Tassie Kaz
Sempre Avanti
- Time of past OR future Camino
- 2024?
London to Rome; currently Day 23 - 526km
I started in London on 21 March walking the Pilgrims Way to Canterbury & then commenced the VF.
I will be in Chalons-en-Champagne tomorrow (Friday 12 April).
The following are excerpts from the group emails I send from the trail.
This one was written on Day 20.
Here goes...
"Today is the first day there's been a change in the landscape. Hills have appeared & there's more wooded areas. Until now, the scenery has been huge expanses of crops, mainly canola (in flower now) & grasses. They stretch on in all directions interspersed only by villages & are criss-crossed by narrow quiet roads or farm tracks which is how I've mostly been navigating my way through this region. There is the occasional small pocket of forest capable of sustaining mostly birds & squirrels. Apart from that, the generally flat terrain is only broken up by electricity pylons & wind turbines. I love wind turbines. These giants march majestically across the land all the way to the horizon. I never tire of them.
The sky above, blue more often than not, is crowded with vapour trails reminding me that although there are wide open spaces here, busy & heavily populated Europe is rushing about all over the place elsewhere. France's motorways, never far from sight or sound, carry an astonishing volume of traffic (especially trucks) but I rarely have to stand aside for any vehicle & if I do, its a tractor. Every now & then I catch a glint of something metallic in the distance...another high speed train appears & is gone just as quickly.
This part of France (including the Somme) although peacefully rural today, was the scene of so much horror through World War 1. It can't be ignored even if you wanted to (which I didn't)...it's all around you, you can feel it. There are war memorials & cemeteries scattered throughout the region. The Commonwealth war graves are all beautifully kept even if in the middle of nowhere. By coincidence, I've passed many & I pay my respects at each irrespective of nationality. I have however, gone out of my way (as much as practicable when walking) to visit the cemeteries & memorials dedicated to Australians. They died so far from home but someone from home has come to visit them...it's the least I could do. Apart from how young most were, the saddest graves are the unknown soldiers. Their loved ones waiting across the ocean didn't know what happened to them or where they ended up.
One afternoon walking along a busy major road, I saw a sign indicating a French WW1 cemetery ahead. I passed the boundary hedge & just burst into tears. Laid out in front of me were rows & rows of crosses neatly marking graves as far as I could see...there were thousands of them. I know the history, I've watched documentaries & seen photos of these mass cemeteries but to actually stand amidst it is truly overwhelming & confronting. This was compounded further when I realised each cross represented two graves..they were buried back to back. There was 8500 in that cemetery alone. I wandered around for ages & all I could think was 'this can never happen again'.
It was an emotional few days & I was relieved to move on...but the scene of those lost lives & my reaction to it will stay with me forever.
I'm not going to lie, I'm finding this walk hard going. The daily distances are uncomfortable for me. It's relentless. I stagger into each nights destination. I'm leaving earlier & arriving later than previous walks. I'm tired. My feet are sore. I got my first blister today but that was only because my feet were wet. It was supposed to rain all day increasing to heavy in the afternoon but I only copped light rain for about an hour. It was walking through wet grass that did the damage. Spent last night in Laon which I loved (first place all trip) so a rest day there would have been great but continue on I must.
I am completely going my own way. I spend substantial time each night plotting my course for the next day & then am constantly navigating throughout the day...it's exhausting...BUT it's also hugely satisfying knowing I reached each destination by all the decisions I made; I didn't follow waymarkers, signs, a guidebook or an app. Me & offline Google maps set out each morning & just see what happens. I've made boo-boos, come to dead ends where a road is clearly shown & taken a chance on tracks that aren't on the map. Some days I'm a well-oiled machine & others I sputter along but I always get there in the end.
No matter how tired, footsore, wind blasted, sunburnt or filthy...somehow you recover during the night, get up & do it all over again...& the whole experience just blows me away every day."
Sempre avanti,
I started in London on 21 March walking the Pilgrims Way to Canterbury & then commenced the VF.
I will be in Chalons-en-Champagne tomorrow (Friday 12 April).
The following are excerpts from the group emails I send from the trail.
This one was written on Day 20.
Here goes...
"Today is the first day there's been a change in the landscape. Hills have appeared & there's more wooded areas. Until now, the scenery has been huge expanses of crops, mainly canola (in flower now) & grasses. They stretch on in all directions interspersed only by villages & are criss-crossed by narrow quiet roads or farm tracks which is how I've mostly been navigating my way through this region. There is the occasional small pocket of forest capable of sustaining mostly birds & squirrels. Apart from that, the generally flat terrain is only broken up by electricity pylons & wind turbines. I love wind turbines. These giants march majestically across the land all the way to the horizon. I never tire of them.
The sky above, blue more often than not, is crowded with vapour trails reminding me that although there are wide open spaces here, busy & heavily populated Europe is rushing about all over the place elsewhere. France's motorways, never far from sight or sound, carry an astonishing volume of traffic (especially trucks) but I rarely have to stand aside for any vehicle & if I do, its a tractor. Every now & then I catch a glint of something metallic in the distance...another high speed train appears & is gone just as quickly.
This part of France (including the Somme) although peacefully rural today, was the scene of so much horror through World War 1. It can't be ignored even if you wanted to (which I didn't)...it's all around you, you can feel it. There are war memorials & cemeteries scattered throughout the region. The Commonwealth war graves are all beautifully kept even if in the middle of nowhere. By coincidence, I've passed many & I pay my respects at each irrespective of nationality. I have however, gone out of my way (as much as practicable when walking) to visit the cemeteries & memorials dedicated to Australians. They died so far from home but someone from home has come to visit them...it's the least I could do. Apart from how young most were, the saddest graves are the unknown soldiers. Their loved ones waiting across the ocean didn't know what happened to them or where they ended up.
One afternoon walking along a busy major road, I saw a sign indicating a French WW1 cemetery ahead. I passed the boundary hedge & just burst into tears. Laid out in front of me were rows & rows of crosses neatly marking graves as far as I could see...there were thousands of them. I know the history, I've watched documentaries & seen photos of these mass cemeteries but to actually stand amidst it is truly overwhelming & confronting. This was compounded further when I realised each cross represented two graves..they were buried back to back. There was 8500 in that cemetery alone. I wandered around for ages & all I could think was 'this can never happen again'.
It was an emotional few days & I was relieved to move on...but the scene of those lost lives & my reaction to it will stay with me forever.
I'm not going to lie, I'm finding this walk hard going. The daily distances are uncomfortable for me. It's relentless. I stagger into each nights destination. I'm leaving earlier & arriving later than previous walks. I'm tired. My feet are sore. I got my first blister today but that was only because my feet were wet. It was supposed to rain all day increasing to heavy in the afternoon but I only copped light rain for about an hour. It was walking through wet grass that did the damage. Spent last night in Laon which I loved (first place all trip) so a rest day there would have been great but continue on I must.
I am completely going my own way. I spend substantial time each night plotting my course for the next day & then am constantly navigating throughout the day...it's exhausting...BUT it's also hugely satisfying knowing I reached each destination by all the decisions I made; I didn't follow waymarkers, signs, a guidebook or an app. Me & offline Google maps set out each morning & just see what happens. I've made boo-boos, come to dead ends where a road is clearly shown & taken a chance on tracks that aren't on the map. Some days I'm a well-oiled machine & others I sputter along but I always get there in the end.
No matter how tired, footsore, wind blasted, sunburnt or filthy...somehow you recover during the night, get up & do it all over again...& the whole experience just blows me away every day."
Sempre avanti,
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