Cardboard boxes are never enough

In the marvellous Foam of the Daze by Boris Vian, the house of one of the characters, Chloé, starts getting smaller when she gets sick. Something like that is happening to me: in a few days my contract will expire and the flat seems to be aware that the autumn of our relationship has eventually come: in the past few weeks posters and paintings started to tilt and fall down, sinks to leak, lamps to burn out, plants to wither. It’s time to go. My next move out is approaching and the cardboard boxes for the books are never enough.

I started some light midweek training: running and stretching; I thought I was in worse shape, lungs are fine. I wanted to swim but it would have been too expensive and now I count every cent as a piece of gear for the walk. By the way, tomorrow I might buy the travel shoes: Onyx by LaSportiva. Let’s hope for the best. The lady from the shop is not very expert but she’s nice and helpful and I  want to start following signs like that.

p.s.: in the meanwhile I found out Jason‘s channel, full of great advice on DIY ultralight backpacking.

Doubles

Third training session without backpack this morning: Collestatte Piano-Ceselli 20 km (after Terni-Miranda-Terni 15km and Terni-Amelia 22km). Applause to the inventor of Valnerina. A state road (s.s. 209) covered thousands of times withour ever realizing that on the other side of the river there was a wonderful path, fairly well marked, almost all plain and well trodden. Not only: such path would also be part of an alleged Via di Roma/Via Francigena di S. Francesco. I suppose it is the route that Saint Francis covered in 1209 to join Pope Innocent III in Rome and bla bla bla. It shouldn’t have anything to do with  The Original Francigena from Super Sigerico. Anyway, without doing it on purpose, I found myself covering also this piece of Francigena. Needless to say, on the wrong direction.

Random reflections:

* The clowds dispenser obviously forgot his turn on Valnerina, so that the sky was rarely clear.

* I tried an old pair of leather boots: they kept me dry from the morning frost of a field I accidentally crossed, but also left me with the first two nice blisters under the left foot. Anyway, dirt patch – when not rocky – is more comfortable than asphalt.

* It looks evident that I still didn’t get this all transpiration and clothes layers stuff. Luckily, August forgot the heating on and around midday I was happily in my t-shirts and short pants regardless of any technical gear. Come on, Super Sigeric didn’t have any gore-tex or pile.

* Fishermen VS bikers: 1, at least for my hate for the second ones’ clothes.

* Hitchhiking is not trandy anymore, only odd people with easy accelerator pick you up: today this crazy-eyed guy asked me if I could provide him with a job at the local steel factories while dribbling cars like skittles.

Crazy as a horse

Yesterday I went to the local section of the CAI (Italian Alpine Club). It did not go as I expected.

The guys from CAI are a cheerful gang that meets twice a week to talk about its freeclimbing adventures and organize new ones. Or so I like to believe. When I presented the reason of my visit they addressed me to Claudio, a nice guy, as well as a knight of the roman pilgrims (or something like that) that invited me to exit the crowdy and loud room to quietly talk outdoor. After I explained my project Claudio lighted a cigarette, puffed the first drag and pronounced: you are crazy as a horse. Then he added: if my wife wouldn’t kill me I’ll leave with you.  And that’s how I understood that I was in a usefull place: for the first time in fact the people I talked about my idea took it seriously. The moment that most warmt my hearth has been the alpine pass question: at the beginning I thought, without really spending time on it, to walk also through the Alps; but there I encountered so many critics and denies that I accepted the option of crossing the mountains with an alternative transport mean.  A fear of mine in presenting myself at CAI was also this: to receive a further and more influentil deny for my winter crossing plan. Well, Knight Claudio took me unaware: at my question if a unexperienced traveller could face the Great Saint Bernard pass in january he answered: once there you’ll be very expert; if I were you I wouldn’t deprive myself of such an emotion, I would regreat it.
But there will be snow!
So what? You’ll put on some snowshoe.

There you are. I really forgot about experience points. I better take a 20 sided dice with me, you never know.

They weren’t really able to help me out about the technical clothes topic. As I feared, everyone has his own opinion, his own favourite brand. I will have to choose myself and I am terrible at that.  They also let me understand that there’s a long queue for the technical sponsor, since lots of people use to ask for it. Damn you, money.

A nice trap

I should have opened it before, the blog I mean. Now I really have some hard times trying to arrange all the ideas I had, the websites I visited, the books or movies that people suggested me. Damn habit of not taking notes. What actually triggered the turmoil of voices and hypothesis was the choise to talk about it, and it was a good choise. Usually I keep my big rash thoughts for myself (and usually there is where they stay, in my mind; like that one with the cavy and the plunger, bad story): this time, on the other hand, I felt the urge to confront friends and relatives, maybe I really want to believe this story of me walking up there. The more people I tell it the more the idea become concrete; after the first astonishment (or insult), everyone has something to say. I can discuss with all of them, encouraging or not, about time, money, climate, lodging, food. Like… a real thing, you know. And it also works as a trap for the pride: too many people involved by now, I have to do it! Anyway, between unconditional support and irrevocable rejection the thing got real. It’s there, quiet, it looks around. I can confront it. It also has a blog now, and I need to remember how to write.

In the last two weeks I had to stop the preparation due to the fantastic roundabout of es.terni; now  I can resume and time looks so short (by the way, if somone sees a september on the floor: give it back, I lost it). Next moves: finding someone, with a need for contents, newspaper magazine or radio, interested in my adventure and available to give me some visibility that I could offer to a technical sponsor; I will need some high quality clothes and gears to face a wet winter on the road and it’s all expensive stuff. Then: the shoes. I cannot wait anymore for those, I need them now for training and to get them used to my feet, I have to chose rapidly the model and the material. The web does not help a geek like me: the more specialized websites I surf the more I want to buy everything. I wonder what Sigeric thought about Decathlon products.