Always we begin again St Benedict At the last moment I had to cancel my Overland hike from Dove Lake to Lake St Claire in Tasmania in April. My father’s surgery was urgent and I was the only family member available to look after him post-op. I forgot my disappointment as I coached my fatherContinue reading “Always we begin again”
Category Archives: Australia
Another pilgrimage
In 3 weeks I will join Sarah Bachelard on a Pilgrimage along Tasmania’s Overland Track. In six days our small band will walk from Waldheim and Cradle Mountain south to icy Lake St Clair. Contemplative community leader Sarah will keep us in a “spirit of pilgrimage, attentive to the voice of the country and toContinue reading “Another pilgrimage”
Western Plains Zoo
I’ve never been a fan of zoos. Animals confined to small spaces in foreign climates and fed alien foods break my heart. But if you have to have one to save a species then the Western Plains Zoo is a good compromise. We had a perfect spring day to cycle from one paddock to another.Continue reading “Western Plains Zoo”
Where have I been?
Walking with my sister Deb in north-western NSW! On the first day we left her home near Molong and drove to Goobang National Park near Parkes. Our bush walk was stymied by a closed road so we took a rocky road up to Caloma trig and a stunning vista. From Caloma the plains spread hundredsContinue reading “Where have I been?”
Home in pandemic times
We live in pandemic times. There has been no Camino for me this year. The world has been in ‘lock-down’, we have been ‘sheltering in place’, the latter being a more inviting term for staying home from work and play. Many of my neighbours have discovered or rediscovered the small pleasures of home: planting aContinue reading “Home in pandemic times”
Coming home
It seems to me that we need to leave home to value it. The going out sharpens our appreciation of the coming in.When I came home from St-Jean-Pied-de-Port after the last pilgrimage I wrote in my journal: “I’m home. I’m at home. This work, this landscape, these birds and trees, the kangaroos grazing over theContinue reading “Coming home”
Silence
Real quiet is presence — not an absence of sound but an absence of noise Yesterday as I walked through the forest near home, I heard a plane fly over – and realised how quiet the sky has become in COVID times. Traffic on the roads was less for a long time, too. Just latelyContinue reading “Silence”
Kama Nature Reserve
Today another walk close to home: Kama Nature Reserve off William Hovell Drive. The trail winds down to the Molonglo River through regenerating eucalypt woodland. Around the many older trees like the one above younger trees in all stages of growth abound. Sprays of leaves have shot from the ground following the generous drought-breaking rainsContinue reading “Kama Nature Reserve”
No holiday walk either?
As Deb and my hopes for a holiday along the Great Ocean Walk in Victoria fade as surely as our dreams of a 2020 Camino, we trial walks closer to home. This weekend we walked through Mulligans’ Flat on the northern fringe of Canberra. The reserve is a wildlife sanctuary, fenced against predators. Species notContinue reading “No holiday walk either?”
South Coast Interlude
Will we grow back into a more creative and flexible society after the 2020 collective assaults of drought, fire, hail and disease? I walked along Potato Point Beach on the South Coast of NSW and into the forest on the last week of my break from work. The Eurobodalla National Park comes right down toContinue reading “South Coast Interlude”
Contemplative Camino 