I’ve got to the point in my life when I have had to just surrender to the fact that everything is working according to a divine plan. I have to learn to put myself aside and trust that the route will be perfect and everything will magically fall into place if it is motivated with a clear intention. The great lesson of manifestation is to see it already in it’s completion, and not to get caught up in how it is all going to unfold, but trust that it will…..
When I posted on social media that all I required was “108 trees for 108km”, within hours I was contacted and sponsored to plant 108 trees! I was so excited; I didn’t know what to do with myself. The only requirement was, that the trees were to be planted in Tesselaarsdal. So, the next mission was put into place. I took out my maps, google earth and started phoning around to get permission to walk through some farms to get to this little village near the mountains. I could feel that the possibility of once more heading out on the open road, with a destination far off in the distance, diagonally across from Kleinsandfontein , was putting me back on track. That the Peace tree Pilgrimage has a life of its own and all I needed to do was walk and stay in my heart.
I headed out in the early hours of the morning. The crispness of a September morning and the green and yellow spaces of the landscape glimpsing through the mist.
I know it might sound corny and yes, I know that clover is absolutely not an indigenous plant, but somewhere in my childhood, the sheer glee of being given a four leave clover by my Oupa was something I always remembered with a feeling of awe and a secret acknowledgment that he had super-powers. So, without any hesitation, I decided that if I found a four leave clover when I began this mission, it too would be confirmation that this was a route that needed to be included as part of the project. Within 50m of walking out of Kleinsandfontein’s gate, there it was!
Before long the mist had lifted, two Blue Cranes, with their majestic, slightly clumsy fluttering and their call which sounds like loud grinding of teeth soared above me and proceeded to escort me for most of the day. I think they were slightly amused by me, or me by them.
The hard gravel road was not by any mean easy on my body, so I had to keep focused on being present and being the pilgrim that I was The previous evening, I had participated in a tel-seminar about clearing Karma, something I believe was required for me if I was not going to allow the trauma of what was awaiting me in the next few weeks to distract me from my life’s purpose and true meaning. Once again I was reminded in another language, the power of forgiveness and integration.
So my focus for the first hour and a half would be on practicing “Ho'ponopono”, combined with tapping or what is called Emotional Freedom technique. The combination an incredibly empowering tool giving me the strength and stillness I had lost over this past few months. This, with the visual combination of the bluest sky and cloud formations with the greenest rolling hills which lay before me, was a perfect opportunity to start recreating my reality.
How perfectly it fell into place as I crossed “Ysbrandskop” farm, greeted by the farmer who was collecting two sick sheep in his field. With a warm smile and permission to climb a few of his fences, he enabled me to take a short-cut to the Grandiose Pillars of “Dunghyen Park”. The 11km mark and the very Private inaccessible road which I was gratefully allowed to enter.
By this time of the day it was getting quite warm, so I unpeeled the many layers of clothing I had started with, ate a delicious late breakfast, made sure I was well hydrated and headed on. The gravel road still felt relentless, so I kept myself distracted by being mindful of my peripheral vision, exercising my eyes, singing mantra and delighting in the cacophony of song around me, the very many flowers that I was delighted to recognise, thanks to the informative company of David Gwynne Evans, the naked Botanist in my previous walkabouts. I also made sure that I took pictures of some that I didn’t recognise to make sure that they would be identified later by him.
The sight before me of a herd of the most magnificent Flemish horses, with their enourmouslly powerful necks and soulful eyes, almost perfect conformation and glistening pitch black coats looked at me with mild interest and came to greet me at the fence. Their gentle nature allowed me to stroke them and put my nose to theirs in acknowledgement taking me back to my childhood and my passion for horses, having grown up on the back of KIng a similar horse belonging to my father.
Crossing a little steam, I later learnt that there was a much prettier route over the mountain,which I would explore the following week, I continued for a few kilometres before walking along a narrow Roman bridge. By this time I was very hot and my feet were starting to take strain with the pounding of my boots on gravel for over 15km. I stopped, cooled my feet in the cold running stream, wet my hair and body, had a ten-minute power nap lying down under the rays of the midday sun.
Off I went once more with the signs of my destination edging me on, a welcoming greeting from the owner of “La Poskantoor”, who assured me that his wife was expecting me and the tea was brewing as he drove by. 26km and six hours of walking, tired but happy I arrived, and as promised, the tea was brewing, the generous hospitality shared, I relaxed in the farm kitchen while all kinds of specialties were being prepared for a function that evening.
The day never ended there, after an hour or more of laughter, meeting some of the locals, exchanging ideas around the proposed route through Tesselaarsdal, I was collected by the farmers wife from up on the mountain. Once more excited to meet the enthusiastic farmer who is going share a very very special path through his farm the following week, when we are all coming to plant our first tree, endorsing this “Secret” village as part of the incredible journey, but that is a story for another day…………
