Stage 2: Roland to Round Mountain

Stage 2: Town to Top Pilgrimage. Headed out this morning after a refreshing thunderstorm and walked the Roland - Promised Land - Staverton, Cethana, and Round Mountain leg. For years prior to the Hydro Electric development this was the only road south into the Upper Forth Valley, Lorinna, the 5 Mile Rise mines and the trapping and snaring country which is now the Cradle Mountain National Park. It was fascinating leaving developed rural land (although lots being lost to tree farms) and heading into the inhospitable ravines around the end of Round Mountain. Early explorers called this place 'Hell's Gates' which is just a few hours walk from the Promised Land. Road workers who had past me earlier in the day were a little surprised to have me wander past. They were not sure whether to hold me up or let me through. Then it was off road and onto a disused mining track. The old mine doors, i recall from years ago have long since rotted away leaving the adit open for inspection. Too muddy to get far inside. End of the road today at the Cockatoo Road junction. Hoping to get to Lemonthyme power station via Lorinna community tomorrow.

Stage 1: Sheffield to Roland–a Sunday afternoon stroll with Merran

Headed out from home this afternoon on the first leg of a journey to the top of Tassie... my end of year / advent retreat / pilgrmage. It was great walking out my back door and nearly 5 kms later past the original farm my great great grandfather settled in 1860 just as the Kentish Plains were opened up. Wonder how many of my great grandparents walked this same road to school and to shop in Sheffield. Then on to the village of Roland. Nice to have Merran with me for stage 1. Planning Roland to Round Mountain tomorrow.

A second mini pilgrimage 2014

 

Merran reminded me that while drinking coffee at Round Mountain Cafe a year or so ago, I had mooted the idea of walking from home to Mt Ossa, in a kind of ‘slow movement way’ (of the walking not cooking variety).  The idea must have percolated deep in my subconscious as it jumped out a couple of weeks ago energised by a long year of consulting work with conflict and other organisational pressures.  So it begins.  Sheffield to Mount Ossa and return in a variety of stages along the old tracks, mining routes and snarers pathways south.  Stay tuned.

Different directions

After a great few days together with Maddie and Sophie touring Italy in our Mafia style rental car, tomorrow we split up and go our separate ways. Merran returns to Australia, to home and back to work. Maddie heads back to school for her last four weeks, and Soph and I catch a scenic train over the Alps to Munich (I think via Innsbruck).

Venice was great, two perfect but cold days to explore the city. We even ran into friends from Sheffield in St Marks Square!!!

We have enjoyed staying again for a couple of days with Maddie's host family who today included us in a family birthday party. Fantastic home style Italian food. Soph and I have the IPad so the blog will now follow us.

A different style of pilgrimage

We picked up a rather flash and quite large (for Italy) hire car on Monday morning and navigated our way carefully out of Rome to Orvieto. A fabulous lunch with our friend Kaye followed as we collected some gear we had left with her when we travelled through. Then it was over the mountains to Jesi where we met and stayed with one of Maddie's adult support people Fiona and Paulo. Fiona is a teacher at Maddie's former school and it was great to meet her. We appreciated their hospitality. On Tuesday we enjoyed exploring Jesi and meeting one of Maddie's friends for afternoon tea at their favorite meeting place. Back to Fiona's again for the evening where after dinner we discovered to our distress that the house had been burgled during the day and money, jewelry and Maddie's laptop were stolen. Tragically this contained all her Italian photos from her exchange year and a novel she has been working on for 4 years, so it was a little distressing for us as well as our hosts. We all felt a little flat for the next day. A visit with the police the next morning held us up a bit but we were ready go by lunch time and made our way to Ravenna.

The early Christian mosaics of Ravenna were fantastic and we all enjoyed spending some time exploring the various sites where these still survive. We had a great meal on the recommendation of a shop keeper where Sophie bought a new winter coat.

Today we spent the morning back in Ravenna before heading north to Venice. It was dark by the time we arrived so it was a fun finding the Hostel out on one of the Islands facing the main square. We settled in and down to bed early however there is a large very undisciplined French school group here who are extremely noisy..... And it is 1.00am. They show no signs of settling in spite of several of our fellow dorm mates asking them to show some respect an the hostel rules which indicate expulsion for noise!!

Always a pilgrim(2)

We saw this very apt cartoon up at the Pilgrim hospice in Rome run by the confraternity of St James.

The caption reads, "Don't worry, Signora, he will be over it by the spring".

The funny thing is we have met so many men who do not get over it quite so easily and leave again on longer pilgrimages. We head of one man who left his wife and family for 11 years!!

Always pilgrims

For the last 39 days our focus has been to get a step closer to Rome each day. As Tim wrote, we all had a huge sense of anticipation and elation as we walked the final 17 kms into St Peters Square only 2 days ago. Sophie and I could hardly walk for the next few hours and hobbled around, and we finished our journey by arriving at a wonderful hostel for pilgrims to Rome, where we were warmly greeted by the volunteer looking after the pilgrims, and had reunions with several other pilgrims we had met on the way. Meal times were special to catch up and celebrate together.

Yesterday we had the privilege of farewelling a young German man who has walked from Germany, and now continuing his pilgrimage to Jerusalem, a total of 5000 km. As you can imagine, we are keen to follow his ongoing journey. Then we visited St Peter's Basilica before meeting Maddie who had taken a train from Milan early in the morning. Still, it seemed strange that it took her 8 hours and us 39 days to cover a similar distance! It was wonderful to reconnect and introduce her to a taste of what has been our life for the past 6 weeks.

This morning we finally left our pilgrim world behind. Tim's comment that we had finished as pilgrims, though, was met by the response that the pilgrimage had only just begun. We had some more goodbyes, and set out for the Colosseum. Getting there before 9 am we simply wandered straight in, and spent the next few hours in Roman ruins. After lunch we visited a museum with a Renaissance art exhibition, the highlight being an original portrait of Martin Luther and his wife Katherine.

We have now settled into a local B&B, which is not quite what we expected, quite funny really, and heading out for an Indian meal.

With love from Merran.