E1 day 8 – Hiking in pain

11. Mai 2018

Jelling B&B to shelter after Norre Snede

33,3 km

Half a day of rest went by way too fast. After a nice muesli with fruit for breakfast I said a last thank you to my hosts and left the small town of Jelling. While walking past the UNESCO world heritage site of Jelling (some hills that were supposed to be the graves of Denmark’s first king, I think) I felt well rested and my backpack felt lighter than ever.

The hike started along roads and paved farmways. I thought about the research I had done on my rest day about Denmark’s animals… First I had to check ticks and tick borne deseases. Lucky me I found a tick near my right armpit when I had a shower at the B&B. The third tick on me in less than a year! Somehow these animals seemed to like the smell of my sweat after a few days of hiking. The result of my research was obvious beforehand: possible risk of Lyme desease. Oh well…

The second topic I had a look at were snakes. I have seen two small snakes since I entered Denmark! It turned out the they were most likely European cross adders. A bite from these snakes is supposed to be not dangerous for humans but can be for small dogs. I don’t want to step on one anyway. It’s good to know what I am in for when I am hiking through the high grass.

But also today all the other animals like cows and horses were my highlight!

The rest of today’s hike was a pain. Very early my right heel started to ache. I had problems before Jelling and thought the little rest would fix it. Well, it didn’t. I had to take breaks every now and then and I basically had to fight against the pain all day. My PCT misery with my knee injury came to my mind. Would my aching heel end this hike? Every step was a pain, really every step. Before my afternoon break in Kollemorten at the small supermarket my hiking style turned into a hobble. I tried to avoid that and hike normal because I knew that every kind of avoiding the pain by walking different would cause other problems. Even after a break in Kollemorten the situation didn’t improve. After a while I couldn’t help it and took some ibuprofen. It helped me to get back to a normal way of hiking. Unfortunately the pain came back very soon.

The pain was dominating everything and so I couldn’t enjoy today’s hike as much as I wanted. I hiked through Denmark’s water divide, where the longest and the biggest river have their spring right next to each other.

My goal for the day was to reach Norre Snede. A little bit past the village would be a shelter according to Pocket Earth Pro. Especially the last Kilometers stretched and the pain was so intense that I had to stop several times.

But I made it and the reward for all my effort and pain is a very nice shelter that I call home for the night. I am not sure though if pushing so hard was a good idea. Hopefully I can hike tomorrow. Tiger balm and some more Ibuprofen – that’s all I can do. Hopefully my body adjusts and I can go on. If not, it will soon be the end of my journey.