Zero in Damascus – 11 May

Now that I missed posting one of my blogs I realise it’s not a bad idea to date them.

As you now know one of the highlights of the hike is the zero days and today was no different.

Our home for 2 nights:

After a shower last night we went out for a meal and I finished off this pizza (with a little bit of help from Trevor):

We weighed ourselves at the local pharmacy this morning – Trevor has lost more than 5kg but I lost only 2 – suppose the pizza explains why! I know I look skinny on the photo but it’s just the angle.

We were awake early this morning. Walked around town, saw this little break away church:

We had a so-so coffee at the cowboy grill round 6h30, by 7h30 Trevor’s cinnamon bun place was open and we had a good coffee & cinnamon bun there.

Then we spent the next 3 hours shopping for food and looking at gear. In the end Trevor replaced only his shoes and we are sticking with the rest of our gear. Our friend Elma says she is on her second pair of the same shoes Trevor bought so he is optimistic that it will work for him.

Below a photo of our old shoes in this Broken Fiddle tree:

Mathilda and Bob came through to meet us for lunch (and Mathilda brought another supply of exotic cheeses for our mobile pantry, and FRESH fruit salad for dinner tonight and breakfast tomorrow). We had a beer at the Damascus Brewery and then lunch at the Damascus Diner.

Unfortunately we didn’t know about the Old Mill Inn – that would have been a lovely lunch spot but we only found it during our early evening walk about. The bar counter is partly made up of parts of the wheel of the old mill:

The best part of the bar counter is that while it was being built the wife of the man who built it died and he asked permission to put a tribute to her in the counter, this is it:

Now I am waiting for tomorrow to arrive to step out on the trail again. Heavy rains predicted but today’s prediction was overstated so holding thumbs for tomorrow. Trevor on the other side wants to go out to listen to live music tonight….

PS – Trevor won: out for some live music. This man can’t sit still for more than 30mins