Over the last few months, I came to seriously doubt whether our journey would be possible. In September, I alluded to the health problems that had arisen for each of us. I am pleased to report that Doris's problem was resolved. Either it wasn't frozen shoulder after all, or Doris came up with a miracle cure, aided by a TENS unit and an excess of determination.
Unfortunately, mine turned out to be more serious and longer lasting. After years of Cardiophobia, and a health regime designed to forestall the onset of heart problems, it turned out that the cause of my problems is s a heart arrhythmia. As this blog was intended to be about my pilgrimage to Bavaria, rather than a journey through my health, I decided not to write until I knew whether I would be able to undertake the journey.
I know now that although my arthymia will make the journey more challenging, there is every reason to go ahead. I have now joined the ranks of those who have to remember to take regular medication and can refer grandly to “my Cardiologist”. And, my Cardiologist sees no reason why I should not attempt to walk 600 miles, so there you have it – the pilgrimage is on and we intend to start in May 2007. In the meantime, I have been turning down freelance work and playing poker to pay the mortgage but more of that, perhaps, another time.
On the journey front, we need to firm up on our route. A key aspect of the pilgrimage is to meet people along the way. I want, therefore, to get cracking and publicise our chosen route and this blog. One reason for this is because Doris has always wanted to use the journey as a way of raising money for a charity by getting people to sponsor us. This has lead me to wonder whether we can combine the two. Perhaps if we select a charity, they might publicise our journey to their supporters and we can meet some of them along the way. I am also considering writing to Satish Kumar, to see whether he might publicise our journey to readers of Resurgence, the magazine that he edits. But to do any of that, we need to decide on a route.
Which brings me to Doris's decision that she would prefer not to walk to Bavaria at all! She wants to do it the other way around and walk from Bavaria. She would also prefer to walk to our home in Kent which, I have to admit, would be considerably more scenic than two days walking through the mostly urban landscape along the Thames Estuary. This is very tempting, as we would also be able to take in much of the historic pilgrim's way – albeit backwards. She also tells me that, rather than our currently planned route through Belgium, a route through France might be more uplifting!
She has left the decision to me but the good news is that I am now focusing on that question, rather than navel gazing on my heart, so to speak.
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