Day 6

Day 6 completed! Brindisi to Bari, approx 150km completed so far!

There continues to be the unexpected challenges..

- Day 4 - I walked 5km past my accomodation as I had typed the wrong address into google maps. Luckily Mum who was back home watching my live track alerted me before I went much further. 🤦🏼‍♀️ 💕

- So I walked back along the road I had walked earlier in the afternoon and arrived at my accomodation. I arrived and it was a cute little b&b in the middle of nowhere. Literally in the middle of farmland. I got there and no one was there, it was locked, no one around, storms setting in. I tried phoning them, no answer. I phoned the booking company who also could not make contact with the owners. After staying on the phone for an hour they finally arranged for me to go to another hotel ‘close by’ (meaning another hours walk) 🙄. Thankfully after over 90min of sitting outside, the hotel owner arrived, and had not realised they had a booking 🤷🏼‍♀️, so quickly got the room ready, and I stayed there! I was exhausted and almost went straight to bed that night.

Day 5 & 6 were pretty drama free. Some challenging roads to walk on again, with no footpath, so needing to step aside as each oncoming car approached. Makes for some pretty slow and frustrating walking. I had heard such terrible things about Italian drivers prior to coming over, however I have felt safe at all times so far.

I have chosen to take more of the scenic routes where possible though to make it easier on the mind and as well, giving me better/safer paths to walk on!

I am also now seeing more Italian life/restaurants/ atmosphere than I had in my first few days. It is making me feel much more settled and confident.

There is a siesta from about 2-5pm every day and a lot of restaurants are then also closed until 7.30pm. This means I have been missing dinner most nights and just snacking throughout the day. When it gets to 7.30pm I am generally pretty exhausted and don’t feel like leaving my hotel. I have instead been making the most of the buffet breakfasts and taking as much with me in my pockets for food on the road.

A few muscles are hurting and my toenail may not last for much longer, but I feel pretty physically and mentally strong at this point.

I am reminding myself each day why I am doing this crazy thing and that is for everyone who is living with type one diabetes, or has a loved one living with Type One. Being so passionate about the cause makes the pain and challenges so much easier to overcome!

I will have a shorter day/rest day tomorrow and try to rest the muscles up before I put them to a lot more work over the next 5+ months.

I will make sure I soak it all in and find some authentic pasta/pizza while here in Bari!

Thanks for all the suppport/messages/donations so far!

Remember you can still donate to help me reach my goal of $100,000 for JDRF Australia at:

https://teamcurediabetes.everydayhero.com/au/4000km-walk-across-europe-for-jdrf

🚶🏼‍♀️💕🍝💁🏼👏🏼🍝🚶🏼‍♀️