

The weather has taken a significant turn for the worse with driving hail on exposed roads and no tree cover is a challenge, especially when you are walking into it; there is a feeling of constant pins and needles striking your face. If the hail posed one set of problems, then the rain provided another – that was especially the case around Phalsbourg; it was like having a freezing cold power shower for an hour. The result was that even though my electronics: camera, phone and iTouch were in so called ‘waterproof pouches’ the deluge was just too heavy and all of them cut out which caused an immediate communications problem as I was meant to rendezvous with David and required a telephone—fortunately I had a back up phone with a Swiss SIM card which was still working. I have had problems before with the rain of course and it has shorted out the electrics—the worst previous time was travelling from Pluzine to Focha across the Montenegro/Bosnia/Sebska border. The problem then, as has happened a few times, is that being without the camera means I can’t take photos with the GPS on my Lumix so as to populate the clever map on my web-site showing my route. Still in Saarbruken I went to a supermarket to get my secret weapon—rice! Rice is fantastic at absorbing moisture which is why there is often a small bag of it in electrical items you buy. I bought a big bag, dismantled the phones/camera etc and then left them over night.

Most times that does the trick, but this time my iTouch was a goner—this is such a shame as I was just getting in to my French lessons with ‘Coffee-break French’ although I was getting just a tad annoyed that no one asked me what my name was, where I was from or if I could introduce my brother and I didn’t need to ask anyone what the time was or for directions to the railway station.  I also use the Facetime function on the iTouch as a sharper video contact with friends and family than Skype. Still two bits of good news, one was that my precious new Kindle and my trusty Toshiba laptop were both in my rucksack in Strasbourg so spared the shower and I have since discovered that as my iTouch is still under warranty, I can take it into the Apple store in Paris and get a replacement once I have picked the rice grains out of the headphone socket and worked out what is French for: “My iTouch got soaked in the rain. I tried to dry it out with rice. It was bought in March this year and so is still under warranty. Can I have a replacement?”