September 25, 2020 - Blind mountaineer Feruco Lazaric (65) will walk an 1100 km long route of the Via Adriatica trail, accompanied by a friend and guide, reports 24sata.hr.
Blind mountaineer Feruco from Svetvincenat in Istria, set off on an adventure of a lifetime on Thursday morning. With his friend Sergio Ostović (65) and guide Zlatko Mihocek-Torpedo (61), he plans to walk about 1,100 kilometers on the Via Adriatica trail.
However, the guide will accompany them to Brela when the duo continues their journey with the mountaineering association Mosor from Split. It is a trail that stretches from Cape Kamenjak in Istria to Dubrovnik and Prevlaka.
"We left Prevlaka on Thursday, although it was planned to start hiking on Wednesday. However, due to the heavy rain, we started a day later. We plan to walk about 30 kilometers a day, but it all depends on the weather that day. I was preparing for this adventure for about two months. The weather is beautiful now, and even though I don't see anything around me, I can smell the sea, nature, and all my other senses working to their fullest. It's beautiful, and it's an indescribable feeling. There are no limits and no "I can't do it". I can do anything I want if I am persistent enough," Feruco said while walking the planned route.
He even sang to his friends with joy at one point, but in the end, he still needed to focus on breathing and losing as little energy as possible.
The excitement is great, all three admitted, and the boys, who, as they say, are in their best years, will do their best to complete the entire planned route in about fifty days. Guide Zlatko walked this route last year, so the guys know what will be waiting for them on the way.
"The night before we set off, we slept very little from excitement. However, the excitement has now passed, and we need to walk. On the first night of arrival, we slept in Mokosica and had a great rest. As we walk, each of us carries around 18 kilograms of equipment on our backs. There are tents, about three liters of water every day, food, a stove, a sleeping bag. Everything we need," Sergio explained.
Blind Feruco walks in such a way that one hand is placed on the guide's shoulder, and in the other, he holds a stick that helps him to walk the path. He embarked on this adventure thanks to his friend Sergio, and although he initially admitted it, he hesitated and decided that despite his blindness, he could walk almost 1,100 kilometers.
Feruco went blind about twenty years ago, and before that, he lived with high myopia, which eventually grew into ablation, retinal detachment.
"My blindness is a blessing to me in a way. I consider myself a happy person because, despite my blindness, I enjoy life to the fullest. People who see and move through the woods, for example, mostly look at people around them, how they are dressed, what they do... I listen to the sounds around me, the singing of birds, and the sound of leaves. It is an invaluable treasure, and other senses had to be discovered because of the sight I lost," Feruco explained.
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