Sunday 25 March 2012

"Like a Tramp, Like a Pilgrim" will be, by its very nature, spiritual, but in a considered manner, not to alienate the secular. It would be difficult to embark on such a solitary expedition without a degree of introspection even if only through experience endured along the way. This will be a blog full of charm, humour and sentiment that will lead you from the heart of London across France, over the Alps and down the spine of Italy to St Peter's in Rome – allowing you to be part of the tremendous highs and the terrible lows that are bound to occur; there will, in the process, be an inevitable degree of personal wrangling and baring of the soul, I am confident.

Sleeping rough, staying in homes, hotels, monasteries, chateaux and palazzi, I intend to walk the entire way, but should I not, should the boredom and fatigue become so defeating that I opt for faster, modern, means, I want you to be with me as I go through the heartache, the pain and ultimately the relief of that decision.

Quite how the blog will end, I cannot forecast - I can only hint, from my research, at what may lie ahead. I have no idea the effect the Via may, or may not, have on me. I am not, however, planning or envisaging a Damascine experience but I do want you to share in the adventures that I feel sure lie ahead.

And then there is the nature of the journey, for this is no ordinary endeavour, this is a pilgrimage; a momentous event in life, a powerful all-pervading beast of travel, the familiar being exchanged for the unfamiliar; almost monastic in execution. The preparation and nature of which, I am fast learning, is just the same now as it was in the Middle Ages or earlier and no less hazardous – my life paring down to a time liberated and materially limited existence as I rid myself of flat, job, dog and personal possessions enabling me to embark as unencumbered by the trappings of the everyday as possible, free to wander, free to wonder and free to muse, for, as Coelho wrote in The Pilgrimage, “It is the road that teaches us … and the road that enriches us”.

1 comment:

  1. Hi. I've just come across your blog. As I'm starting to plan my own VF walk, I'm really looking forward to becoming absorbed in your journey. I suppose I shall also have to buy the book! My only concern at this stage is that, if you were following the Alison Raju route, there is rather too much road walking.

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