Why do you go away?

Laura Kate Piper

In our hearts forever

Why do you go away?

So that you can come back
So that you can see the place you came from with new eyes and extra colours

And the people there see you differently, too

Coming back to where you started is not the same as never leaving

A Hat Full of Sky by Terry Pratchett  

Hi Everyone!     

Well, after 34 days of walking and 864 kilometres, the Camino - #ForeverYoung 2017 is over.

I actually did reach Finisterre on Friday 27^th October, on schedule.

#JobDone!

Pipers * 3 : Dianne, Nicole & the Pilgrim

What was it Dylan said?

I’ve definitely made some great Memories to hold on to & cherish over the years ahead.

There is a very real privilege in being outside all day for 6 weeks in the wonderful Spanish sunshine.

Must be time to revive those long held plans to spend the British winters in Western Australia … 

Stunning countryside:

En route to Triacastella, Galicia

Amazing bridge & buildings:

Puente La Reina

Leon cathedral

Sculptures:

The Pilgrim, near Burgos

And the never to be forgotten, “well-deserved” Estrella Galicia Grande por favor and tapas at the end of each day’s walk:

Finisterre

Of course, in the end it is all about the people along the Way …

My thanks to everyone who has followed my ramblings.

To Lady Piper who directed the logistics and also to Susan who ran the statistics.

And not forgetting the 27 friends (& 3 dogs) who travelled from the UK to join me out on the Camino.

Together we walked the equivalent of Lands End to John O’Groats – & back!! – or, if you prefer, climbed Everest – twice!!

On the cathedral steps, Santiago

And to those I met on the walk from so many countries and backgrounds - may your Camino have delivered all you hoped for and more!

From Sydney - via Bickley & Croydon - to Seattle

For those who are planning to visit the UK …

With the £ exchange-rate where it is compared to your currencies (I never managed to “explain” the Brexit result, did I?), I’m looking forward to strolling on the South Downs with you SOON!

Polly & Lexi 

Visiting the UK in 2018; hope so !!

For all those with whom I walked – old friends and new – I believe that you will agree that we can all do more, much more than we ever thought we could.

Markings by Dag Hammarskjőld

After the Camino, I recognise only too well that I have been strolling (no pun intended) through far, far too much of life.

I can do much, much more.

My challenge is to get up each day & #JustDoIt!

For if you are wondering what success might be for you, I can do no better than repeat what my old A-Level History teacher, Brigadier PF 'Foxy' Wells, used to say:

Success is simply being willing to give it your all

(He also used to regularly tell the Class of ’68 that, having read that week’s essays, he knew that we could all be a lot, lot more successful!!)

So, my award of ‘Star Walker’ goes to my favourite sister-in-law, Barbara, who on the walk into Santiago & then again on the long climb up to Finisterre gave absolutely all she had.

Top Girl, Barbara!

But what of Terry Pratchett’s assertion:

Coming back to where you started is not the same as never leaving.

So now that I have come back, what do I see with new eyes and extra colours?

What have I learnt?
And what am I going to do differently ?
And what might you?

It turns out that it all comes down to 2 minutes on a bench outside the small town of Molinaseca.

Let me explain …

As you may know, our younger daughter, Laura, died in March 2016. She was 26.

As I sat in Laura’s flat at just before 2 o’clock that Monday afternoon waiting for the Ambulance and the Police to arrive, I remembered that Laura & I had often spoken about the advice a friend of mine had given me a dozen or so years previously:

Treat life as a never-ending exam.

Don’t argue that an exam question wasn’t what you wanted,

Or that you hadn’t revised for it,
You must answer EVERY question.

I knew instantly what the first exam question was: Why did Laura die?

In her mid-teens Laura began her battle with balancing eating & exercise.

She got some tremendous professional help and in the next 10 years Laura got on with her life: she went to University, studied for a year ‘Down Under’ in Australia, lived independently in her flat near the Tate Modern in Central London & – as she had long hoped to - qualified as a Solicitor.

But Anorexia is a Relentless, Wicked opponent;

It attacked Laura - each trip to the Gym, every meal time. Each day … Every day …

Laura was determined, she never gave up, but by Monday 21^st March the Anorexia had so weakened Laura’s body that it couldn’t fight back any more and pneumonia killed her.

Of course, I knew that there was a second exam question - one I was sure many other people would be asking:

Could I have helped Laura more?

However, as the days & weeks passed, and I struggled to answer that exam question like I had never struggled before, no one ever mentioned it to me and I began to think that questions which are unanswerable may be the ones that are unaskable too.

But you must answer EVERY question, and as I set off on the Camino I understood only too well that I must use my Camino to try (yet again) to answer that second exam question.

My pink laces – her favourite colour – were a reminder of Laura and those 100s of walks we had done together.

On the steepest of hills, on the hottest of afternoons, on the longest of days … I felt Laura walking with me.

Come on Dad: you can do it …

On Camino Day No. 22, I set off just before dawn from Foncebadon, high up on the Montes de Leon. I walked with Lisa, an erudite and wise advocate from Seattle, and as dawn broke we were passing the Cruz de Fierro which, at 1,500 metres, is the highest point of the Camino.

The next couple of hours provided both interesting conversation & stunning landscapes:

Montes de Leon

But when Lisa wanted to stop at Acebo for a coffee, I was feeling strong & said I would walk on; we’d catch up later.

A few minutes out of Acebo, a lady from the Ukraine called Yana caught me up.

Over the next three hours as we walked a dozen kilometres and descended some 800 metres, we discussed so many things: from what to seek to enjoy our professional lives, to the meaning of “range” and why Ukrainian companies don’t have Value Statements.

Yana & I looked for a café in Molinaseca, but we couldn’t see anything we liked so we sat on a bench by the side of the road as we were leaving the town.

On the Camino, a day’s walk will burn 4,000+ calories and you need to substantially ‘up’ your normal food intake.

As I started to eat my banana (that great source of potassium) I noticed Yana wasn’t eating anything.

In truth, middle-class, rather reserved Englishmen of a certain age (who don’t give advice & never take it either!) wouldn’t dream of proffering unprompted help to 32-year-old Ukrainian ladies.

But Yana was painfully thin.

I wasn’t going to say anything … it wasn’t really any of my business … but then I heard Laura whisper to me:

Dad, you need to say something; please.

Yana, I said rather falteringly, you know you are not eating enough. You will eat properly, won’t you?

As so often had happened with Laura, Yana smiled wistfully.

I’ll try.

Promise me you will?

I promise you, Ric.

We walked on together for the next 8 or so kilometres to Ponferrada, where our paths separated.

I don’t know whether those few words on the bench have helped Yana.

Quite possibly they will have to be repeated many times by many other people … but it was also once said:

A waterfall starts with one drop of water

And look what becomes of that

The Power of One by Bryce Courtenay

And as for the second exam question: Could I have helped Laura more?

A few days after my walk with Yana, I was walking with Polly who hails from Billings in Montana and – like me – saw the Jigsaw on the hills behind Portomarin.

As we spoke about my struggles with the second question, I realised that I needed to re-phrase it:

What more can I still do to help others?

When you & I next meet Yana – whoever they are, wherever they come from, whatever they need - please, offer them help.

And if they ask why, say; Laura told me too!

---

I have had so many very generous donations for the 4 great charities I’m supporting on the Camino - #ForeverYoung 2017

Thank you !!

Buen Camino, Ric the Rambler

Camino - Final Thought

Tom Petty

P.S

If you are reading this Yana, you will eat properly, won’t you?

You promised me you would …