The longest walk Home

A man was going down from Jerusalem to Jericho, when he was attacked by robbers. They stripped him of his clothes, beat him and went away, leaving him half dead. 

A Priest happened to be going down the same road, and when he saw the man, he passed by on the other side. 

So too, a Levite, when he came to the place and saw him, passed by on the other side. 

But a Samaritan, as he travelled, came where the man was; and when he saw him, he took pity on him. 
He went to him and bandaged his wounds, pouring on oil and wine. Then he put the man on his own donkey, brought him to an inn and took care of him. 

St Luke’s Gospel Chapter 10

Jerusalem to Jericho is 25 kilometres /16 miles, about the length of a pretty decent Miles in the Legs training walk and about a mile less than an average day out on the Camino.

I’m expecting I may well need some help along The Way.

And I hope to be able to help others too.

Just to remind you of the Big Facts of the Camino 2017:

•  I set off from St Jean Pied de Port in the foothills of the French Pyrenees on Tuesday 19 September
• It is an average of 25 kilometres / 16 miles a day, walking 6 days a week
• A total of about 860 kilometres / 530 miles
• And – if I am able to stick to the Plan – 34 walking days later … on the late afternoon of Friday 26 October I will reach the Atlantic Coast at Finisterre, which the Romans believed to be the end of the known world.

Will you be in Finisterre on that Friday afternoon?

   #JustHopeSo !!

In previous Blogs I wrote about the first two of my Objectives for the walk:

·            Friends’ Involvement; and

·            Personal Challenge.

Today it is time to tell you about my final Objective:

·         Raising money for 4 great Charities

Let me introduce you to each of them …

What’s the point of Life if you don’t Give It A Go?

Mum & Dad

First up is the Duke of Edinbugh’s Award. 

This is the story of a Prince who was born into privilege and had married into even more and, wanting to give others less fortunate than himself the opportunities he had had,  in 1956 started an Award which helps young people – irrespective of demographic - “set and achieve a series of personal challenges to gain confidence, demonstrate commitment, team working and leadership, and learn intangible skills such as resilience and drive that are vital for both work and life”. 

Beginning in the UK, it has expanded into over 140 other countries. 
From 1,000 participants in the first year, over 130,000 young people got Awards in 2016.

The ambition is to give another million young people in the UK the opportunity to take part by 2021.

Both the Girls achieved their Bronze Award.

Each time Dianne & I pass the Rose & Crown at Green Street Green we always remember Laura setting off on her Expedition – her rucksack as big as her – going the wrong way out of the pub car park.

Laura & her chums re-appeared 10 minutes later. 
Eventually we all have to face up to accepting we just can’t get the OS Map and what we are seeing to fit!!

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When a person is down in the world, an ounce of help is better than a pound of preaching.
Edward G. Bulwer

The second charity is The House of St Barnabas. 

St Barnabas, who was a Levite (though not the one in St Luke's Gospel !), is first mentioned in the Acts of the Apostles as a member of the early Christian community in Jerusalem. 

 In Acts Chapter 4 v 36 it is told that St Barnabas sold some land that he owned and gave the proceeds to the community . 

The House of St Barnabas passionately believes that “gaining and maintaining paid work is instrumental to independence and security”.

Its approach is driven by a social purpose to create a future where lasting employment is a reality for those affected by homelessness. 
It offers 360° support, providing accredited qualifications from City & Guilds, work experience in a vibrant business, real job opportunities and mentoring.

St Barnabas currently supports 60 people on their journey back to independence and its vision is to support at least 100 people every year.

Some years ago I had a spell of unemployment. 
So many people were Good Samaritans to me, giving me confidence & helping me get back into the World of Work.

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To lose confidence in one’s body is to lose confidence in oneself.
Simone de Beavoir

The third charity is Beat – Beating eating disorders. 

Beat is the UK’s eating disorder charity. Its vision is an end to the pain and suffering caused by eating disorders. It is a champion, guide and friend to anyone affected by these serious mental illnesses giving sufferers and their loved ones a place where they feel listened to, supported and empowered.

Laura will be smiling that ASOS, her favourite online fashion retailer, is in partnership with Beat to provide online support services and a 24 hour Helpline, for men and women of all ages and their carers, families and friends affected by these truly awful mental illnesses.

In the last year, 7,000 people accessed the online support which aims to reduce isolation from these incredibly lonely illnesses, encourage individuals to seek help and empower them on their way to recovery.

There is no magic cure, no making it all go away forever. 
There are only small steps upward; an easier day, an unexpected laugh, a mirror that doesn't matter anymore.
Wintergirls by Laurie Halse Anderson 

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And so we reach the fourth and final charity Rainbow Trust. 

The longest walk Home that any parent will take is the one after their child has "run" ahead of them.

It must be 20 years since one Friday morning Christa, my PA, asked if I could see Chris Dacey, who ran the Atkins Sports & Social Club.

Then a small charity based down the road from Epsom in Leatherhead, the Trust had contacted Chris to ask if they could borrow the gardens at Woodcote Grove – Atkins HQ – for a fundraising event.

Of course, they could !

Rainbow Trust supports families who have a child aged 0 -18 years with a life threatening or terminal illness and need bespoke support.

There are 49,000 children and young people in the UK living with a life limiting or life threatening condition who may require palliative care

The Trust has 9 teams of Family Support Workers around the country from Southampton to County Durham supporting the whole family. More than 2,000 families are helped every year.

Over the years there have been several opportunities for me to help the Trust in some small way.

Many of you may remember Riding with Ric, a bike ride from Hastings to Rye & on to Tunbridge Wells to celebrate my 60^th birthday back in 2012.

That morning long ago Chris left behind the Annual Report so that I could read a bit more about Rainbow Trust.

Inside the front cover the Patron, one Georgios Panayiotou, wrote:

I can only imagine the immense loss of a child.

The value of an organisation which can help those left behind to come to terms with their loss cannot be measured.

On Christmas Day 2016 the BBC, ITN and Sky News all led on the unexpected death of Mr. Panayiotou. He was just 53.

Like me when I read his Patron’s Statement, you probably haven’t heard of Georgios Panayiotou.

But you’ll know exactly who he was when I tell that his stage name was: George Michael.

George was not a man to pass by on the other side.

In the days that followed his death there were so many reports of George’s generosity: from a special free concert in North London for NHS nurses as a thank you for the care they gave to his mother to £50,000 to Children in Need for David Walliams’ swim across the Channel to leaving a woman in a café £25,000 after overhearing her crying about debt.

Rainbow Trust told that they had benefitted from the royalties of George’s 1991 duet with Elton John Don’t let the sun go down on me.

Whom the gods love dies young.

The Double Deceiver by Menander the Athenian

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So, I hope you agree, 4 great Charities:

Duke of Edinburgh’s Award - House of St Barnabas – Beat - Rainbow Trust

Through Virgin Money Giving, you can sponsor me and all donations ( + Gift Aid) will be 100% passed direct to the 4 charities I am strolling along the Camino to raise money for. 

To sponsor me online, please visit:

http://www.virginmoneygiving.com/RamblingWithRic-Camino2017

I really, really appreciate all your support and thank you so much for any donations.

Hope to see you soon!

Can’t wait for YOU to join me!!

Buen Camino, Ric the Rambler

Follow me on throughout the Camino Walk on Facebook: RamblingWithRic

Camino Thought

It is not death that a man should fear, but he should fear never beginning to live.

Marcus Aurelius

Time’s wingèd chariot

At my back I always hear 

Time’s wingèd chariot hurrying near; 

Better get your arse in gear

Before you need a Zimmer, dear

(adapted from) To His Coy Mistress by Andrew Marvell

Hi Everyone!     

In my previous blog Just the  way you are I wrote that one of my Objectives for the Camino pilgrimage walk: Friends’ Involvement.

This time I’d like to tell you something about another Objective: Personal Challenge.

It took me over 4 years from first hearing of the Camino to – in the Summer of 2016 – publically committing to do the pilgrimage walk in September & October 2017.

It was the wingèd chariot that got my arse in gear  for this 21^st June I turn 65.

Since 2011 in the UK we don’t have a Default Retirement Age, but 65 is still a watershed moment. A moment to, as Dylan Thomas wrote, Rage, rage against the dying of the light.

A few days ago, as you will read below, Phil & I walked on the North Downs around Crockham Hill & Westerham.

Phil & I have been friends for close to 40 years. We were Best Man at each other’s weddings. 
Indeed it was Phil who introduced me to Dianne. (I wanted him to introduce me to Brenda Jones. But that's a whole other story!!)

As were strolling along the bottom of the garden at Chartwell where Winston Churchill lived from from 1924 until his death in 1965, our conversation turned to what I might euphemistically describe asThe End Game.

Reflecting on the recent death of a very close family member, Phil recommended I read Being Mortal by Atul Gawande.

There’s a wonderful quote in Gawande’s book:

All we ask is to be allowed to remain the writers of our own story.

That story is ever changing. Over the course of our lives, we may encounter unimaginable difficulties. Our concerns and desires may shift.

But whatever happens, we want to retain the freedom to shape our lives in ways consistent with our character and loyalties.

This is why the betrayals of body and mind that threaten to erase our character and memory remain among our most awful tortures.

The battle of being mortal is the battle to maintain the integrity of one’s life - to avoid becoming so diminished or dissipated or subjugated that who you are becomes disconnected from who you were or who you want to be.

For me Professional Life - which I still love Beyond Measure – is beginning to wind down.

[Editor: Ric only wrote this because Dianne told him to. We ALL know Ric has absolutely no intention of ever retiring!]

And though I don’t yet need a Zimmer, I thought a Physical Challenge – 34 days of walking an average of 16 miles a day for a total of 560 miles over the Pyrenees and across Northern Spain and out to the Atlantic Coast – would really, really benefit me.

A Challenge that - if successfully completed – would allow me to have another season of being the writer of my own story … …

The Miles in the Legs training over the Winter and into the Spring has undoubtedly improved my fitness. But 34 days on a 6 days a week regime remains a Big Challenge!

It’s great news that I’ve now got so many Friends (& their Friends) signed up to join me throughout the Walk.

I hope even more of you will be able to join me, whether out in Spain (perhaps just in the Bar !!) or on the Miles in the Legs’ rambles.

Talking of the rambles, I am now up to 425 miles since I began the training last year.

Recently, I had a great day from the Devil’s Punchbowl to Blackdown, at 918 feet the highest point in Sussex and the 2^nd highest in South-East England after Leith Hill at 968 feet.

The view from Blackdown

Looking south to Ditching Beacon, which is north of Brighton, 35miles away

Clammer Hill

A coffee stop with Chris & David

I’ve also been on a River Medway ramble, close to Paddock Wood where I spent 6 months as a Carpenter’s Mate before going to university.

 By the Medway, near Twyford Bridge

Another coffee stop; this time with Barry

And finally I’ve done a couple of walks in the Crockham Hill – Chartwell - Westerham area. One with Barry and the second with Phil.

The Green, Westerham

Winston Churchill (on the left, seated !!) & Phil

At first sight Crockham Hill looks like little more at than a few houses by the side of the B269 which takes you from from Limpsfield to Edenbridge.

But it is worth another look …

Rambling with Ric Factoid:  Crockham Hill is on the line of the Roman road the London to Lewes Way, the M23 of two millennia ago!

Within a couple of miles are the family homes of two Prime Ministers: Gladstone from the 19^th century and Churchill from the 20^th.

William Gladstone was the oldest Prime Minister in office. He stepped down in 1894, aged a mere 84.

Churchill became Prime Minister for the first time in May 1940 when he was 65, already receiving his old age pension.

Of course, on 9^th June this man may become Prime Minister for the first time at 68:

At Crockham Hill’s Holy Trinity church there is the grave of Octavia Hill , a co-founder of the National Trust.

Octavia was inspired to found the NT by the views from Toys Hill, which Barry & I passed on our walk.

Looking south from Toys Hill

One of the joys of Miles in the Legs is having a well-deserved pint at the end.

Phil & I called into the Westerham Brewery Tap room.

In 1841 Robert Day established The Black Eagle Brewery in Westerham. It was so successful that in 1881 a branch line from Sevenoaks to Westerham was constructed to carry beer to and from London. By the turn of the century the brewery was the largest employer in Westerham. Production ceased in 1965, but was re-established in 2004.

Rambling with Ric Factoid:  Following the D-Day landings in 1944, Westerham Ales were exported to Allied troops in Normandy inside the auxiliary fuel tanks of Spitfires! They were dubbed “Modification XXX Depth Charges” to get them officially approved for flights.

Black Eagle lorries delivered beer in barrels to RAF Biggin Hill where the auxiliary dual purpose tanks were filled with Bitter on one side and Mild on the other. 

Racking “XXX Joy Juice” into the auxiliary fuel tank of a Spitfire Mark IX

In my last blog I introduced a new feature: This is … …
I said that I’d tell you a WWII tale about a Land Army Girl. 

This is … Isabel

On The Salts, Rye in the early 1940's

Land Army Girl + Champion Hop Trainer

And my Mum!

Plenty of tales to tell about Isabel. 
As I write, I can hear John Squire chuckling about the discussion over the price of Pick You Own raspberries. And the whole Squire Family calling out “That would be Midge Ure, dear”, Mum’s answer to help her team win one Boxing Day quiz.

But this time I’d like to tell you about Mum’s time as a Land Army Girl in WWII. 

It was a  5 miles bicycle ride from Rye to Merricks Farm at Brookland for a day of physically hard work. But adversity often generates an esprit de corps and I know that Mum looked back at her years on Romney Marsh as very happy times.

Jack Merricks worked the Girls hard and they had to turn their hands to all aspects of farm work. Mum learnt to drive a tractor.

Rambling with Ric Factoid:  It was a tradition that at lunchtime on the last Friday of each month Mum drove the Girls, who were sitting on a trailer, to The Woolpack for “Drinks on Jack”.

Dating from 1410, the Woolpack’s name comes from its popularity with `owlers'- wool smugglers- who used the inn as a base for their lucrative trade. 

Piper Family Legend has it that The Woolpack was the first pub on Romney Marsh which the RAF pilots saw when returning from sorties across the Channel. 
Mum always said the pilots dipped their planes’ wings as they flew over The Woolpack. And perhaps they did!

The Woolpack, Brookland in the  1930's

If do you find yourself at The Woolpack on a Friday lunchtime… 

Take Mum’s advice: Always go for The Special. The Pheasant never disappoints!!

Next Time:

·         The third & final of my Objectives

·         This is … another friend whom I hope I'll be able to persuade to join me on the Camino

This is Pete

Come on, Pete; you’d really enjoy it !!

Hope to see you all soon!

Can’t wait for YOU to join me!!

Buen Camino, Ric the Rambler

Follow me on Twitter: @RamblingWithRic

Camino Thought

Here’s is a test to find out whether your mission on earth is finished.

If you’re alive, it isn’t.

Illusions: The Adventures of a Reluctant Messiah by Richard Bach

Just The Way you are

I wouldn't leave you in times of trouble
We never could have come this far

       I  took the good times, I'll take the bad times
       I'll take you just the way you are

I just want someone that I can talk to
I want you just the way you are

Just the way you are, by Billy Joel

Hi Everyone!     

I’ve been a fan of Billy Joel since he hit the Big Time in the late 1970’s.

Just the way you are – which was inspired by Frankie Valli and the Four Season’s Rag Doll -  was Billy’s first gold single when it was released in 1977. 
He's had 33 Top 10 hits, all of which he self-wrote, and sold well over 150 million records.

Rambling with Ric Factoid:  On his River of Dreams Tour Billy performed at Earls Court on 11 May 1994. 

I was in the audience that Wednesday evening, fully expecting to be accompanied by Lady Piper.

Billy opened with No Man’s Land and then Pressure. 

As he finished his second song, there was still no sign of Lady P.

It was only during his third song, The Balad of Billy the Kid, that she arrived.

No word of explanation as to why she was late.

In fact, no words at all !! 

Nothing said until the end of Song 9: Just the way you are !!

I’ve often wondered why Dianne was late …

She’s never, ever mentioned why !!!

El Maestro & Lady Piper

Tithe Close, Codicote

c. 1983

The lyrics of Just the way you are remind me of one of my Objectives for the Camino walk:

Friends’ Involvement

I’ve been blessed with fantastic friends, with friendships going back through The Merryfield Years, to ones I’ve met over the years at Work & right back to College and School.

It is tremendous that plenty of you are already signed up for some Rambling with Ric on the Camino.

I hope even more of you will be able to join me, whether out in Spain (perhaps just Bar-to-Bar !!), on the Miles in the Legs’ rambles or by simply by reading the Blog.

Al l welcome !!

Talking of Friends, I’d like to introduce a new feature.

As they say on the BBC’s Would I lie to you? : This is … …

This is Nigel

I am really, really pleased that Nigel, wife Kate & their friends Avril & Gareth are joining me for the last week of the Camino: for the walk into Santiago & on out to Finisterre on the Atlantic coast.

Nigel & I  met well over 40 years ago on our first day at college.

We went to our first supervision together.

It lasted barely 5 minutes before the Supervisor said to the two us: "I think we should call a halt for today, gentlemen".

It turned out that those 5 minutes taught me two huge Lessons for Life.

If you are in Finisterre on the late afternoon of Friday 27 October 2017, Nigel & I will be up by the lighthouse, having a glass of sherry or two.

We’ll tell you what those two Lessons for Life were !!!

 By an odd quirk, Billy’s song title Just The Way you are is the clue to how I came to hear of the Camino.

It was about 5 years ago that one Friday morning I was checking the Minutes of an Audit Committee meeting with the Board Secretary at one of the companies I “help”.

For once (??), I had got rather more pedantic about the grammar than was strictly necessary.

“Ric: you do know that I had an expensive Private Education. 
I really don’t need your advice on whether it is Apostrophe S or S Apostrophe”.

But the Board Secretary & I liked each other. 
Neither of us would have wanted to end on a fractious note.

I asked about the forthcoming weekend.

The reply came: “I’m off to watchThe Way, a film about walking the Camino de Santiago. I’ll let you know what I think of it at the next Committee meeting.”

The rest - as they say - is History.
   A couple of months later I watched the film.
   And a few years after that ... I'll be strolling across Northern Spain !!

If you haven’t seen The Way, you might well like to.

Amazon –owned IMDb says that the film is “a powerful and inspirational story about family, friends and the challenges we face while navigating this ever-changing and complicated world”

It stars Martin Sheen who goes to Spain following the death of his estranged adult son, Daniel – who is played by his real son Emilio Estevez who wrote the script and directed the film.

 Father & Son

"Life is too big to walk it alone"

Rambling with Ric Factoid:  Martin Sheen’s birth name is Ramón Antonio Gerardo Estévez.

Miles in the Legs training is continuing. South Downs, The Wandle Trail from Croydon to the Thames & plenty of others.

No space this time for details, but next time I’ll tell you a WWII tale about The Woolpack pub at Brookland on Romney Marsh & a very special Land Army Girl.

This is ... 

Next Time:

·         Another one of my Objectives

·         This is … … another friend who’ll be out with me rambling on the Camino

Hope to see you soon!

Can’t wait for YOU to join me!!

Ultreia et Suseia!

Buen Camino, Ric the Rambler

Follow me on Twitter: @RamblingWithRic

Camino Thought

“It is more fun to talk with someone who doesn’t use long, difficult words, but rather short, easy words, like, What about lunch? ”

Winnie the Pooh & Friends