Walking it off

 Day 23: Jelincic Farm to Bovec

Hours walked: 9:30 to 3:30

Kilometres walked: 15.4

Jesuses seen: 1

Quote of the day: “Do they give us breakfast here?” -Zadie’s first words as she opened her red eyes this morning 

It was a fitful night, what with the vomiting and everything. I was sure that we would have to revise our plans today to cater to Zadie’s needs, so I let everyone sleep in a bit. We woke Zadie up last of all, nervously. But she gave us a big smile when she opened her eyes, asked if we got breakfast, and then hurrayed. What a relief!

For a second I thought she didn’t even remember throwing up, but then as she was getting dressed she asked “Mama, why did I throw up in the night?” We felt a bit negligent, but decide to go with Zadie’s cues and start our day of walking, seeing how we went. Zadie had a big appetite at breakfast, but we tried to limit what and how much she ate, just in case we would see it all later. Sure enough, she felt and looked a bit worse as we set off, but a slow pace on a gentle riverside trail, together with the promise of a Moomin Marathon storytelling session, was enough to help her through the first few kilometres. 

Our entire day was spent on the banks of the river; the Soca is a serene river with simultaneously crystal-clear and glacier-green waters. There are many more hikers here, and as we got closer to Bovec there were frequent kayakers on the river. Yesterday was much quieter, although we did see some locals lowering a board with white tulle from a high bridge, rigging up a swing so they could film a woman in a white dress floating above the gorge. 

After the Soca narrowed to a gorge, we came upon a sandy bank where some youngsters (ie 20-year olds) were sunbathing and cooling their beers in the river. Tova declared she needed to swim, and despite our yelps of pain as we dipped our feet in (it really was bone-chillingly cold), she donned her bathing suit and strode straight out into the frigid blue-green. As she swam around, dipped her head and went in again for an encore, the rest of us shook our heads and massaged the blood back into our white feet. 

We reached Bovec with great relief, shopped in an insanely busy supermarket, plied Zadie with Gatorade and popsicles, and are now cozied up in a very cute white apartment overlooking town. The next two days are both quite challenging, so fingers crossed Zadie is bouncing right back. 

PS The Moomin story, in case you’re curious, hinged on three trolls who ran a nasty zoo (vemmelig dyrepark). Three animals broke loose: a lighting-quick red cat named Rapidopus who stole the town’s chocolate, a vicious porcupine named Spissesvin, and a sorrowful frog named Tørstefrosk who drank the valley’s river dry. In resisting them, the Moomins befriended the zoo’s green troll, Grønningen, under a bridge, and helped him rescue his beloved animals from the zoo: a crybaby lion, who they renamed Griningen, and a soft bunny who had dozen of biting spiders living in its fur (Edderkopp Kanin). They left the nastier beasts, such as the biting donkey and the spitting parrot, to the other two trolls. Grønningen now had a less nasty zoo, which he brought to the nearby town where the Snork Maiden had been made mayor for restoring their chocolate. But her autocratic ways caused a crisis when the two meaner trolls (red and blue) showed up - all was made well when the real mayor returned from holiday with the fourth brother troll, the magician Trollio, whom Sniff impersonated at a circus in a precious story. Trollio transformed the hideous snake (forgot to mention him) into an ant, two other characters named Knøttet and Dronten, who had been left in charge of the nasty zoo by the blue and red trolls, reformed the mean creatures by teaching the parrot to sing Frozen hits, and teaching the donkey to lick instead of biting - but this made the zoo completely unviable, and the two bad trolls went to live in the forest with the witches; the cat and the porcupine are lurking at the river’s source; the green troll left with all the somewhat cute beasts; and so we got a happy ending with some good setups for the next marathon.