previous journeys

I'm not entirely new to a walking holiday. January 2008 saw our family travelling to Tasmania to walk the Overland Track. The photo at the top of this blog is a favourite of mine and is one way I can introduce you to them without embarassing them. For some reason I am out the front in this particular section (not usually the case). Behind me is Janine, my daughter-in-law. She is married to Adam who is right behind her in the photo. Janine had never been camping like that before. It was pretty gutsy of her to come on an expedition like that with us. They had only been married a year. Following Adam is Zac, now 18, and Caleb (22). Joel didn't make it into the photo and of course John (husband) was the photographer. One of John's specialties is to be able to take photos of the whole family (himself included) on an automatic setting but it wouldn't have worked there. The only family member missing is my daughter-in-law Meredith (married to Joel).

This is one of my favourite photos of that Tasmanian trip. It shows how peaceful and beautiful walking there can be. The times when nothing more was required than to put one foot in front of another were hypnotic, addictive, almost seductive. It wasn't always like that, however. I found the difficult parts were really too much. I wouldn't have got through some places without the boys coming back to carry my pack for me. There were the occasional unedifying tantrums that they had to witness but they still looked after me for all that.

That holiday in Tasmania still gives us great pleasure when we retell stories from it and we love looking at our photos. I would never do that walk again but I do take some pride in having done it the once. I'm not anticipating the same rough tracks and steep ascents on our Camino walk but the challenge of walking every day for 5 weeks is in a class of its own.

making a start

I've been thinking of myself more and more as a pilgrim lately. As it happens I am going to be a real pilgrim very shortly. Along with my husband, I am about to walk the Camino along the French way from St Jean Pied de Port across the Pyrennes and then west through Spain to Santiago de Compostela.

Of late, however, my life has taken on the need to keep putting one foot in front of the other so I have been an inner pilgrim as well.

I've been thinking more and more about the call of Jesus to come follow him. There was that call to get out of the boat, to leave all behind and follow Jesus. The other call was, of course, to follow Jesus' example and we do that everyday right where we are.

I've been singing old hymns to myself and the words have been going over and over in my mind. 'My faith it is an oaken staff the traveller's well-loved aid'; 'Guide me o thou great Jehovah'; 'Follow, follow I will follow Jesus' and that one so obscure even John (husband) didn't know it 'To be a pilgrim'.

There are little bits from Pilgrim's Progress that have been coming back to me. For some reason the most memorable scene from my childhood reading was the Slough of Despond. I've taken another look at it lately and for the life of me cannot work out what the man in the cage is all about. I really enjoyed Christian losing his burden and the description of the approach to the Celestial City though.