Europe with the Mighty Conan

Today didn't quite work out as planned - we set off on what should have been a fairly short hike from the small hilltop town of Hum to Kotli and back again. Hum is billed as one of the smallest towns in the world - not sure of it's qualifications for this but the label certainly brings the coach loads of tourists 😕 We decided to leave looking around until we got back from the walk by which time the coaches should have buggered off. About 3k into our walk, we were supposed to cross a small stream but due to the recent rain, it had turned into a 3ft deep raging river. I was willing to get my boots wet but Nige wasn't so we turned back and took a diversion. Unfortunately the diversion route had suffered from a few landslides 🤦We could see that at least one overland vehicle had been through (and maybe a bear or two judging by the paw prints) so we persevered but eventually it became too steep and wet to continue so we had to admit defeat and turn back again. By this time we had walked for longer than the original route and I had put my foot in it more than once 🤣 As we approached the town, we were puzzled to see security guards and cars parked everywhere - it turned out that it was Hum's annual grape festival! We were obliged to buy a ticket to have a look around the town but with that ticket we were given a shot glass with which to sample as many of the spirits as we fancied, bearing in mind that one of us (me) had to drive back to the campsite afterwards 😵‍💫Läs mer