Antibodies. Sometimes the hardest part of the race is the preparation and mind shifting that comes as a result of knowing what lies ahead. This was no less true for the Tsitsikamma Ultra, the running of this linear, six day, sixty-kilometre hiking trail. No less true, not only because it was a first time anyone was to run of this trail in a day, bu...
This longer-than-usual Tale takes a deep look into why coffee is drunk the way it is in a particular culture. Grab a coffee and take 10 minutes to read this: Dubai Coffee Museum, Dubai, United Arab Emirates. Arguably one of the hardest things to pin point with regards to any given culture is the underlying and hidden reasons for why things are what...
When we left the coast of Portugal after Sojourning 2015, little did we know that when we traveled to Mossel Bay at the bottom of Africa a little less than two months later, that the explorer Bartholomew Dias first landed at this bay, known then as the Bay of St Blaize, after leaving his Portuguese shores in search of India. Bartholomew Dias Voyage...
We were welcomed in Matan’s home in Jerusalem, Teoni’s home in Batumi, Lineke’s home in Istanbul, Martina’s home in Zagreb, Boris’s home in Ljubljana, Elena’s home in Rome, Federica’s home in Santa Teresa, Val’s home in Bastia, Vladimir’s home in Prague, Michael’s home in Marseille, as well as David’s home in Seville, amongst others. These peo...
At the end of Sojourning in 2015 we had arrived at the small fishing and surfing village of Sagres in Portugal. Known in antiquity to the Trailblazers and discoverers of the worlds’ continents as the ‘end of the world’, we could not help but run along the most south-western cliff edges of Europe. This Tale brings an end to Sojourning in 2015, as we...
As we Sojourn, one may wonder how it is done, or how we get through. This Tale provides a bit of a background into what goes on behind the scenes to Sojourning in 2015. Each of these are graces, graces that we could not do without and without them, Sojourning in 2015 would not have been possible… Planning our next move at Venice train station. “The...
By the time we arrived in Spain, we had got used to navigating through the language barriers of the various countries we had passed through using Google Translate. Taking part in the inaugural Marathon Trail Sierra Norte, as part of a shorter version of the Ultra Trail race just north of Seville, proved to be even more of a challenge language-wise,...
(map credit) We are all on a journey. Each of our journeys have reasons behind them. The Apostle Paul had a reason behind his well-known Missionary Journeys. Christianity, the only religion in the world which places so much significance on places, largely has Paul to thank in its spread. The Apostle Paul has been one of the reasons for us embarking...
As we made our way to the start of the trail we spoke to a local who said he was from West Germany. This confirmed what we were thinking: that with every idea there is always a consequence. The Berlin Wall in Germany was such an idea that has led to numerous consequences, even today. This consequence led us to explore this 50 kilometre long vast se...
Just north of the Czech Republic border and 70 kilometres east of the German border there lies a little town in Poland called Szklarska Poręba. Sojourning so far showing Szklarska Poręba. World famous for its incredible cross-country ski slopes, this place immediately warmed our hearts as we disembarked the train at its own railroad station ca...
Sadness and happiness. That is what we sometimes feel at the same time as we leave a place or site. Unlike usual travel, Sojourning in 2015 has been about passing through – places and sites. Usually setting this almost daily goal in our minds, we do everything we can to get there. The sadness has been inevitable, but not something we think about as...
It was the night before and we struggled to fall asleep. Trepidation had mounted as we could not help but think about what the next 12 days and nights would hold on what we knew is known as the toughest trail in Europe. The GR20 (Grande Randonnée), Corsica’s long distance trail, is 200 kilometres long and traverses diagonally, over and through the ...