Almost time to leave
Time’s pretty much up! Ori and I will have been in the UK for one year, six months, and 22 days when we pack our bags and leave on Friday afternoon. As usual, our departure involves a handful of public transport connections: train from Oxford to Portsmouth, an overnight ferry to Normandy, and some buses once we disembark.
We’ll be staying in Normandy with friends for a few days (Ori’s hoping to see the Bayeux Tapestry and Mont St Michel), then we’ll take an eight-hour train journey to Le-Puy-en-Velay, where we’ll begin our 950-mile pilgrimage on foot to Santiago.
The map below shows the approximate route we’ll be following in the next three months. The route from point E to point I will be completed on foot. Point G, at the crossing of the Pyrenees, is roughly halfway.
View Larger Map
Some practical matters:
The near future is very exciting. But right now, in Oxford, we’re struggling with the practicalities of vacating our house and getting everything done that needs doing before we leave. It’s an emotional time, too – we knew it was coming from the day we set foot in England, but that doesn’t make it any easier to say “goodbye” to the friends and places we’ve grown so fond of during the last year and a half.
At least the weather’s been nice – Oxford seems to be trying to leave us with pleasant memories, and the warm, sunny days we’ve been having are certainly helping. All the “blossom trees” are blossoming, and we had a very pleasant barbeque on our back deck with our housemates last evening. The parts of France we’ll be walking in are already experiencing days warmer than 20°C, so that’s also nice to look forward to!
Here we are at the Isis Farmhouse, a pub along the Isis accessible only by boat, bicycle, and foot:
We may find time to blog once or twice more before Friday, but if not, this is the last you’ll hear from us until we make our final step into the Praza do Obradoiro.
Goodbye, everybody, and thanks for reading!
We’ll be staying in Normandy with friends for a few days (Ori’s hoping to see the Bayeux Tapestry and Mont St Michel), then we’ll take an eight-hour train journey to Le-Puy-en-Velay, where we’ll begin our 950-mile pilgrimage on foot to Santiago.
The map below shows the approximate route we’ll be following in the next three months. The route from point E to point I will be completed on foot. Point G, at the crossing of the Pyrenees, is roughly halfway.
View Larger Map
Some practical matters:
- We’ll be pretty much out of touch the whole time. I’m aiming to check email at a frequency somewhere between weekly and monthly, but am making no guarantees. One of my goals with the pilgrimage is to spend time with the people near me, including Ori and the friends we meet along the way. I’ve got the rest of my life to check emails!
- We won’t be blogging, either, nor posting photos as we go. I am taking my camera, though, having “weighed” the pros and cons of its hefty 1kg magnesium body. There will be lots of photos posted after we get back.
- We’ll be back in Canada in late June. And we can’t wait to be home!
- I have no intention of shutting down this blog, and we plan to keep updating it indefinitely in the long term. So don’t delete your bookmarks…
The near future is very exciting. But right now, in Oxford, we’re struggling with the practicalities of vacating our house and getting everything done that needs doing before we leave. It’s an emotional time, too – we knew it was coming from the day we set foot in England, but that doesn’t make it any easier to say “goodbye” to the friends and places we’ve grown so fond of during the last year and a half.
At least the weather’s been nice – Oxford seems to be trying to leave us with pleasant memories, and the warm, sunny days we’ve been having are certainly helping. All the “blossom trees” are blossoming, and we had a very pleasant barbeque on our back deck with our housemates last evening. The parts of France we’ll be walking in are already experiencing days warmer than 20°C, so that’s also nice to look forward to!
Here we are at the Isis Farmhouse, a pub along the Isis accessible only by boat, bicycle, and foot:
We may find time to blog once or twice more before Friday, but if not, this is the last you’ll hear from us until we make our final step into the Praza do Obradoiro.
Goodbye, everybody, and thanks for reading!
