Just kidding :)

After the early night, we got up at 5:30am and were rewarded with a gorgeous sunrise over the hills in the distance. For breakfast, we have different flavors of oatmeal / cereal / nut mixes in hot water that we eat throughout the morning from small water bottles. It gives us energy til we start lunch snacks in the afternoon.

Our hike today was super fun! We chose an "alpine variante" of the GR20, which goes up a steep rocky climb and then along the side of big rock faces (we got excited to see a few climbers on those walls beside our trail). One section had a fixed chain to help hikers stay safe on a steep slab of granite. It was definitely an adventure and the joke of the day was Leo saying "it should be all downhill from here" and then the trail continuing uphill and Mareike laughing "just kidding". After a few times, any uphill was commented with a celebratory "just kidding" :)

Another cool thing we saw on the way were giant trains of caterpillars, one of them over 10 meters long. We saw several on the forest floor, looking like snakes from a distance.

Just before our next camp spot, we had a tricky river crossing with a slippery boulder that you could step on and pray or do one bigger jump to avoid the slippery one altogether. I (Mareike) wasn't quite feeling up to it with a still recovering ankle and so after trying to be stubborn and finding another way on my own, Leo went over twice with both packs and then I could easily do the jump with no weight on my back. It was a great reminder that we're great as a team and that we need to think as a team in order to make the most of our life together.Read more