After passing through Germany, Barry Gepken ended up in Austria during his hiking adventure to Jerusalem. The Ericaan has completed a fifth of the 5000 kilometers, but the heavy climbing has yet to begin.
“A day ago I passed the border with Germany. Now it is still a bit sloping, but in the distance I see the mountains looming. So it is going to be climbing”, the Southeast Drent realizes.
His girlfriend Monique, who had to drop out a few weeks ago due to an acute hernia, helps Gepken from a distance. “I have good contact with her every day, we still say good night to each other every night. It is no different that we are now such a distance from each other. When she hooks up again, we have to wait and see. We’ll see how it goes.”
Gepken reports that it concerns a period of ‘a week to a few weeks’. He also says that the recovery is not going very well. For example, Monique is waiting for another MRI scan today.
The temporary loss of his hiking buddy is not too much of a hindrance during the hike to the famous pilgrimage site. One of the customs that Gepken tries to maintain is staying overnight in churches along the route. “That doesn’t always work, but I think it’s great to do it. If that setup doesn’t work, I always have a tent that I can put up somewhere.”
The people he meets along the way give him the strength to continue again. Recently he was offered a beer by a pastor from the area. “Then I sit in the sun in the evening, with a cold beer. That is incredibly tasty and fantastic.”