Friday 7 June 2024

Day 4 - from 40 km to Surat… to 26.5km to Surat

It took a while to get going this morning packing up the tent drying out everything that was covered with dew, so we had some breakfast while we were waiting for them to dry a bit and then got going. It wasn’t  til ~8:30 or 9 that we were on the road; then we split up for an hour so. Ethan told me there’s a rest stop 14.5 km on. If we don’t see each other before then, we’ll catch up then.

After i travel for about ½ hour or maybe only 20 minutes, I looked back to realise my flask had fallen off somewhere. It has been so helpful that I decided to leave the trolley and go back. I left this little note on the trolley, ..on a nice white surface I found lying nearby…





& headed back. Walking slowly to scan the side of the road and watch for traffic. Half way back would you believe it, a white ute driven by a bushy named Bill pulls up to see what i'm doing, then tells me to jump in and have a look out of my window.  We mosey along looking for it and not finding it all the way to the campsite. He said he’d wait and take me back whether I found it or not. I jumped out, following my tracks about an hour or so before, and there it was about 10 metres away from the campsite. Bill was still waiting, he said “It’s  enough to make you believe in God.” I said “I think I already do.” He said, “Oh well it wouldn't hurt to believe more!” as i got back in. Then he drove me back to my trolley. As we drove, he asked me what induced me to do the walk. I said it was a kind of pilgrimage. This excited him and he started telling me that he & his wife went on the camino (in spain i think) and how good it was. I tell him that I had a farmer near where I lived in Canowinda who also went over to the Camino & came back telling me how good it was. I though surely we can do a “camino-like pilgrimage” in Australia; so this is a walk from Melbourne in the South to Marpoon in the top [near the tip (of Cape York). Then we arrived back.  And he left me off  with “‘Bon camino’ - as they say.” 

I really only lost probably 20 minutes walking with his life, & being driven back. 

Thank you Bill. Thank you creative love.


Well, I had also stopped up a hill where I had some reception to put yesterday's blog up. So I've come ~4. Km, by 11:30am, ,  if these signs are right.



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I caught up to Ethan on a grassy slope. I think he was  reading the book he wants to finish before he gets to Roma (to post it back to its owners).







We got to the rest stop, then pressed on past an old directory. The M’s didn’t stand for Metres.







We pressed on to the next rest stop, 26.5km from Surat. And decided, since there was two of us, to camp there on the ground (on either side of a table and chair set) under one of the shelters, to save having to pack up tents and tarps in the morning. 

Still doing some meditation on sacred scripture,  Psalm 1 & Psalm 91,from Jesus’ Bible (but in English);  and trying to memorise it, in order to meditate on it, in order to get this foreign perspective, or mindset, the culture of eternity into us, in our minds, then into our choices and affections.



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