I am heading off. Now that Christmas 2019 is over and we have seen in 2020. I am apprehensive going at this time, with fires burning in so many towns. A state of disaster in areas, normally brimming with summer holiday makers. We have fires near us in the Blue Mountains but we are not at risk currently and my travel plans don’t include any fire effected areas as I depart.

I have had so much change in my life and with the loss of my dearest Mum, Sandra and my dear Aunt Cheryl, moving after 38 years from Balmain and being made redundant from my job after 32 years with DJS. All in the last 12 months. I want to step away from the everyday, see some sights and step foot on some of this land I have not visited before. Australia has been my home since 1987. In 2020 I am planning to become an Australian Citizen. (Officially). To celebrate this I will walk in New South Wales, Victoria, Tasmania, South Australia, Northern Territory and Queensland. I have already completed a Pilgrimage in Western Australia in 2015 and with Australia being such a vast land I have not included WA in my pilgrimage plan.

After many years of being interested in completing a Camino in Spain, my fascination with all things pilgrimage has really been heightened since joining the Blue Mountains Camino Supporters Group. I spent sometime listening to and got to meet John Brierley who has written the wonderful guide books about the Camino Frances in Spain. He has been walking and writing about the Camino for the last 25 years, he told me anyone can make a pilgrimage anywhere. So that is what I am going to do. John believes in looking for the sacred and in ritual so I hope to bring these 2 elements to each of my walks in each of the places I visit.

At this stage I will head to Sydney via the Blue Mountains train, spending the day in Sydney then getting onto the train and heading overnight to Melbourne.

My plan is to travel with purpose to tread lightly and be mindful of the traditional custodians of the lands I will visit. I am interested in the history of each place I visit and plan to spend time not just walking but also learning something of each on the way.

Today I am traveling over the lands of the Darug and Gundungurra. As I pass through the towns of Wentworth Falls, Lawson and Blaxland I am thinking of the first explorers making their way up the mountains in 1813. The first colonials to see this very special place I now call home.
“A country of so singular a description could in my opinion only have been produced by some Mighty convulsion in Nature…..”

William Wentworth