I love you

Nobody likes paracetamol and ibuprofen like Australians, and we really should have brought some but we were caught up in everything else we had to lug. The only ailments a supermarket will come near helping with are scrapes, indigestion and smudgy glasses, so we've been looking for a drug store and it's taken us a week.

Google translate voice to text was getting us quite far with the woman working there, and by quite far I mean she plucked (quite suspiciously) literally the closest package off the shelf and insisted she takes it for headache, herbal, very good.

She wanted James to test it before we bought it (without a headache at the moment it was of limited value but ok) and a good charades game was had with the sachet and the cup of water. I was team dissolve sachet in the water and drink, but she was team put water in your mouth then chase it with the whole sachet pre-swallow. I think Jim hedged his bets - I swear he swallowed the water then dealt with the powder dry.

As I was handing over an astonishing $20 for the six sachets we'd now committed to, a man came in and asked "what country" and then "ahh Australia....I love you!" On hearing we were walking the Kumano Kodo, he sprang into action with bear and hornet advice, plucking bells and sprays off shelves and waving them at us, demonstrating. He then took two bottles of water out of the fridge and insisted we take them. I wasn't entirely sure if that was his call so checked with the woman and turns out it's her husband - she thinks he's an idiot but she loves him clearly.

It took us nigh on 30 minutes to extricate ourselves from discussions out the front about adding him on Facebook, calling him if we need help, no perhaps he just give us a lift, reminding the landlady at our accommodation tonight that they went to school together, and taking a photo - which we asked to take again on my phone and I have enclosed here. The first one he wanted to link arms, bless.

Once we'd finally started moving, he commenced surveillance blockies, lapping us three times before we encountered him again pestering a different lady friend at work. We were introduced to her, offered a lift again, and required to assure him about 18 times we did know which way we were going. His missus gave us some other thing for fatigue that she said is delicious, quite intrigued. Perhaps he's had some of that.Læs mere