Not a particularly memorable walking day, but a day I’ll remember for my non-walking activities. I ended up walking 43km and was shattered upon arriving at the hotel I was staying.
I was up at 5.30am, showered and walked the 2,5km to the station. I have left my toilet bag and medicine at the motel in Gropello Cairoli, where I stayed the first night.
It was still dark as I walked to the station and was in plenty of time to catch the 6.38 train. There were quite a few people on the train, many probably going to work in Pavia. It was a 30 minute ride, which had taken me 8 hours yesterday. I walked the 1,5 km back to the hotel, picked up my toilet bag, and did the whole in reverse. In Mortara I’d bought the ticket at the counter (and received a Via Francigena reduction), but the station at Gropello is unmanned, so I bought a ticket online, to be sent via mail. Unfortunately, my mail provider just happened to be down, so I hadn’t received the ticket when the train arrived- first 3 hours later. Luckily it was a conductor-less train, so no fines to pay.
I arrived back at the hotel in Mortara at 9am, in time for breakfast- a coffee and croissant. Not a filling start to the day- which had started almost 4 hours ago.
The thermometer had already passed 30c as I started to walk through the rice paddies. As such it was a 100% copy of yesterday’s walk, rice paddies, birds, canals, hot and very limited shade.
There were few towns on the 35km route, and those that I passed through were largely deserted. Just before the small village of Madonna del Campo, a farmer was out cutting down the corn plants, that had already been harvested. Back in the rice fields I met Jimmy Carter from New Zealand. He was on his way to Rome starting just before the Great Saint Bernard pass. It was a bit of luck as I was about to take the wrong path. At one point the “right” path was covered in water, with canals either side. I had no choice but to wade through it. This was perhaps the time a stick would have come in handy – I slipped and fell into the water, luckily keeping my camera above water. With everything else that had happened, this wasn’t really what I had hoped for, but with wet shoes and shorts, I continued to Nicorvo, another small village with a closed café.
I met an Hungarian on his way to Rome. He was doing long stages. Just before Robbio (18kms) I met a German couple, also walking to Rome. In Robbio, it was market day and the only open bar I found was packed, without any empty tables. I walked around trying to find somewhere else, without any luck, and ended up sitting on a bench in the shade of a church. There were a couple of factories close by, and I watched the workers on their bikes making their way back to work – probably after a lunch break.
I made a couple of wrong turns around Palestro, just before which I met an Italian lady. This was her last stage this time around, as she had to go back to work.
It was getting hotter and I was walking towards today’s destination, Vercelli, on a dike next to the Fiume Sesia river. It was hard on the feet as the path consisted of small stones. I rested on one of the few benches on this stage, just before I crossed the river and again in the shade as the path passed under the A26 autostrada. I still had another 6kms to walk and was feeling tired.
I walked through Vercelli, taking the direct route to the hotel, which is on the outskirts of town. It was 18.30 and I crashed onto the bed. Luckily I could have an overpriced dinner at the hotel.
All in all a long and very, very tiresome day. I slept well!