On a travel like this, you have to focus on so many small details that sometimes you don’t pay attention to obvious things. An example? As soon as I got out of the minshuku, this morning, I took a picture with my camera and the battery died. Great. Well done.
It was naive of me to think that Pentax had somehow equipped my K-50 with a infinite motion turbine that recharges itself indefinitely.
In any case, the rice mixed with raw egg that I had for breakfast gave me the energy to climb the first mountain in about 1 hour. The temple #19 was the reward and I took a small break before coming down to cross a river (top picture) and then go up again to reach temple #20.

I met again a few people I encountered a few days ago, including the Japanese lady with whom I had walked on my way to temple #7.
Furthermore, I even had the chance to walk with a western pilgrim: a Belgian lady who is also for the first time in Japan. The kilometers felt shorter, and it helped me reach the temple #22 in a timely fashion.

With all this going up and down, I didn’t get the chance of buying something to eat. I had to scrape the leftovers of whatever I could find in my bag. It was barely anything, just a few nuts and candies. As a matter of fact, I was starving when I arrived at the minshuku.
Of course, this was the first time that dinner was served a few minutes later than 6.00 PM.

When it actually arrived, dinner was amazing. There was an entire grilled fish together with lots of sashimi and the usual “other good stuff”. I felt like in heaven for a few minutes.
Tomorrow is a big question mark. The next temple is only 20-ish Km away, but between that and the next lodging possibilty there are 15 Km of ugly highway. I will need to sleep on it and take a decision before leaving.
My spirits are high now. The walk seems doable and my feet are holding it together. They do hurt but, if it stays like that, I will be able to endure the pain every day without too much drama.
Mosquitos, on the other hand, are eating my legs and arms. I’m fighting back and killed a handful of them, but they keep coming at me.
Shikoku is savouring my blood and my sweat. As long as I keep getting sashimi in return, I am not going to complain.