Hustle And Bustle

To prove to ourselves that we are really home, we are off to our local market at Esperaza this morning. This is a habitual Sunday morning activity. We like to get there early and witness the hustle and bustle while the market is setting up. The photo was taken at the market by Lorenzo during his and Jane's last visit from Indiana.

I mentioned some time ago that Gay's sister Dana had asked if I had time to muse on my past life a bit more than my blog entries indicate. I said that I had not, but this may not be true. The blog entries were posted soon after I finished the walk each day, were necessarily brief, and were part of my memories of each day's walk.

However, I carried a dictaphone with me while walking and recorded about 1,500 words per day, which I transcribed each evening. Those notes recorded events and my thoughts as they happened, and in much more detail than the blog entries. I now have to trawl through them as part of deciding whether I will write a book. I am not sure they contain much musing about my past life, but there may be a reason for that. You see, I have already written my autobiography, for private circulation and the benefit of my children and grandchildren. So I have already done the musing Dana was asking about. And I will incorporate the relevant bits into any book about VBW.

The fund is at 107%.

Home, Where The Heart Is

This is a view from our very own garden, peeping past our very own fig tree and going on to what we regard as our very own castle - le chateau de Puivert.

We arrived home yesterday, completing the full circle from here to Blackpool and back (with a side trip to the north of Scotland, not necessarily on foot). We left here on 15th May. Shortly before we left, the village was deep in snow. Now it is baking in temperatures lurking above and below 30 degrees Celsius.

And, having spent only 6 weeks here this year, we are extremely glad to be back and will take some shifting for a while.

But the blog lives on. I am pondering the effort of writing a book about Vic's Big Walk and would be interested to hear your views on this.

Also living on is the fund-raising for Pancreatic Cancer UK. Whatever it says on this blog page, the fund now stands at 106% of the £7000 target. I am sure we can get it to at least 110%.

And Nostaligia Begat Nostalgia ...

... even unto the seventh generation.

This is weird. One thing I expected from Vic's Big Walk was that, as I passed through places where I had spent some of my life, I would experience nostalgia, flashbacks and memories provoked by my return to those places.

But now I am finding that the flashbacks and memories are coming from VBW itself!

On the way down through England, we stopped off in Banbury, last seen on a hot day early in July as I tramped along the canal bank and came off in the town centre for a coffee, perchance muffin, with my beloved.

Now we are in France. Yesterday we were in Chinon (pictured), seen by me but not Gay during the event. Today we passed through Lussac-les-Chateaux and now we are camped up in Vers (which you will remember rhymes with Bears, although there is a village of Bears very close to here, which is pronounced quite differently). We were here on Day 9 of VBW (which must mean we are more than 6 tenths of the way home), 24th May 2010.

I mentioned yesterday that the distances seem much further on four wheels than on foot. Another fact is that the journey is much more tiring this way. There were not many days while walking that I felt fagged out, but I sure do after a days driving/passengering.

Vic's Big Walk - The Movie - Goes Global

The BBC coverage of the final minutes of VBW is now also available on the website of Pancreatic Cancer UK.

http://www.pancreaticcancer.org.uk/fundraising_past.htm

Enormity

When I was a competitive runner, it always bemused me that, if I drove round a marathon course which I had run, it always seemed to be longer by car.

I have just driven from Lancashire to Portsmouth - a journey which took me almost 4 weeks when I did it - in the other direction - on foot. I can't say it seemed longer today, but it certainly underlined for me the enormity of the walk I now have behind me. And when we arrive in France tomorrow morning, the journey home will be getting on for 3 times as far as today's drive.

And in many ways I prefer the walk version.

Donations to Pancreatic Cancer UK are now at 105% of the £7,000 target, and they are still rolling in. So don't be shy.

Southbound. The Adventure Is Nearly Over

We are back where it all started, or rather where I started life, and VBW ended just over a week ago. We are not quite in Blackpool, in fact, glancing around, one would be forgiven for thinking we are in Texas.

V-Force One is camped at Great Birchwood Caravan and Campsite, at Warton, just outside Blackpool. The site also includes Fort San Antone, a Texas honky-tonk bar transferred to England.

In their own words "The Saloon / Restaurant decorated in the style of the Old West can hold 1,500 people, with seating for 650. It boasts three bars and has two dance floors which give you plenty of room for line dancing. The Restaurant with its full menu allows you to enjoy a good meal while you relax listening to great Country Music."

All this country stuff takes place at weekends only. There is even a shop where you can tog yourself up in country gear so you do not feel out of place.

It is amazing. Check it out at:

www.fort-san-antone.com

Today we set off southwards, staying with friends in Stockport overnight, then straight to the ferry at Portsmouth tomorrow night. Back in our adopted home of France on Wednesday morning. Home by Friday. The adventure is nearly over.

Vic's Big Walk - The Movie

Big Tone has put the BBC news item about the VBW finish onto YouTube.

Many of our friends and supporters overseas have been bewailing the fact that they did not see it. So now here is your chance.

Just click on the link or cut and paste into your browser.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oXEsgaK8EL0





Thanks Tone