Month: March 2019

On this walk

I’m looking forward
To the long road,
The well trodden path,
The greening hedge,
The stony edge,
The blue sky
The veil of cloud,
The slanting rain,
The stinging hail,
The unplanned trail,
The tiny Violet,
The bluebell carpet,
The peeping primrose,
The clinging bramble,
The unexpected scramble,
The tumbling stream,
The mirror puddle,
The incoming tide,
The singing lark,
The laughing crow,
The nurturing ewe
And the suckling lamb:
I’m looking forward, I truly am.

JAL 31.03.2019

16 years ago, Bob was on the second day of his walk from Land’s End to John O’Groats. At the time Bob was a minister in the workplace chaplaincy team in Sheffield, south Yorkshire and the walk was his sabbatical. His role was to resource marginal workers in the changing economy hence the title of his walk and accompanying commentary: End to End via the Margins. The record of the walk is here

http://bobjanet.org.uk/lejog/fulllist.htm

Bob did many things by this walk. As well as revitalising himself he gave us a lot of life giving resources too. We got used to following the line of the walk virtually each year at this time. His route became the basic plan for other walks we made. At first just short sections of the West Highland way. The stories were told and retold and the photographs shared.
Eventually Hannah, our daughter prepared to walk her own End to End in 2012. Using Bob’s route but changing it a bit, Hannah needed to fit her walk in between the end of the school year after her A Levels and starting university. It needed to include a 24 hour window for her to collect her results in late August. The adapted route will form the basis of the route I will hope to walk this year.
We hope to be at Land’s End on Tuesday 2nd April. See you there?

JAL 30.03.2019
Ugborough, South Devon