Over the water

If you were watching the tracker this afternoon you'd have noticed that my progress speeded up somehat from the usual 2.5-3 miles (4-5km) per hour, equally that I'd abandoned walking for swimming!  After a straightforward walk from Broadford along the SE coast of Skye, I'd arrived at Armadale and took the ferry across to Mallaig, the first time I have moved for well over two weeks without putting one foot in front of the other.

Stage 1 of my pilgrimage is therefore concluded, although I hope to use some of the train journey to Bristol tomorrow to look through my journal and see what themes are emerging and potentially explored further.

For today, I feel thankful for God's blessings in getting me here in what feels like good physical shape, feeling a sense of inner stillness and having found a rhythm for this period of sabbatical.  All well and good in the main, but there have been a few more challenging moments, including:

- getting somewhere to sleep a week ago in Kinlochewe (mentioned before)

- equally a long climb into the wind on the first day south of Durness, when I was questioning whether I was doing the right thing at all

- needing to embark on a longer day's walk early on when it became apparent that I'd not be able to buy provisions as intended

As I look forward to seeing everyone at home, there are at least a couple of things I will need to sort out before I return:

- a bit of re-arranging of the next bit of my itinerary, building on my experiences so far.  I've been happy camping, whether on a site or wild, but it's been more than useful to have my rest days in a hostel of some sort

- reducing the weight I'm carrying in my backpack.  Obviously I have made it thus far, but it would be good to have less to carry.

Back to the present, I'm currently staying in The Mission Bunkhouse in the centre of Mallaig, just over the road from the railway station.  The building is owned by The Seamen's Mission, but the demand for temporary accommodation for seafarers has declined so it has been converted with the income used to support ministry in other ways.

With ten days at home, plus three days travelling, it will be two weeks today before I'm back here and looking forward to heading south on foot again.  I'm hoping that the overall weather pattern will have improved, particularly compared to the following, sent by Monique and Casper who I met last week (thank you, as I know you are likely to be reading this at some point)

I will post whilst I am away from the walking, not sure when.