Silently toiling along together – report by Erica and Richard Lichtendahl (pilgrim 2606 and 2607)
My wife Erica and I hadn’t made a significant trek for about five years and gradually the plan arose to make another pilgrimage with backpack luggage. Because we had already walked several times in France and Spain with our final destination Santiago, we now wanted to stay a little closer to home.
Read the report by Richard and Erica Lichtendahl from The Hague here.
For example, this time we were inspired by the publications about the ‘Walk of Wisdom’ in the Jacob’s Staff, a periodical of the Dutch Society of Saint James. We wanted to experience the ‘pilgrim feeling’ in the Netherlands in the form of a ‘walking tour’, without difficult preparations, travelling there and back. As the years go by, you notice that your strength decreases, whether you like it or not. It was now important to pack our backpacks with even more care than usual, so that we ended up with 6 kg (Erica) and 7.5 kg (myself) respectively in terms of weight.
We were able to park our car in a parking garage in Nijmegen and so we immediately started our trip on the day of arrival. We had reserved 8 days for that, which brought us to an average of about 17 km per day. We had to be able to handle that as more or less inexperienced hikers. We did not consider our daily one-hour walk with our dog in the dunes of Kijkduin as a real preparation, but it was enough to carry out our plan. After having reported to Mr. Rens, who received us kindly and after having completed some formalities, we were able to leave.
The pilgrim feeling came over us after a short time. Silently toiling along together on not too beaten forest paths and country roads. Enjoying the beautiful nature along the way. Abundant sweating. The tranquility of the area with virtually no noise from heavy traffic. Church towers looming in the distance, which seem to get no closer and every time the last kilometers of the day, which always feel just as heavy. In the first few days, I also caught myself with the familiar feeling of irritation: “Do we have to do it again?” and: “Shouldn’t I stop instead of continuing with this aimless drudgery?” These feelings were familiar to me from previous treks and I did not give in to them, but tried to distract myself by thinking about other things and looking around me more.
I also regularly reflected on what wisdom I had gained in the last decades and the balance tipped only slightly in my favor. It’s amazing how fixed patterns determine your psyche and how difficult it is to really keep renewing yourself. To wake up every morning with the feeling that everything is new and sparkling instead of letting yourself be carried away by your regular routines. Oh well, a human being is only a human being, isn’t it?
Plenty of time on the road to both remember our recently deceased younger brothers and to remember how relative life is and how, despite everything, you are again gripped by the issues of the day.
However, we thought we would be lucky to have healthy children and grandchildren.
We had discussed the first four bed & breakfast addresses from the route booklet in advance and the reception and facilities were excellent. Especially the bakehouse of Machteld was special and we were kindly welcomed there with a cozy burning wood stove. That was good because it was damp and chilly that day. After that, we had to improvise a little more. For example, after a whole day of walking, we had to leave the route 2.5 km to find accommodation in Velp at motel Koolen. On Erica’s 72nd birthday, we walked in the rain all day. Despite our rain capes, we still arrived through the wet. To console ourselves, we celebrated her birthday in the evening, for lack of a more festive eatery, in the nearby pancake restaurant. Fortunately, in addition to the many types of pancakes, tasty salad dishes were also available there.
The so-called ‘bird rings’ that we wore on the leather laces around our necks, we received at the addresses indicated in the hiking booklet. These were mostly catering establishments, which came in very handy for a cup of coffee in the morning or tea in the afternoon. We had no trouble finding it except once, just before the town of Ravenstein, where we were not aware that just before arriving in this place, an address had to be visited.
Incidentally, we felt very much at home in this beautiful, historic town, where we were pampered with a delicious dinner and an excellent room in city inn De Keurvorst.
When we returned to the Stevenskerk we were very kindly received by the sexton, who wrote us down in the book of hours and provided us with a very nice stamp for the route booklet. We also heard that the number of 3000 participants had now been exceeded. We had lower numbers, namely 2606 and 2607, because we had not been able to carry out our plan to run in the spring due to unforeseen family circumstances.
All in all, we had a nice trip. We hardly had any contact with other cross-country runners along the way. Because Erica is the more contact-oriented of the two of us, she thought that was more important than me. Fortunately, this was compensated by exchanging experiences with various accommodation owners, who often turned out to be avid hikers and/or nature lovers.
We can recommend this tour to anyone who wants to walk.
