Thanks for asking Al!
Conversations have been flowing freely since then! The older kids have got used to the idea that their crazy mama really would contemplate taking their little siblings away for ten weeks and leave them at home! I explained to them that there were reasons I taught them from a young age to "keep house" and they cannot deny they are totally capable of doing so now :wink:
The goal is to do a fundraising walk for charity water. We want to call it the "1,000km walk for water" and challenge people to give one cent per kilometre (that would amount to $10) or perhaps 10 cents per km ($100) and amongst our professional friends we'll put out the word that we are even looking for $1 per km (what's $1000 to a lawyer or doctor?? slightly tongue in cheek - although our anaesthetist friend who volunteers in Nepal each year having lived there for five years had someone give him $10,000 once so I'm just concerned were setting our sights too low!)
The boys are going to make up fliers to distribute in places we frequent, and will be available to do a short awareness-raising presentation in schools, churches etc in our local area. We are even in the process of finding out if we would be able to speak at an event which has over 4,000 young people attending it...
Before we went on our "Big Trip" with the kids, they raised money to get a book published in Laos (see Big Brother Mouse for details). Part of their fundraising efforts involved doing a 19km coast-to-coast walk across our city. Little did I realise where that beginning would take us!
Where things stand at this stage.....
I am planning on leaving mid or late May 2014 with the two boys (aged 11 and 13 by then). We want to put in some miles BEFORE Saint Jean (just trying to work out where to start from) and then go from SJPdP to Leon, up the del Salvador to Oviedo, along the Primitivo to Melide and back on the Frances to Santiago. If we have spare days we could wander out to the coast (go the extra mile as it were!) or nip back to the monastery at Montserrat which everyone would like to see. (We'd fly in to and out of Barcelona).
About a week or so after we leave, Daddy would hop on a plane with the two younger girls (by then aged almost 8 and just 10) and meet us in Pamplona. We would walk together for a couple of weeks and then he would have to return home to work and I would continue with the four of them. Our long days would be past and we go at a pace that suits the slowest. I have written up a possible slow itinerary based on what the 8-year-old was able to manage easily when we walked last year. If we manage to go faster, there is plenty to do in Spain to fill in a few days!
When we told the kids, the plan was for daddy to take the girls back with him, but they have begged to be allowed to stay (in fact they asked to come right from the start but we have said NO to that as we may need to do some longer stages then and it is easier/cheaper to get accommodation for 3 than 5).....and so we are planning on letting them stay on. Condition will be that they willingly do a 25km hike or two each weekend and at least a couple of 15km walks during the week until we go. That ought to test their resolve - as walking through suburbia is just not the same!
We are all very excited.....the older kids at the prospect of being left home alone
, the younger ones at the prospect of another Camino and tetilla and empanadas and walking-chocolate, Daddy at the thought of taking some time of during the term, and all of us at the hope we might be able to offer to some communities which otherwise would not get water.
We've just got to decide on the beginning route and then wait for air tickets to come on sale in June! We've all started learning Spanish, so this will be a very different Camino - it's lovely to have time to prepare, and it's nice to have done the short portion so this time we go knowing it will be OK.
