For only the second time since I started training for the Camino, I wasn’t alone this weekend! Today was the annual Ride & Stride for the Dorset Historic Churches Trust and our lovely Kate Wickson had planned a nice manageable route around the Shaftebury churches. So it seemed churlish to pass up the opportunity to walk with others for a change!Nine of us met up at St John’s Enmore Green, signed their form and then headed straight over the hill towards St James’. After a brief break to look around and enjoy the organist rehearsing for a recital (including a brief interlude when several of us practised our best twinkle toes routines to the Dance of the Sugar Plum Fairy!), we headed off uphill again for a coffee break and a chance to look around the remains of Shaftesbury Abbey before carrying on to St Peter’s. Quite by chance, I met up with Keith, who manages their A Church Near You page - having exchanged e-mails once or twice, it was lovely to meet him in person!A final stretch downhill with a stop at the Community Orchard to eat packed lunches took us back to Enmore Green and a parting of ways … until Sunday morning, when we will doubtless mostly find ourselves together again at church.Today has been a taste of how delightful it is to walk with others. Hills seem less daunting and the miles pass more quickly when there are people to share stories with and exchange ideas and thoughts with. A reminder of perhaps at least one of the reasons why Jesus sent His disciples out in pairs, rather than on their own. It’s too easy to get discouraged and to dwell on the downsides (blisters, rubbed ankles, sore knees) when we’re alone - a friendly chat, profound or deeply trivial, helps us take the focus off ourselves and makes the hours and minutes fly by.
After my big start to training during a week of leave from the ‘day job’, it’s been down to earth with a bump this last week. Working 9 to 5 doesn’t sit terribly well with training for long walks, but I managed to get out Monday - Wednesday and managed about 5km each day.And then … oh dear, the weather! Having got a little damp on Wednesday lunchtime and sat around steaming in the office for the whole afternoon, I took one look at the bucketing rain on Thursday and decided that Noah had the right idea: stay inside and seal yourself in! After all, I thought, I’ve got an exercise class booked for this evening and that counts as training too … but, sadly, it seems that once I’ve started procrastinating, I just keep on going! Although, in my defence, I missed the class because I worked overtime to help a client out, so it’s not so bad.But then Friday was grim as well, so another training day lost. I’m pleased to report, however, that I managed to get myself out of bed nice and early today (Saturday) and set off before 8am for a 16km / 10 mile hike round and about Gillingham. After the torrential rain (and before the next forecast weather front comes in), it was a beautiful early autumn morning. As I watched my feet on the way up Bowridge Hill, a tiny, perfect, cream and black snail crossed my path and Robert Browning’s lines popped into my head:The year’s at the springThe day’s at the mornMorning’s at sevenThe hillside’s dew-pearledThe lark’s on the wingThe snail’s on the thornGod’s in His heavenAll’s right with the worldIt was a perfect little moment (even if the season wasn’t quite right!). But I quickly remembered that my perfect moment with all the world feeling just right isn’t the same for everyone: that, however peaceful and serene I might be feeling, there are countless people out there enduring war and hunger and pain and disease. So I took that as my cue to pray for all those on my growing Camino prayer list - I may not know the names of every person in in the world in want and danger, but I can pray for those I DO know and it WILL make a difference.
After my last post, I was feeling inspired by my successful (and not TOO challenging) 25km hike to and from Stourhead. Knowing that I won't have the luxury of putting my feet up for a day or 2 after such a long walk once I'm on The Way, I gritted my teeth and got myself out for another long walk the following day, Tuesday. It was another gloriously sunny day and I thought I would stay closer to home this time and explore a few of the places in Gillingham itself that I had yet to visit properly.A blissfully shady wander through Withywood got me off to a deceptively easy start and was followed swiftly by a cheeky stop off at Waitrose for a Hobbit-style second breakfast of toast and coffee ... and the all-important inspection of the 'facilities'! But then it was off in earnest to get some proper miles in again. The breeze on Bowridge Hill was most welcome, as was the shady stretch by the ford. Then I decided to find the route across the fields from Milton to Wyke Road that had been described to me ... I have no idea if that was what I found, but wending my way along lanes and paths eventually brought me back to town by way of Wavering Lane West.By the time I reached home, I had managed 15km - not as far as on Monday, but definitely more than enough for a second day! Most importantly, I think I have now identified all the soft spots on my poor feet, so at least I know where the Compeed needs to go.Some shorter walks through the rest of the week have set me up well for keeping the training going over the next month and a half. And all of the walks have got me thinking about Jesus' instructions to his disciples, as He sent them out 2 by 2; I'm carrying an awful lot more than He suggested - a backpack (christened Nobby!) with 2 changes of clothes, a spare pair of flip flops for when my feet rub and 2 walking poles, not to mention the various other 21st century 'necessities' like a phone and some soap! I wonder whether travelling lighter than that is sensible, or even possible, these days. Perhaps I should content myself that, in the spirit of those first Apostles, I am simplifying my life to the minimum I can. Will that lack of material encumbrances help me come closer to God as I walk? Time will tell.Buen Camino!
