A different days walking

I have walked in rain.
You may well wonder why I might make that comment. The last time I donned wet weather gear was for the last 5 minutes of Day 1 of the Spanish Camino in 2013. Since then we have walked the Camino, climbed Kilaminjaro, circumnavigated Mont Blanc, walked the Likya Yolu (Lycian Way) in Turkey and the Via Francigena in Italy - WITHOUT ANY RAIN. Good for us but a bit scary for the planet.
Yesterday we started from Ciocanu after a very hearty breakfast supplied by Maria,

and walked in rain down secluded gullies with decaying farmhouses.

The guidebook and map needed all our powers ( plus gps and compass) to interpret. We never did find the new white house and which wooden gate was it?
The rain eased then stopped after a couple of hours and we started uphill through tiny communities with no sign of life save the cows and horses with there melodic, hypnotic bells.
At about 1 we had a treat. We arrived at a little village on a main road. This meant we found an open Cafe, our first. Open means if you make a bit of noise someone may appear from a random direction. We had hot coffee and hot chocolate from tiny plastic cups. Heaven!
We had done our climbing for the day and now had about 2 hrs of downhill walking finishing in a steep descent into TTT. There were many farm gates to open and close today. Some were simple wire hooks, others rope and others impassable climbs.
At the last one we had a queue behind us and needed to be assertive.

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