I am very happy to say that we now have secured house (and garden and fish) sitters for the period we are away. Jenny and Curtis come highly recommended and I really hope they will enjoy their time here.
Of course the length of our route has changed again - thankfully it went down. So at present we are talking round about 1200 km a little over 800 miles and you can have a look at it here . I am sure experienced walkers have a very organised and much more scientific approach to preparing for a long distance walk . But it is quite fun to make it up as we go along (an approach which probably suits me more than Gary!) it makes it more ours somehow.
Do you know what I am looking forward to most? To post the exact distance when we have completed the walk and are back home. That is how I am motivating myself as well as through the response we are getting from everybody we tell about our plans. It is really uplifting to have so much positiveness and support. Thank you guys you are going to keep us going on rainy days up steep hills.
Friday, February 02, 2007
Thursday, January 18, 2007
I can't count!!
After putting the route together I thought it wise to add up the miles. I was confident that I would not be out by much from my original estimate of 900 km (600 miles) which is the mileage I clocked up when driving from
How wrong could I be? Well about 50% underestimated. I am now estimating our walk to be 1377 km (860 miles) long. My 15 km average a day over 60 days is out of the window and it all looks a bit more of a challenge now. Somehow I could compute my original estimate, it did not seem too bad. I have not yet got my head around the new distance.
Our average day has just gone up to 25 km, that is five hours walking on flat terrain and about 8 hours through hilly (hey, we are not 21 any more!). I am gingerly starting to think about what I will need / am able to carry with me as bare essentials and am hoping that my idea of having some pre arranged check in points will make it easier. I will send what we need for every two weeks ahead. That includes some spare clothes, the maps we need for the next leg, medicine etc. All the used stuff will go into the parcel and send home. The rest can be purchased ‘en route’.
I am looking for some kind people around Ruedesheim and
Sunday, January 14, 2007
My heart through my navel
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.
Thursday, November 02, 2006
Every journey starts with a single step!
We are just not sure where exactly that first step is going to take place. The orginal idea was to walk from birth place to birth place - London to Schweinfurt. That would mean starting in Cable Street in East London and walking nearly two days out of London which is not the most attractive thought. Where we live here in Kent, we are just a hop and a skip away from the North Downs Way which leads us all the way to Dover. Lovely country side from the word go.
I also now have a rough idea of our route when we are on 'Le Continent'
5 A-Z "Heuvels en rivieren"
De Panne - Menen - Ronse - Ronse - Geraardsbergen – Aalst
128-O Vlaanderenroute / Oost
Aalst - Leuven - Zoutleeuw - Tongeren - Maastricht - Aachen (293km)
And last but not least we will join the E8 Long distance path
Aachen – Bonn – Koblenz – Oberwesel – Donnersberg – Worms (option: Speyer – Heidelberg) – Wertheim – Tauberbischofsheim
towards the end of this part of the route we will drop off the E8 and are on the home straight.
I am refusing to think of the pain that we will have to put ourselves through to walk 900 km in two months. I am just thinking about how we will feel when we have achieved it.
I also now have a rough idea of our route when we are on 'Le Continent'
5 A-Z "Heuvels en rivieren"
De Panne - Menen - Ronse - Ronse - Geraardsbergen – Aalst
128-O Vlaanderenroute / Oost
Aalst - Leuven - Zoutleeuw - Tongeren - Maastricht - Aachen (293km)
And last but not least we will join the E8 Long distance path
Aachen – Bonn – Koblenz – Oberwesel – Donnersberg – Worms (option: Speyer – Heidelberg) – Wertheim – Tauberbischofsheim
towards the end of this part of the route we will drop off the E8 and are on the home straight.
I am refusing to think of the pain that we will have to put ourselves through to walk 900 km in two months. I am just thinking about how we will feel when we have achieved it.
Saturday, September 16, 2006
Making plans
Where Gary wants to get away from reminiscing and talk about the present – I am at the other end. I always think about the future, all those possibilities out there and come up with a string of ideas the could keep many an entrepreneur busy for years.
Of course I am also thinking in that way about our journey and its possibilities and options. I am already planning a route and am buying maps on eBay. Looking at a world map, London and Grafenrheinfeld (our destination in Germany) are nearly on the same height (does that makes sense geographically?)
I would like Gary to decide on a charity we can raise money for. Our friends, family and benefactors can set us challenges during trip and they will pay up if we achieve or people can just plain pay us anything between a penny or a pound per mile we have walked.
Perhaps we should get some sponsors to add to the money raised?? I am not fussy about logos on my back if that means dosh for a cause we are passionate about.
We have already decided that we are going to be technologically enabled pilgrims. We both love gadgets, so we are talking satellite navigation system, mobile phone, internet access, Ipods and camera with the least amount of chargers possible.
Of course I am also thinking in that way about our journey and its possibilities and options. I am already planning a route and am buying maps on eBay. Looking at a world map, London and Grafenrheinfeld (our destination in Germany) are nearly on the same height (does that makes sense geographically?)
I would like Gary to decide on a charity we can raise money for. Our friends, family and benefactors can set us challenges during trip and they will pay up if we achieve or people can just plain pay us anything between a penny or a pound per mile we have walked.
Perhaps we should get some sponsors to add to the money raised?? I am not fussy about logos on my back if that means dosh for a cause we are passionate about.
We have already decided that we are going to be technologically enabled pilgrims. We both love gadgets, so we are talking satellite navigation system, mobile phone, internet access, Ipods and camera with the least amount of chargers possible.
Thursday, September 14, 2006
We will not be thwarted
We haven’t set a date for our journey but Doris suggested that next May might a good time of year – not too hot and not too cold. It is about 600 miles, so if we stay fit and average of 20 miles each day, it will take us about 30 days. Unfortunately, staying fit currently seems like a bigger challenge than we might have thought, with problems coming in areas we did not expect.
Since the late Summer Bank Holiday, I have felt generally tired and have had occasional spells of light-headedness. I will not bore you with the description but suffice to say that one or two were sustained and, to me, vary scary. The doctor took some blood tests but could find nothing wrong. His sage advice was that “it will pass”.
Unfortunately, yesterday afternoon, on the same day I got my blood test results, I had another brief spell of light-headedness. That made me doubt the morning’s hope that I am recovering and lead me to ponder whether there is something, less obvious, at play. I am trying to put that to the back of my mind, however, because, in my book, less obvious equals scarier.
Doris has been suffering in a different way. After a few days of discomfort, a pain in her shoulder became agony. Doris is very stoical when it comes to illness and pain, so to hear her frequently crying out in pain meant that it had to be very bad. A visit to a physiotherapist didn’t help and with no imminently available GP appointment, she succumbed to my urging and went to “Accident and Emergency” at the local hospital.
They diagnosed frozen shoulder, a debilitating condition that can, apparently take as much as thirty months to pass! (http://www.nhsdirect.nhs.uk/articles/article.aspx?articleId=168)
Typically, Doris is refusing to be beaten and exploring ways of dealing with it. Also, I guess, we are both hoping that the initial diagnosis, in a hectic A&E department, turns out to be wrong and it is something less severe. If not, there is a specialist clinic in London that has pioneered a treatment that, while it doesn’t promise to work miracles, does claim that their treatment works within weeks rather than months.
So hopefully we will both be fit enough to do our journey, come May, and I can get on with worrying about more mundane matters such as why my Achilles tendons feel so sore every morning and how they will fair on a 600 mile walk.
Since the late Summer Bank Holiday, I have felt generally tired and have had occasional spells of light-headedness. I will not bore you with the description but suffice to say that one or two were sustained and, to me, vary scary. The doctor took some blood tests but could find nothing wrong. His sage advice was that “it will pass”.
Unfortunately, yesterday afternoon, on the same day I got my blood test results, I had another brief spell of light-headedness. That made me doubt the morning’s hope that I am recovering and lead me to ponder whether there is something, less obvious, at play. I am trying to put that to the back of my mind, however, because, in my book, less obvious equals scarier.
Doris has been suffering in a different way. After a few days of discomfort, a pain in her shoulder became agony. Doris is very stoical when it comes to illness and pain, so to hear her frequently crying out in pain meant that it had to be very bad. A visit to a physiotherapist didn’t help and with no imminently available GP appointment, she succumbed to my urging and went to “Accident and Emergency” at the local hospital.
They diagnosed frozen shoulder, a debilitating condition that can, apparently take as much as thirty months to pass! (http://www.nhsdirect.nhs.uk/articles/article.aspx?articleId=168)
Typically, Doris is refusing to be beaten and exploring ways of dealing with it. Also, I guess, we are both hoping that the initial diagnosis, in a hectic A&E department, turns out to be wrong and it is something less severe. If not, there is a specialist clinic in London that has pioneered a treatment that, while it doesn’t promise to work miracles, does claim that their treatment works within weeks rather than months.
So hopefully we will both be fit enough to do our journey, come May, and I can get on with worrying about more mundane matters such as why my Achilles tendons feel so sore every morning and how they will fair on a 600 mile walk.
Tuesday, September 12, 2006
The challenge of having generous thoughts
Having ended my previous entry with a generous spirit, I have been meaning to post for while, to own up to the fact that I was not always able to follow through on my generous intention.This has taught me a couple of things.
First, and practically, blogging may work best when it is contemporaneous rather than reflective. This may be the value of the medium: the ability to capture emotions as they happen, in relatively small sized bites. So things that I thought were interesting at the time look less so at this distance. Of course, it could be simply be that distance brings perspective and the thoughts were not all that interesting in the first place. Nevertheless, I will try to be more contemporary with future entries. If they turn out to be drivel, I can always delete them.
The second thing that I learned was that keeping ungenerous thoughts at bay is easier in theory than in practice. This is something that troubles me. It doesn’t trouble me in that it keeps me awake at night but I am a bit frustrated by it. I am not very proud of the fact that I can be quick to criticise and judge people.
Most of the time, I restrain myself from saying something ungenerous. Most of the time. But now and again, I hear the words just after they have left my lips, regretting it instantly. So, since the blog is devoted to my nascent spirituality, a big question for me here is: how do I stop thinking ungenerous thoughts? Because I would like to. Honest!
But before you go getting, the wrong idea, the visit from emissaries was fine and, for the most part, enjoyable. It was just that, at times, I wished there was a volume control. I think I behaved generously – most of the time.
Actually, we ended up with even more house guests, to add to the emissaries. My uncle died after a long illness and my cousin came down from Scotland for his funeral. We put up her eleven year old son or a few days, while my cousin sorted things out. She then, I am delighted to say, came to stay for a few days after the funeral. It was great to see her, despite the sad circumstances. She is a very special person and I love her dearly. She and her son only overlapped with our emissaries for a few days but then my Mum came to stay for the weekend, overlapping with my cousin and her son.
Then, on the Monday, everyone was gone. Everyone except Doris, of course - my wonderful much-loved and adored free spirit. How did I ever manage to get her to marry me? I am so very lucky.
First, and practically, blogging may work best when it is contemporaneous rather than reflective. This may be the value of the medium: the ability to capture emotions as they happen, in relatively small sized bites. So things that I thought were interesting at the time look less so at this distance. Of course, it could be simply be that distance brings perspective and the thoughts were not all that interesting in the first place. Nevertheless, I will try to be more contemporary with future entries. If they turn out to be drivel, I can always delete them.
The second thing that I learned was that keeping ungenerous thoughts at bay is easier in theory than in practice. This is something that troubles me. It doesn’t trouble me in that it keeps me awake at night but I am a bit frustrated by it. I am not very proud of the fact that I can be quick to criticise and judge people.
Most of the time, I restrain myself from saying something ungenerous. Most of the time. But now and again, I hear the words just after they have left my lips, regretting it instantly. So, since the blog is devoted to my nascent spirituality, a big question for me here is: how do I stop thinking ungenerous thoughts? Because I would like to. Honest!
But before you go getting, the wrong idea, the visit from emissaries was fine and, for the most part, enjoyable. It was just that, at times, I wished there was a volume control. I think I behaved generously – most of the time.
Actually, we ended up with even more house guests, to add to the emissaries. My uncle died after a long illness and my cousin came down from Scotland for his funeral. We put up her eleven year old son or a few days, while my cousin sorted things out. She then, I am delighted to say, came to stay for a few days after the funeral. It was great to see her, despite the sad circumstances. She is a very special person and I love her dearly. She and her son only overlapped with our emissaries for a few days but then my Mum came to stay for the weekend, overlapping with my cousin and her son.
Then, on the Monday, everyone was gone. Everyone except Doris, of course - my wonderful much-loved and adored free spirit. How did I ever manage to get her to marry me? I am so very lucky.
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