Steps: nope
Temples: nope
The rain came last night with a vengeance. Laying awake listening to the sound of hard rain thundering on the ceiling of our little guest house, I felt extremely grateful we didn’t have to be out walking in it.
I also felt something else, however. My stomach wasn’t feeling so well. Rumbling and churning, nauseated, I fell in and out of sleep hoping it would get better next time I woke. It didn’t though and by the time our alarm went off at 5.45 I was so nauseated I could hardly stand.
I actually thought I would be feeling awful, like cheating, if we had to take a train some of the way. But there was just no way in hell I was getting up to put a fully loaded backpack on, let alone walk 27km today. A train was the only logical solution, since we already have bookings along the coast for the next few days that can’t easily be altered.
Our hostess agreed to give us a lift to the train station, after I’d slept a couple more hours.
The next 2 hours of taking first a train, then a train bus and finally a taxi, were some of the hardest yet (For me at least, Jonas actually had the time of his life, observing the DMV – dual mode vehicle – transform from bus to train and back to bus again).
Kochi is the prefecture where the ascetic training part of the pilgrimage is said to take place. So even though it sucks it also seems fitting somehow.
By some miracle the laser thermometer that the inn keeper at our hotel in Ikumi pointed at our wrists as we entered showed my temperature to be “too low to measure”. My friends often joke that I am a cold-blooded organism (like a lizard) because I struggle to temperature regulate. Guess it came in handy today.
Also the extra stay in this city which we were forced to book a few days ago, now seems like a godsend. The trail gives us what we need when we need it.
Håber, du har fået det bedre, min lille skat😘
Forøvrigt en skøn bus😊