12 Aug The temporary end
Renting a car worked out without any problems, I got into the started car at the rental agency, drove first to a place where there should be a campground. But, this was a fake on the openstreetmap map, which was an important and unattractive info for my further tour. I turned around, drove to the apartment and put the luggage away. Suddenly I felt like a novice driver, because there was no ignition switch, only a start button, and when I pressed it, instructions in French appeared on the display. At that moment Mrs. Nahal came and I asked her if she knew how to do it, she sat in and a short time later was just as clueless as I was, despite the French instructions. She called her husband and he revealed the secret, you press the clutch, then the start button and hum hum, the engine runs. That was embarrassing for me, as a former professional driver and self-confessed know-it-all.
There were several traffic jams, so that our navi often found faster ways, which we used. The trip became a wonderful review of our journey. Constantly it went “you times, there above the church on the mountain, there we were, that is nevertheless Orgon.” Or “you times over there the bridge, we walked over that.” Or “What was the name of the campground where we spent the night?” Or “Do you remember …”. A retrospective full of joy and many tears. At night, around 2:00 am, we arrived home. Everything felt strange, somehow foreign and wrong. First we realized that we had completed our three-month walk in half a day’s drive, and then we realized that neither of us wanted to be here. What had once meant security for Johanna, without which she would never have embarked on this journey, was now a strange, empty place. Along the way, she had sniffed freedom and values had changed. The full closet is now no longer security, no longer happiness, only burden. Everything she needs fits on her Agnes, which lies disassembled in the travel bag.
We met the family and friends: Heike, Ingo, Müppi and Elena, we told about us and listened how they were. It was only a blink of an eye before it was time to say goodbye. This long journey, this time together, close and together at all times, it has welded us tightly together. And now?
Sure, when we went out, we had it planned exactly that way, we just didn’t know how it was going to feel.
Now it was time to say goodbye! At the beginning of our journey there was already a similar moment, only then we knew, in 2-3 weeks, when it is a bit warmer, Johanna will join us. This time, there are some bigger, existential hurdles ahead. We have to find a way to finance ourselves on the journey, how to live such a life. Johanna was so stressed that her body reacted with severe pain. With me, everything settled on the mind. Listless, not looking forward to the rest of the trip, I drove the car back to Martigues.
PS.: Please excuse the cover picture, but some people can no longer remember that they have given their consent (fortunately in front of witnesses) for the publication, but of course everyone has the right to revoke this and so no longer has to make an ass of himself with us.
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