Day 332 - A good omen?

A double rainbow graced our skies yesterday - if you look carefully, you'll see the second one to the right of the big one. I certainly hope that's a good omen!

I haven't blogged too much the past week but I've certainly followed my regular Camino blogs. Here is one that you might find interesting - a group of 15 women from South Africa are walking right now, if you'd like to follow their journey, click here.

As for myself, Thursday is hiking day and I'll be up at 5am tomorrow morning. We're spending the day in the Franschoek Mountains, situated in the Cape Winelands, about an hour's drive from Cape Town. Last week the group explored the front of Table Mountain, if you'd like to see some of their pictures, click here.

I'll be taking my camera with me tomorrow, hopefully the weather will play along and we'll have a glorious day! I guess I'd better pack in the extra gloves and hats just in case - winter has a funny way of sneaking up on you when you least expect it in our part of the world.

I guess by tomorrow evening I'll know if double rainbows are indeed good or bad omens!

Day 58 - What a wonderful day!

When I walk the Camino, I'll be looking out for the yellow arrows and scallop indicators to find my way. Today I was guided by yellow footprints, very discreetly painted on rock surfaces along the spectacular route we hiked in the Kogelberg Biosphere Reserve just outside of Cape Town.

What a spectacular day! As you probably know by now - Thursday is my hiking day. I don't miss it for anything and the summer hikes are my absolute favorites as it often includes stops at waterfalls where we swim in unpolluted, sparkling, magical pools. Just as God made it. No chlorine, no fancy tiles, no steps. Just rocks, water, tadpoles...and us.

Backpack on the back, boots on and walking stick in hand, I set off early morning with three friends and we hiked for 6 hours. We stopped along the way for 'breakfast' and 'lunch', swam in two pools, chatted about a million subjects and took pictures to ensure that not a moment is forgotten!

Join me on a photo pilgrimage of this very special day!

The Kogelberg Biosphere Reserve forms part of an exciting concept where communities are involved in preserving the areas that they live in. You can find out more at: http://www.kogelbergbiospherereserve.co.za/ and http://www.unesco.org.uk/uploads/biopshere%20reserves%20faq.pdf

Wonderful idea!

Here I am with my young friend Yolanda - she has taught me so much about hiking and also joined me on my Kilimanjaro expedition earlier this year. There's a very good chance that she's going to walk the Camino with me in 2012!

My breakfast!

Untouched...spectacular!

This was just too perfect to pass by!

I could almost touch this little guy - he was perfectly colour coded in his environment and superbly equipped to jump over slippery rocks, able to disappear in seconds. A proud (and loud) member of the orchestra that entertained us the whole day.

This water is as pure as it gets. The dark colour is the result of tannins released by our natural 'fynbos' vegetation. Our fynbos has been declared as one of the six Floral Kingdoms of the world and many of these plants are found only in the Western Cape area. Find out more at: http://www.encounter.co.za/article/38.html

Doing anything next Thursday? :)

Day 38 - Of talks, pilgrims, hikes and pictures!

This is my friend Christi - photographed earlier this year on her camino in Spain. If Christi hadn't made a decision four years ago to walk the camino, I might still not have known that there was such a thing as the Camino de Santiago!

My sister mentioned a couple of weeks ago that her friend, Christi, has just walked the Camino de Santiago.

The whole 780km journey. On foot. 

She immediately had all my attention. I had never heard of the Camino de Santiago and had only met Christi very briefly on a previous occasion.

I knew I had to meet her again and a couple of days later we met for lunch and I was privileged to be introduced to the camino in the most perfect way. From the mouth (and heart) of a true pilgrim. Someone who has actually walked it herself and came back blessed in so many ways.

I bombarded her with questions and again, I am just so amazed at how people who have followed this journey are so generous with sharing their experiences. Christi clearly had a very spiritual journey and has started presenting talks on her experience.

So this Saturday, twenty odd women will be coming to my home to hear her talk. To say I am excited and filled with expectation is putting it mildly. I have secured a screen as she will be showing us some of her pictures and on Friday evening you'll find me in my kitchen, preparing those yummy Portuguese Pasteis de Nata tartlets that I'm famous for. (Thanks to the 'Cooking the Portuguese Way in South Africa' cookbook that my mom gave me 30 years ago!)

I'm hoping that everyone will be intrigued by this pilgrimage as much as I am and who knows, some of them might even end up walking with me in 2012!

On another note... I posed a question on the forum of the 'virtual algergue' that I belong to and it has been quite interesting to read the replies. The question was 'Has your camino experience changed who you are as a person?'

The answers made me realise again how different we all are. And thank goodness for that! Here is one of the replies that was posted:

'That's a really good question, and something I've been thinking a lot, especially since talking to a student who is writing her thesis on a related topic.

The Camino has changed my life in that I want to go back. Any extra money goes into my Camino fund. It's had enough of an effect on my life that I started a Camino blog, partly to process the experience--almost two years after my walk. And I've never been athletic, so it's amazing to know that my body is capable of astounding things like walking 1500km.

But I suspect I'm not particularly more spiritual, or necessarily nicer, or (much) better at dealing with life than I was pre-Camino. When I got home, I wasn't any closer to knowing what I really wanted to do with my life. But then again walking the Camino has made me look at these things more, and maybe to some extent in a different way.

So it continues to affect my life, I suspect often in ways I don't realize. Judging by myself and my Camino friends (although we could be abnormal), a lot of people don't have huge epiphanies on the Camino. But I think the experience can keep working away in our lives if we let it.

Walking the Camino for almost three months was an incredible experience for me. I went through some miserable times, physically and emotionally, but the whole time I had this feeling of rightness--that this was where I was meant to be. But it's hard to bring that back into regular life.'

Anna-Marie

There was also a very short and sweet 'No'. That one really made me smile.

Thank goodness we're not all the same!

I guess walking for kilometers on end with all your belongings on your back and not always knowing exactly where you're going to sleep, in a strange country, with a strange language and surrounded by strangers, is certainly going to take you to places you've never been to in more ways that one! 

It seems that one should have an open mind and certainly an open heart when embarking on this experience. I for one can't wait to answer my own question at the end of my own walk!

I promised earlier that I will quote pieces from Tony Kevin's wonderful book, 'Walking the Camino' and this is what he says about pilgrimage:

'The idea of pilgrimage, the dream of 'an arduous journey far from home undertaken for sacred reasons', is embedded deep in our culture and history. It is part of us, part of what inspires our urge to travel,to experience foreign places. We may not know it, but each time we leave our homeland to travel the world, we are looking for something more than just 'holidays', fun, and sex in the sun. I think we are seeking, whether we recognise it or not, spiritual enlightment, wisdom, and the revelation of God in the richness of the great world that lies out there beyond our home town.

Every traveller, especially every young traveller, is a pilgrim: whether they go consciously to seek spiritual rebirth, to escape from oppression or grief or boredom at home, to seek interesting or spiritually rewarding work experience abroad, or simply to enjoy the thrill of unfamiliar places and customs. The desire to go a-pilgriming, it seems, is part of our human condition.' 

I just love this book!

 And then on a final note...

Tomorrow is hiking day!! The weather looks good, so we are going to head out of Cape Town on about an hour's drive and we'll be spending the day hiking in the mountains just outside of our Winelands region. I am taking my camera along - so watch this space!

I thought I'd leave you with a picture of the beautiful Blue Disa we found on our last hike. As far as I'm concerned, there's only one way to describe this little flower - perfect!

Until the next post - cheers!

Day 12 - Exploring the countryside

Our trip to Ladismith (http://www.ladismith.org.za/) this weekend was everything I expected it to be and so much more. There is an energy in that beautiful part of our country that one simply can't ignore. I experience it as a vibrant, yet peaceful feeling that makes me want to stay there for much longer than we normally have time for.

This time we stayed on a farm about 12km from the town and our main reason for going up there was because of the 80km Seweweekspoort mountainbike race held there every year. My roll is that of supporter and photographer, my husband is the one who gets on the bike!

He bikes and I hike. That works for me! His biking takes me all over the world and I certainly don't have a problem with that! In Melbourne I volunteered to help at the 'Around the Bay in a Day' cycle race and in New Zealand I drove the campervan around Lake Taupo while he took part in the race that circled the lake.

A pity my love for photography was still somewhat dormant at that stage, if I think of all the amazing shots I could have taken! I do have a few snapshots though, come to think of it, I'll have to go dig around for one or two to post.

Here are some of the weekend's encounters..

Only in Africa!

Our lunch stop in Greyton - lamb shank was good!

Our Abbey - enjoying farm life!

We met these two in Montagu - tired or bored, not sure!

Thinking back about this wonderful weekend we had also makes me a little sad this morning. One of my brother's childhood friends is lying in hospital today, fighting for his life. He celebrated his 39th birthday a few days ago and it seems as if the battle he has been waging with cancer is about to defeat him.

A few weeks ago he had surgery in the USA and there was tremendous hope that the treatment he received there, that our doctors were unable to offer him here at home, would give him time and healing. That wasn't to be though.

It just seems so sad and unfair. A young man with three small children and a future that is ebbing away. We all have our own journeys but his is taking him to places that he certainly could not have wished for.

I also can't help thinking about how his journey is affecting so many close to him and in fact shaping theirs. It just brought home to me how our journeys are intertwined and connected, whether we wish for it to be, or not.

My prayers are with this young family today and I hope that God fills them with love, acceptance and understanding - things that must be difficult to feel when someone close to you is having to endure such incredible suffering .