I walked as slowly as i could but shin pain returned after a handful of miles and then got worse and worse. I was reduced to 3km/hr.
It was another rural day. Belgium has so few shops in its little villages. I couldnt spend money here even if i wanted to.
By early afternoon it was clear that the walk was over. Obviously the 10 day rest wasnt even, especially rushing because of brexit. Web said stress fracture needs 8 wks. But why has it happened at all? Especially as I’m about the same weight with a backpack as i was without when i set off. Maybe this body cant do this sort of thing. Or maybe i have to do it on and off 60 days of walking/60 days on crutches.
The best i could do was make it to Maastricht for its onward connections. No cheap hotel there though and so i got to train to aachen where sunday’s hotel was already booked. Pity couldnt get same hotel for tonight but last cheap room in town.
This walk has stopped just at the point it was going to get interesting. And i wanted to use my german. Fortunately i walked beside a belgian bloke today who couldnt speak french but did speak german. We had a good old chat. He agreed that belgium is too reliant on big supermarkets and has no little shops.
Had trouble getting into hotel. Supposed to send a pin code but didnt. Forrunately a german biker couple had arrived just before with same problem and phoned the boss. After speaking in german they immediately asked if i was dutch, the polyglots of europe. I’ll take that.
Bugger. And i didnt even walk to germany. Had i got there i would have topped 1200 km and 3% of the trip.
I’m very pissed off indeed.
Distance today (km) 29, total 1182