On the road: early morning Muizenberg - St James - Fish Hoek

This stretched canvas photograph that I bought for our Cape Town flat captures an amazing moment at the old Kalk Bay lighthouse, which has stood solidly since 1919: a massive wall of water caused by a spring tide hitting the pier at a right angle.

Hands down walking to this lighthouse from Muizemberg is one of my favourite walks here in Cape Town. 

So it feel right that this walk marks the start of my 6 months of preparation for my Ultra Walk.

The first stretch of the walk to St. James is along a seaside concrete path.

The sea sparkled this morning, the salty spray from the high tide catching me every now and again. The Southern Black-backed Gulls were abundant but I missed seeing and hearing the African Black Oystercatchers.

The iconic colourful wooden beach shacks are a highlight as are all the quirky shops along Kalk Bay, I was feeling pulled to do some clothes shopping, but it will have to be another time.

This walk also comes with great food options, our two favourites in Kalk Bay are C'est le Vie and Olympia, and both deliver on great cappuccinos, pastries and breakfast, so today we broke the walk at Olympia. 

If this is what preparation looks and feels like, more please.

• Walking log: Friday 9th January.

Training started with an early morning 10 km walk along one of my favourite walks in Cape Town.
Muizenberg - St. James - Kalk Bay - Fish Hoek return.
Walk: Coastal path and road.
Total km to date: 10.

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A pause....

Five months has passed since our extraordinary four months of travel in the Bahamas and the western USA.

I have been in a self-designed pause since coming back to South Africa in late July 2014,  resisting getting into a new project, or planning a holiday or thinking about a new destination.  It has not been a comfortable place to be in as I love the possibility that all of the above provides me.

The priority was to reconnect with my family and friends, to make my spaces feel like home again and just picking up where I left off. Fred and I have travelled many, many thousands of kilometres across South Africa, Botswana and Zimbabwe since coming back, being part of special events; a wedding, a funeral, birthdays, many special days and many ordinary days along the way.

And all this time I paused, not directing my energy or passion in any one direction.

The pause is done.

Fred was telling me about Andy, a friend, who today, in Egypt, has started to cycle the length of Africa. I was thinking, I do not cycle but I walk.

August will also be the start of the last year in my fifties and I feel like a challenge to mark this milestone.

My challenge will be to complete an Ultra Walk:

301 kilometres in 10 days.

The starting date will be 15th August.
The place will be Namaqualand among the beautiful carpets of spring flowers.

Training starts today. I will be on the road walking.

I am excited, energised, nervous, anxious about my feet, my knee, I will blog, I will list, I will find good food along the roads, I will bird watch, I will immerse myself as only I can do.

Walks. The body advances, while the mind flutters around it like a bird. ~Jules Renard

A call to be on a road.

Thank you David Whyte, rereading this poem, I am feeling the excitement of the challenge I am setting myself.

2015, I will be on the road, walking, exploring, testing my body limits as I do so.

SANTIAGO

The road seen, then not seen, the hillside hiding
then revealing the way you should take,
the road dropping away from you as if leaving you 
to walk on thin air, then catching you, holding you up,
when you thought you would fall, and the way forward
always in the end the way that you came, the way
that you followed, the way that carried you into your future,
that brought you to this place, no matter that it sometimes
took your promise from you, no matter that it always
had to break your heart along the way, the sense
of having walked from far inside yourself out into the revelation,
to have risked yourself for something that seemed
to stand both inside you and far beyond you,
that called you back in the end to the only road
you could follow, walking as you did, in your
rags of love and speaking in the voice
that by night, became a prayer for safe arrival…

© David Whyte
From SANTIAGO in PILGRIM: Poems by David Whyte