Day 16 - Evening - 3 July 2007, 10:01 PM
It was raining. It still rains. A rain that says that it won’t stop much soon. With clouds that say that they have their things to do for a while.
It was raining, so I continued to cycle. I normally stop for the evening at about 18:00, but then it wasn’t worth stopping to put up the tent under the rain just to get wet everything which wasn’t already (my luggage). So I was continuing. A good rain, the kind you need to be fully drenched, after a few hours, if you got any little opening for it.
I was having wet only the feet (I have sandals), the tip of the nose and the end of my arm sleeves, more or less. But it was beginning to be late, I was needing to eat, put up my tent and sleep, ideally before its dark. But the rain didn’t care, and the horizon wasn’t announcing me any change coming with the kilometers.
At a village I went towards the church, with the intention to ask for hospitality for the night. I don’t know if that’s something that you can really do, but that doesn’t matter, I wanted to go and do it. I turned around the church for a few minutes, trying to figure out where the church people could live, but without finding anything. I was about to leave and continue when the church bell ran 3 times to tell me to wait. So I stopped, not knowing where to go and knock, and the driver of a long white double truck got out of his van and came to me. He offered me to sleep in the back of his truck.
So here I am, in the back of a big truck, with a load of gypsum pallets, after having eaten a very nice meal of Italian pasta in the restaurant with the truck driver (who very kindly invited me and paid the bill). I have a roof until 5:00 am, then the truck goes away.
The floor here is a bit wet, so I put up my tent in the truck. It’s pouring rain a few meters over me, but I don’t mind either, I’m at home here, I’m safe, for these few hours.
I’m going to sleep.