DAY 96 - BROD TO TRNOVO: 26.1 MILES (52,200 STEPS)

Hard Plod from Brod

25th July, 2011

Brod, BiH to Trnovo (Completed in two sections)

26.1miles (Total: 939.7 miles) 52,200 (Total: 1,812,491 steps)

“Action is a great restorer and builder of confidence. Inaction is not only the result, but the cause, of fear. Perhaps the action you take will be successful; perhaps different action or adjustments will have to follow. But any action is better than no action at all.” Norman Vincent Peale

There is no doubt that getting up early and getting into a car to drive back down a road to complete a section of the walk, is so much more difficult and less satisfying than getting up and starting to walk.  That said, completing a walk of this nature is always a trade off: by getting rid of my camping gear, I managed to reduce the weight of my backpack by 6kg—the down side is that now when I can’t find accommodation, my only choices are to get transport to a major centre and return to complete the section, or to sleep rough—the least attractive option—I have seen too many dead snakes on the roads to be able to sleep easily in these mountain areas.  The upside of working from a base with a support car is that the distance walked can be tailored to the conditions of the day and of how I am feeling and I don’t need to carry my backpack.

The section between Niksic, Montenegro and Sarajevo, Bosnia (approx 120 miles) had, as far as I could find, only one guesthouse—that was in Pluzine; so travelling into Sarajevo and then back and forth was the only option. I think that out of the 96 days, I may have had to use transport to and from finishing points to get around shortage of accommodation, about ten times, but it is always second best. That said, it reminds me that this is not walking with a ‘Wainwright Guide’ and cosy B & B accommodations and country pubs every eight miles. The fact that I have only ever met one fellow walker on the road, in Meteora, Greece, and he was just visiting the monasteries, reminds me that this is not yet a tourist trail.  Each day is a new challenge and a new experience.

Back to Brod and the experience of walking that day was a bit grim—heavy rain and narrow roads with heavy trucks servicing the mines and forestry which keep the economy of these parts growing. I had hoped to do the full 26 miles in one go, but after 13 miles the car which was bringing me food and drink at the halfway point, gave instead, with minimal encouragement,  a lift back to the hotel in Sarajevo, leaving the whole exercise to be repeated another day.