I’m home after the most incredible journey over 100kms in the Baviaanskloof and Kouga mountains on the Baviaans Camino. My first multi-day hike.

We laughed so much we cried with a completely mixed bag of characters, ages, cultures and experiences. I’m humbled by the extraordinary place your mind, heart and body go to when hiking with strangers, journeying with others. Navigating the space, the vistas, the distances, the conversations, the silence, their stories, your story, the weather, your water, the sound of your steps in the gravel, the length of the breath in your stride, the weight of your woes, the strength in your legs and the plans mapped in your mind. It was challenging, energising, beautiful and truly exceptional. I am grateful, my heart is full and my tin cup is full of wine from a can.

My blister got a heartbeat and a needle and thread. There is always a first for everything – Just like my Camino name “Cinderella” proved apt for the agony in my knee pushing through the last 17km’s- despite my pathetic doubt and dramatic mind – it also proved not to judge any book by its cover.

What I got out of it wasn’t an epiphany… or enlightenment. The same is said for that glass slipper…

For once I actually didn’t need to go to the depths of my soul. In every step and every next path and view, was simple satisfaction. A bearable lightness of being – complete with a sense of trust, determination and peace in knowing who I was in the moment, with these people in the world. It was pure goodness, it was real JOY! It was excellent tonic!

A Camino is a journey… one I look forward to the next steps on. As for the weather in your ability – it’s all in the conditions of your mind… (and kit!) Sunny skies with a chance of being alive and well! (Did I mention fit?!) 

South Africa you are undoubtedly a never ending discovery!

Thanks Esti, Eric, Carmen, Coenraad, Desmond, Marina, Faiza, Ailse, Wolfgang, Monica, Janet and Marinda!