The title says it all..it begins…

It started quite a few years ago, just one of those idea’s that pops in your head and just wont go away…”you know what lets do a hike..a realy significant hike … lets walk ..walk from the belgian coast to the swiss border, along a battlefield that is perhaps the most significant battlefield in the history of Europe”. Can you guess which one…of course you can, I’m talking about the western front, a scar in the landscape and in the history of europe.

The idea was shelved as just plain silly, picked up again..and tossed away … only to be mulled over again, until end of 2013 (and I really dont know why) there was a moment, a moment perhaps of clarity, bravery, or just plain sillyness, that I decided, it has to happen now or it will never happen ever again…So it began! The first course of action was to post on my favorite bushcraft forum http://www.thecave.eu  announcing what I was planning, asking for any tips on a 1000+ kilometer hike (yes how broad and unfocussed can you be ), the responses,  support and offers to hike parts of the route with me only strengthened my belief that it was indeed possible and that I wasn’t mad (or an idiot as someone mentioned rather briefly ;))

What has happened since?

The last few months a lot of work has been done, mainly on selecting gear, weighing absolutely everything, talking to other people, studying maps and books, determining a route etc etc etc (fitting it all in a slighty busy fulltime job…but hey everyone needs another hobby right?!).

The final gearlist is comming into focus now and the route is showing itself in the distance, its a matter of testing, changing, testing and changing again .. rince repeat..and than?

Than? Well there is a a lot of “than” still to do, some stuff minor, some stuff very major and there are still one or two showstoppers on my path, but with common sense an reason I’m sure they will be conquered one way or the other (I guess that’s one of the advantages of being into customer care for about 15 years now, you tend to get flexible like grain in the wind).

I haven”t even announced my trip on http://www.forumeerstewereldoorlog.nl/ which is really bad!, because I’ve had few trips with their members and they have shown me some great sites, I’m sorry for that guys and girls, it’s all been a bit hectic, though some of you may have seen some hints on facebook of what was to come (though you may not have realised it )

Walkabouts 14-18 will start in may 2015, it will be an trip that will last 4 months, where it will end I honestly dont know, but I know where it will start and I know it will be great!!

A cliche makes sense now “It’s not about the destination, it’s about the voyage” …I can honestly say I’ve changed, just because I made a descision..

Stay tuned!

H