Another Walking Year Ahead!

Winter is still underway here and in fact it's snowing heavily on our Island today. A late winter 'surprise' snow in these parts given our crocuses and daffodils are already flowering and the grass already needs cutting. That said, it's been a mild winter and full on Spring really isn't very far away in these parts. Though we know our pal Ken on the Canadian prairies is privately having a good chuckle at our expense! He walks in ridiculously cold winter temperatures in southern Saskatchewan!

We've had loads of time to recover from our walks in 2017 and are already well along with our Camino plans for this year. First up on April 23rd there will be a walk on the network of Sicilian Caminos called Cammini Francigeni di Sicilia, specifically the Magna Via Francigenia. This has apparently been approved as part of the Camino route to Rome and eventually onwards to Santiago, Spain.

The Magma begins in Palermo (the red route) and crosses the north and central mountains of Sicily ending some 160 kms later on the south coast at Agrigento where there is a spectacular array of Greek temples and theatres overlooking the Mediterranean.

While the modern day Camino route was only inaugurated on March 7, 2017, it has long been a route used for hundreds of years during Greek, Byzantine, Arab and Frankish times.

After another week, this time driving Sicily to sample its pleasures and sights, we will fly south to Malta for a week of wanderings. We have discovered that there is an excellent walking network on the Maltese Islands and we have identified a series of day walks which look like excellent fun. From there we will fly up to Ireland for a brief visit with Paul's parents in Connemara where we are hopeful for a little walking there. For walkers, Ireland is a current hot spot! Heck, in 1975 I walked about 38 kms along the southeast coast road with my heavy travel pack to meet a lovely girl from New Zealand who I'd met months earlier in Greece, but that's another story:)  As usual, I will be blogging our walking experiences.

We will return home in late May to enjoy the summer with plenty of wanderings in BC, the Yukon and hopefully Alberta before again returning to Europe for a Camino experience that is fast becoming very near and dear to our hearts. Beginning on September 21st, World Alzheimer's Day we will begin our Camino For Alzheimer's Awareness - A Journey.  For the past three months we have been researching this project and working in conjunction with the Alzheimers Society of British Columbia in an effort to help improve awareness and to raise money for this progressive and incurable disease. We have built a new blog for this Camino journey with links to our fund raising pages on the Alzheimer Society's website. We will be posting regular updates as we progress through the lead-up to this very important purposeful Camino. The blog for our Camino For Alzheimer's Awareness - A Journey can be accessed at;

https://caminoforalzheimers.blogspot.ca/ 

We hope to see you there! 

PS. A snowfall warning has now been issued for up to 10 cm of snow tonight! It's beginning to accumulate...