Category: remembered bible

Day 106 of the End to End in 2019 started at Dornoch which has both a Cathedral and a Jail, and also a chocolate shop (which I forgot to mention yesterday). The first pause on the route was at Loch Fleet. I remember when we first saw Loch Fleet, which is a nature reserve, when Bob walked LEJOG in 2003. What an amazing sight. For our morning entertainment seals were balancing and bobbing; all was quiet.

The next part of the route was experimental. We’d heard of the John O’Groats Trail and I got the map in Tain, but I’d not tried it yet. It’s main aim was to provide an off road alternative to the A9 from Inverness to john O’Groats. we’d done our best to find our own version of this, which was why I’d gone across the Black Isle (which was totally lovely). But by Tain we were running out of options so I was glad to find the JOGT map. However, there were some warnings: it was not all necessarily signed, it was somewhat experimental, it might be affected by high tides and there were places without bridges. With this in mind, I was cautious. However, I saw the small logo on a fence post and decided to try it: better than the A9 I thought.

It turned out to be part of the route of the old Dornoch Light Railway which went from The Mound (my end point today) to Dornoch and which had lead to its rise as a tourist destination. It was rather overgrown. At one point I was swimming through chest high bracken. However, it was green and it did go where it said it would and I was soon on the way across the end of Loch Fleet and meeting Bob.

Most of my alternative route plans have so far worked out more or less (obviously so, or I’d not be still writing this). Even on the TPT I took a few alternatives, like a small footpath round a wood at the start of yesterday to avoid the road south of West Cowick. It’s good to try an off road route and my theory is you can always come back if it proves impassable. As it was, in 2019, I was less than 75 miles from John O’Groats and there were more sections of JOGT to try over the next few days.

From the remembered gospel: Jesus said ‘Go by the narrow route: it leads to life!’

Route finder, I love your directions.
These green routes amaze me and lift my spirits.
May I always tread gently on the earth.

JAL: 01.08.2020 Yorkshire Day, in Longdendale, Derbyshire.

Day 105 of the End to End in 2019 began at Tain airfield and the first place of interest was the town of Tain. It has been a place of pilgrimage for several centuries and the 1000 mile mark came up in the town. It was also notable for a walk along the A9 which is the main road to John O’Groats, some 80 or so miles away at that point.

I am still walking in 2020 this time on the TPT. It was day 5 in Yorkshire, supposedly going eastwards but in fact mostly going westwards due to the meanderings of the trail on its way to Selby. We stopped short of there at Temple Hirst, saving the rest for another time, and made our way back to Longdendale.

Views over the fields of wheat and barley are dominated by the huge power stations of the area: Drax, Eggborough and Ferrybridge. Other landscapes nearer home are lined with wind turbines. Nearer Hatfield where we were staying stumps of old windmills are signs of previous ways of making things work.

A walk of 40 miles in 5 days, the last of which was very hot, felt very satisfactory. It reminded me pleasantly of the good feelings long distance walking can bring. I look forward to some more, albeit a few weeks from now.

From the remembered bible: The wind blows where it will. 

The blowing wind, useful or dustructive, reminds us of power, that can be used or abused.
As the turbines turn, keeping the lights on and the ventilators pumping, remind us to play our part by the decisions we make, both large and small, growing communities.

JAL 31.07.2020 walking on TPT to Temple Hirst, and then back in Longdendale.

 

 

 

Day 104 of the End to End in 2019 begun with a calm and quiet crossing on the Nigg Ferry. I was the only passenger. I continued onto Nigg Church which houses the Nigg Stone,  a Pictish Cross Slab which depicts the earliest known illustration of the eucharist in Britain. It was a quiet day’s walk to Tain airfield (disused).

Today in 2020 it’s day 4 of our TPT eastwards walk, this time starting from Braithwaite. The first three miles were straight along the New Junction Canal. There were some quiet reflections, lovely plants including wild watercress and some quiet black headed gulls.

Meanwhile Bob was finding it difficult to park at our first proposed point due to an angling competition. He went onto the second, but all this meant I actually walked further than him today. We met at Topham Ferry Lane (ferry no longer available) and made our way through a series of quiet lanes and paths.

We both remarked how quiet the walk was with very little traffic or other extraneous sounds. The flat countryside, mostly used for cereal growing, was doing what it does best: just letting time pass quietly.

From the remembered bible: Be still and know I am God.

As the Swans glide and the plants grow,
As the cereal crops push their way skywards,
As the clouds shuffle across the blue,
So I am glad for a still calm day and the quiet around me.

JAL 30.07.2020 TPT Eastwards, Braithwaite to Shearburn Plantation.

 

Day 102 of the End to End in 2019 was across the Black Isle, a place of flowery lanes and wooded paths.  Moving on to 2020 my second day on the TPT eastwards was also along flowery and wooded paths.

One of the things I enjoy most about long distance walking is the opportunity to enjoy the natural world, especially flowering plants and the insects.

At this time of year many of the plants are showing pink or yellow flowers. On sunny days plenty of butterflies are about.  Today was windy but not wet. The TPT is an excellent route, a path with a good even surface and lovely views of the River Don.

The Boat Inn had closed sometime since Bob walked past in 2013. In its place was a small snack van selling tasty lemon muffins. Leaving the River Don, the last section of the route to Bentley was on a disused railway path. We arrived at Bentley Park in good time. The whole route had taken about the same amount of time as yesterday’s.

1. 

From the remembered gospel: Jesus said ‘Look at the Lilies of the field’.
It’s lovely to walk a route lined with flowers, or a path shaded by trees. They make the way pleasant.
May we make the way pleasant for others, offering courtesy and support to fellow travellers, sharing the route, treading gently.

JAL 28.07.2020 Denaby Ings to Bentley via TPT.

There’s really only one subject for Day 99 of the End to End in 2019 and that’s the cafe at the end of the universe. After a lovely, but hot, walk along the Great Glen Way, through some forested bits strewn with large orange fungi called Birch Boletos, I eventually came to it.

It had been signposted from some distance away with cheery home made signs announcing the various possible consumable items from the menu. As it got hotter and the cafe got nearer I became more determined to reach it. Eventually I came to the last sign post which indicated a turn off the main path into the woodland. Now anyone who has done any kind of walk knows to beware of signs  like this, after all it could be miles away.

I risked it. I met a couple coming back towards me and asked about the cafe; was it really this way and was it far? They gave the necessary assurances and I continued to an archway,  a rather odd collection of hand made furniture and a lot of chickens. I had arrived at the cafe at the end of the universe.

I sank down on a bench and was soon served by the proprietor: a cold drink and cake were ordered. When they arrived my photo was taken for the Facebook archive and I tucked into the feast. Meanwhile, Bob was coming back in the other direction and was soon enjoying his own cool drink along side me. He later said, he wasn’t sure he was ever going to persuade me to leave.

And that’s the thing about the cafe at the end of the universe, which was actually in their back garden: no one wants to leave, ever.

From the remembered gospel: Jesus said, ‘I’m coming to your house for tea’.
Of all the references to sharing food in the gospel, this one is the most homely.

Welcoming One, how wonderful it is to share food together in any part of the universe.
As the lock down eases, we look forward to the sharing days and the celebrating ways,
remembering, retelling and rejoicing, in the kindom cafe at the end of the universe.

JAL: 25.07.2020 In Longdendale (and sadly not in Canterbury as originally planned).

Day 98 of the End to End in 2019 continued on the Great Glen Way from Bunloit Pottery to Drumnadrochit. This was the third time we’d used this part of the route in that monster village. Near the beginning there was a lovely honesty stall selling locally printed t-shirts and a bit further on a small honesty shed selling cakes. I love this system and always partake fairly.

There were also a few gates, including one I remembered from Bob’s 2003 walk when Hannah, then aged 9, was walking with him.

There are lots of gates on the LEJOG: some you go through, some you don’t. Some you should go through and you don’t. Some you shouldn’t go through and you do.

Gates come in all shapes and sizes and all materials: wood and metal gates are the most common. Some have latches and catches, some you have to climb over. But, on the whole LEJOG, not one of them had a gate keeper, if you discount the odd patch of nettles or thistles to put you off. Gate keeping is a thing some people do in institutions. They feel obliged to check on those asking admittance, see their up to scratch or likely to behave properly. A sort of semi-benign bouncer system that easily goes off the rails.

Whilst gates may have had the original aim of keeping things in, I think of them as ways through: part of a route to somewhere else. I’m not necessarily stopping long, just passing through. Note that Jesus is not the gatekeeper, but the actual gate. In my remembered bible, the Jesus-gate doesn’t seem to need a gate keeper.

The walking day, after fish and chips in Drumnadrochit, ended 14 miles from Inverness by road. But the route I was taking, there were bound to be more gates.

From the remembered gospel: Jesus said ‘I am the gate…’

In his Rule, St Benedict didn’t have much time for those who ‘pen themselves into their own sheepfold’ or who, just passing through, ‘never settle down’. But then he was trying to encourage the creation of community and he saw these two types of seekers as disruptive. They seemed to do whatever they wanted, either in their own small huddles or by just drifting about. Yet both of these types are common in our time, just as they must have been in his. So, dismiss them or embrace them, that’s the question? I certainly have tendencies of both types myself. If Jesus is the gate, then a real kindom community has nothing to fear from either of these sorts of seekers.

May we kindom seekers, go in by the gate,
welcome others and in openness receive from them.

JAL: 24.07.2020 in Longdendale.