Another new pilgrimage: 2012
It won’t be fifteen months like the last one.
It won’t even be fifteen weeks; it’ll be about half that.
But it will contain a pilgrimage….of sorts.
The first plan was to walk the Camino Frances from St Jean Pied-du-Port in France to Santiago in Spain, the old pilgrimage trail. Of course we’d read books that said not to do it with kids and while our eldest kids can now be called adults (most of the time), there are still a handful of little ones. We’ve never been the sort to be put off by people saying “it’s impossible”, so we made the decision to try to make it happen. Turns out FatherBear can’t get enough time off work to be able to hike the whole 800km slowly, so we’ve decided to do a three week stint and see how far we get….and sandwich that in between a week’s visit to Paris and a week’s visit to London and a week on a canal boat cruising up to Oxford. All things we wanted to do on the last pilgrimage, but which were not achieved then.
In the forseeable future, this is the final year that we anticipate all the children being free to drop everything and just go (the call of tertiary study and earning a living is starting to make itself heard)…..so we offered a final family fling. Older children were free to choose to stay home. I’m glad they’re all coming.
We’ll be off at the end of August and back towards the end of October.
We’re still tossing up whether or not to take a lappie……we’ll be lugging Every Single Thing we stuff into our packs for 20km or so each day. If we take it, FatherBear will probably photo-blog with few words. I (MotherBear) want to devote my time to creating a tangible hold-in-your-hands record, and experience reminds me that when we are having busy days, my paper journal gets neglected if I’m blogging as well. I have a vision of words and pictures and embroideries and a break from computers!
BUT…..I was intrigued to see what would happen if I posted a wee note here in our cyber-spot.
So I have.
Next step will be updating our photo; the eldest son is now taller than the mother and so he’ll have to stand next to the father, the baby is no longer carried and will take her place standing at the end of the line-up.
Tags: 1, 2012
rayres
Hi Kiwi Family,
I will be following your blog with great interest!
I met some lovely new Zealand ladies last year on my Camino. Well, still have to meet the first unfriendly person from down under!
Buen Camino.
Sabine ( from the forum ).
Lovely to see your blog active again. I didn’t realize how much I missed reading it! Your new adventure sounds amazing. I’m looking forward to your next blog.
Well good for you – look forward to seeing that new pic!
YAY! 😀
Looking forward to checking in here again, as you guys keep such lovely accounts of your travels. I’m actually off to Oxford tomorrow myself, got a workshop there next week so to me that means a long weekend in the Cotswolds and another in London, and will be happy to pass along anything particularly interesting I find.
Yvette,
Please do tell us anything you think might take our fancy….in the meantime I’ve got something for you! It’s probably too late (seeing as it starts tomorrow), but the Third International Starlight Conference is about to get underway in NZ….if it’s ever held here again you’ll have to come and drop by our place in Auckland first!
Who will I stalk if you don’t blog?!
Seriously excited for you guys, it sounds fantastic!! I’ve always wanted to spend some time cruising the canals (the Three C’s of historical north-western England – Coal, Cotton, and Canals!), and you’ll just be missing the chaos of the Olympics too huh? (No doubt a good thing since I heard on Nat Radio tonight that there are major concerns with the public transport!) What an adventure! Again.
duuuuuuuuuuude, how very exciiiiiting: this morning i made espressos in the leetle red cups we got in paris and reminisced at how long it’s been since we saw la petite danseuse in london + notre dame + tour eiffel > very much looking forward to living vicariously through yous.. mum + dad did a canal trip > dad said it’s one of the most relaxing things in the world. am desperado to see the pic update x
Buen camino.. you will have a wonderful time. September weather is usually good, there will be ripe blackberries, grape harvests and fiestas. I’d leave the laptop though (weight really matters on the camino) and take a cheap smartphone.. lots of wifi in bars along the way.
Andrea and I will be in and around Bath Sept 16-22. Any chance we’ll meet?! xo
What exciting travels again! Four years into homeschooling I was just today thinking of unschooling again (which we never did do), which reminded me of your blogs, which I miss reading, so I came here to see if there were any new links or new blogs. I will look forward to seeing what you and your family get up to on your travels.
Hello family,
You all stayed with me and my family at PV in Berlin a couple of years back and now I live just an hour and a bit inland from Barcelona. I don’t know if your way will be anywhere approaching the place I now call home but a pilgrim is always offered shelter under my roof.
Clayton the Canadian
Sounds like a great idea! The trail won’t be quite as busy in September but the weather should still mostly be quite warm. I agree with Kay- laptop would be quite heavy. I’ve just got home and used an iPod Touch to blog with wifi- found it most days on the Camino Frances. I look forward to following your exploits!
Hi Clayton, our Berlin Hero!
Unfortunately we will not be heading to Barcelona (we’re just doing the stretch from Leon to Santiago and then straight on to London.) It would have been lovely to meet up with you again. We often wonder what happened to the Schoenhauser crowd.
Thanks for the advice. Will depend how strong hubby is feeling! Grandpa has offered his small lightweight lappy, but I’ll pass on your advice all the same. BTW, your pictures and quotes are most inspirational!
Hi Tara
Nice to hear from you again. What are you up to? Keep the love of learning alive – keep learning yourself.
Nope. We don’ get to England until October. But we’ll look north from the Camino and wish you well.
And is that Andrea as in your sister? She hasn’t mentioned a thing!