Review from Confraternity of Saint James in London
Book review
Thatcher, Guy
A Journey of Days Continues. Mud, Mountains and Mindfulness on the Camino of St Jacques.
GSPH Inc. Canada 2013
978-1-77123-037-7
This is the story of Guy Thatcher’s attempts – ultimately successful – to complete his half-finished walking pilgrimage from Le Puy to Santiago. From the moment I picked up his book, I was hooked. A pleasure to handle with coated paper, attractive layout, good photos and type-face, I found it to be one of those ‘don’t want to put it down’ reads. Written in the present tense Guy’s account retains an immediacy throughout the 210 pages. The Canadian author already has a book under his belt, ‘A Journey of Days’, and his confident, authoritative and fluent style is evident – he knows how to construct a sentence, to pose rhetorical questions, research and present informative background information with a light touch and give the reader little ‘cliff hangers’ to keep one reading on. He is always outward looking, a keen observer of his fellow travellers and his sometimes drole observations of the life of the camino are both sensitive and often self-deprecating. Continue reading Review from Confraternity of Saint James in London
A message from New York City
This message arrived today for me:
By way of introduction, my name is Eric Wu from New York City (originally born in LA). I stumbled upon your website from a link on a site called Reddit – you seem like you’ve lived an extraordinarily interesting and adventurous life. You’ve gone from one career to the other, and when your nephew asked why you did the month long Spain-France hike, you said “because I’m still trying to figure out what I want to become when I grow up.” I really subscribe to a similar mentality and philosophy, and I just wanted to hear what life and career advice you would give to a 22 year old, recently graduated, working a corporate job that he’s not particularly fond of. I understand this is very open-ended, but I would love to hear about your life philosophy.
Here is my response: Continue reading A message from New York City
Off the path
I was seriously off the planned route but ended up among friends.
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Victor, me and Cassandre
Starting again in April 2012
Here are the first photos from the second attempt to cross France. St-Chely d’Aubrac is where I stopped in 2011 and started again in 2012.
My ‘family’ from 2011
This photo is the folks with whom I walked on my ill-fated first attempt to cross France. I am still in touch with Karsten, Max and Francine. I have sadly lost touch with the three Parisiennes.
I’m back!
Here is another photo from A Journey of Days Continues: Mud, Mountains and Mindfulness on the Camino de Saint-Jacques. And yes, I do know that it is the Chemin de Saint-Jacques, but I am writing for a (mostly) North American audience and they recognize ‘camino’.
This photo is taken in Aumont-Aubrac at La Ferme du Barry, where the owner/chef Vincent stretches a potato/cheese mix into his signature dish … and wows the pilgrims at the table.
My new book is almost ready!
My next book, A Journey of Days Continues, will be published by the end of August, less than a month. I am very excited! Starting today, I will post a few of the photos from the book every day. Here are the first three.
Epic Walk for Women’s Cancer
In support of the Epic Walk for Women’s Cancers in Ottawa, I raised over $1100 yesterday, surpassing my personal goal of $1000. Collectively we walkers raised over $256,000 against a goal of $250,000. Not bad for a first event! My part of the deal was to walk 28 kilometers from the Queensway-Carleton Hospital to the headquarters of the Ottawa Regional Cancer Foundation. I have not walked that far in a single day for just over two years, when I walked to Aumont-Aubrac in France and was confronted by a wild boar just before the village.
I started at 11 AM and finished – ahead of the storm that blew through – at 5:30 PM, about 6 and a half hours of steady walking. The logistical setup was excellent with guides and refreshment stands strategically located along the route – much easier than the Chemin. I walked the whole distance with Peter Linkletter, the Chair of the Ottawa Regional Cancer Foundation. We were a team of two. The weather co-operated by being mostly overcast with a nice breeze, although very muggy in mid-afternoon.
My body co-operated as well, no blisters, no pulls or sprains, just tired muscles and feet at the finish. The organizers had a tent set up after the finish line with massage available. I took full advantage of this. Again, thank you to all my supporters for their generous support for a very worthy cause!
And a special thank you to Carroll and Meredith, who provided me with personal logistic support – a ride to the start point and from the finish point some hours later.