Day 98: A frustrating morning and relaxed afternoon

It was frustrating this morning. The trail disappeared into bushes, overgrown patches and there were tons of downed trees again.  I had hoped for some real trail and relaxes hiking on a sunny day. Instead I bushbashed and swore. I had no fun. In addition, I had no water left but was thirsty since I didn't drink enough the day before. Since the trail stayed on the ridges, it didn't look like there would be water soon and with the super slow pace I didn't expect to get to water...

But then I came to open meadows  (without animals at first) and decided to skip a peak and shortcut further down. Despite the tall grass, so much easier to walk  But in the sun and I was sweating like crazy fighting my way up. But then there was a tiny trickle in the grass, which I used to fill my bottle. I saw, that there might be more water in the meadows further on, but didn't wanted to risk it. It took me ages, but it was so nice to have water!
There was a relative strong stream later on, but I was happy with the water I had and just filled my stomach there.

I had a two dog fights.
On the first, the shepherd actually tried to get one really aggressive dog to leave me alone and apologized, which had never happened before. I had used some of my backup stones, but refilled later on.
The second encounter was rather nasty, but because I was still so annoyed from all the bushbashing, they didn't stand a chance. I was throwing stones like a crazy person, which was possible because I was on a path with stones and not a meadow.
Some more dogs later on, but not too bad. I know I write about dogs a lot, but it's such a big thing for me! I just have to laugh about myself now, that before Romania I was afraid when only ONE street dog was barking at me :)

I had a VERY measure afternoon with at least 2 h of lunchbreak. It was only a few kilometres to a very steep dropdown and then road walk.  Because it was too far to do all the road walk in the afternoon, it didn't make sense to continue. The last meadows were very picturesque and I would have loved to camp there, but no way with the animals and dogs.

Now I am camping at the edge of the meadows (actually a bit too close in my opinion!) in the forest, just before a marked trail will drop down to the road

Info the bushes...

... and over trees

First gooseberry - not quite ripe but I still ate the inside ;)

Escaping the frustrating forest into high grass meadows

Beautiful adder 

Amazing view in the afternoon!!!

And some more water!