I’ve now finalised the Indian Tour – what we’re calling the Mother Ganga Tour – and I’ve posted the itinerary and costing up on the Gone Tours website. Here is the link:

Mother Ganga Tour – Sept 2015

For those of you who have expressed interest, please now confirm if you wish to proceed. There are some places left for those that would like to join us.

It should be an extraordinary tour. It occurred to me that because Jennifer and I have worked in India quite a bit over the past eight years, we’ve been taken by locals to their favourite haunts – restaurants, shopping areas, various sights – the kind of places that foreigners rarely get to see.

We’ll be taking the tour to those places. Also, everywhere we’re going, Jennifer and I have been before. We’re staying in our favourite hotels, we’ll be eating in our favourite restaurants, and we’ll be doing the kind of things we’ve done before on previous trips.

So it will be unlike any other Indian tour.

But first we have the Assisi Tour in late April / early May, and that promises to be extraordinary on a whole other level. We meet up in Florence, then we walk in St. Francis’s footsteps through the Umbrian hills to Assisi, one of the most spiritual places on earth.

We recently had a couple of people drop out for personal reasons on this tour, so we have places available. Here’s the link –

The Via de Francesco Tour – April / May 2015

Let me know if you’re interested in either one, or both!
bill@gonetours.com

For those of you coming with us to India later this year, there’s a great BBC documentary series screening this Sunday in Australia called THE STORY OF INDIA.

It’s on BBC Knowledge (Foxtel), and available also on DVD.

Actually, it’s a series worth watching for anyone interested in India.

Presented with passion and zeal by eminent British historian Michael Wood (wonderfully engaging), he looks at India from its beginnings some 5000 years ago.

In the eight part series he discuses the birth of myths, Hinduism, the life and teachings of Buddha, the early invasions and their impacts on culture… And it’s all shot beautifully.

It’s worth watching just for the photography alone.

By the way, I’m currently putting the itinerary for the tour together, and I hope to have it finished, including the costing, and posted on the Gone Tours website by the end of the long weekend.

Dates are: We start in Delhi on September 14th, and we finish in Mumbai on Sept 27th, with the huge Ganesha festival on the beach.

This morning this email came in, from a wonderful lady in Istanbul who is helping us with the PGS film –

My brother Bob is now settling back into work and a daily routine, after completing the Camino Frances late last year.

We spoke today on the phone, and I asked him how he felt about it all, now with some time and distance away from The Way.

He said that he’d changed, and others close to him had noticed changes too.

I asked him what sort of changes. (We live in different parts of Australia, so I haven’t seen him since he got back.)

He said that for a start, he’d lost a lot of weight while walking – about 10kgs – and most of that has stayed off. He’s now about 7kgs lighter than when he left for Spain.

More than that though, he said he was calmer, more relaxed, things didn’t stress him out like they used to. His family has noticed this too. And so too some of his clients. (He’s a vet.)

And then he said something which a lot of pilgrims confront after returning from the Camino. He said: I hope these changes last.

It made me think.

The changes that were wrought from me during my walk – most of them have stayed.

• I still don’t wear glasses
• I no longer horde plastic bags
• I don’t use heavy cameras anymore
• I give greater thought to the morality of my eating
• I worry less
• I laugh more
• I too am more relaxed
• I have maintained my mantra: What’s the worst that can happen?
• I still wear the $20 Casio watch I wore on the Camino
• Others say I’m a kinder gentler more compassionate person
• I tell them they’re morons
• haha
• I trust more
• I’ve learned to surrender
• I’m on a new path

There’s no doubt I’m a different person to the one that left Mudgee so fearfully in early May 2013, heading off to the Camino.

When I thought about my brother’s question – would his changes last – I began to realise that the changes will not only last, they will strengthen, if he does just one thing:

If he keeps the Camino in his heart.

You keep the Camino in your heart by thinking about it. Remembering it. Going back over your photos. Reading books about it. Watching movies or documentaries or talking to others about the Camino. Flipping through your passports, looking at all your stamps.

By walking another Camino.

But you need never walk another step towards Santiago, if you just keep the spirit of the Camino in your heart.

And then your changes will last.

When did the Camino Bug bite me?

In 2013, when Bill walked the Camino Frances he wanted me to walk too. I refused. I didn’t want to do it. I couldn’t think of anything worse than walking day after day after day.

When he persisted, (and believe it or not he can at times be persistent) I checked with my Higher Self and the answer flew back straight away “No.”

I was not to walk the Camino Frances.
I was mightily relieved.

Before I go on let me explain what I mean by my Higher Self.

This is my higher vibrational self. I’ve spent many years training myself to be responsive to this greater part of me. This is the part that I separated from during childhood and adolescence. I had lost the ability to communicate directly with this extraordinary resource that belongs me.

I suspected it was there. Sometimes I had direct evidence that it was there.

So I decided to do the work necessary to guarantee me a continuing connection.This is also what Bill calls PGS. So my Higher Self is my Personal Guidance System. It is also my best friend, and with this connection activated I am never alone.

Back to the Camino Bug story –

When Bill decided to mount a Portuguese Camino tour, he wanted me to come too. I checked in with my Higher Self expecting a continuation of our “No Long Distance Walking” policy. I was told in no uncertain terms “Walk!”

Damn!
Yuk!

That meant boots and training and horror of horror – getting up early to put on those boots and train.

I walked the Portuguese Camino. Is that where I got bitten? Because I loved it. I loved the simplicity of it. The simple physical act, hour after hour, of putting one foot in front of the other.

I loved everything around me. I loved walking on my own. I loved walking with other people. I loved the camaraderie of the shared experience.

But if I was bitten then I didn’t know it.

When did I know?
Only the other day.

Bill and I were discussing cancelling the Assisi tour we are mounting in May. We’d had some people, for personal reasons, drop out and Bill was also aware that the PGS film would be requiring his attention during that time.

He wanted to discuss with me the possibility of cancelling.

I had no idea until that moment how much it meant to me, the prospect of walking in the footsteps of St Francis. There was no checking with my Higher Self. I knew straight away that I was walking no matter what.

I didn’t care if I was the only one doing it.

Bill laughed. “Now you know how I felt before I walked my first Camino,” he said. “You’ve been bitten by the Camino Bug.”

And I guess I have.

We’re still looking for some people to fill the gaps of those that had to drop out, so please contact me if you’re interested in joining me, and Bill. Florence to Assisi, early May. It will be wonderful.

My email is:
Jennifercluff.oz@gmail.com

I’m reading a fascinating book at the moment which Jennifer gave me for Christmas –

It’s called: JESUS, BUDDHA, KRISHNA & LAO TZU – THE PARAELLEL SAYINGS. 

It’s written by Richard Hooper, and the book looks at the sayings of these great spiritual masters, and finds similarities in what they said.

And the similarities at times are quite extraordinary.

I’ve always been fascinated by Comparative Religion – finding the commonality in the world’d religions.

Richard Hooper grew up as a Christian, and in fact was going to join a seminary. But from a young age he’d always had a problem with the dogma of Christianity. As he tells it:

“I remember one night – I was about 12 years old – the paster of our Church was talking to our youth group. He was telling us that anyone who didn’t believe in Jesus would not go to heaven. intimating that they would go to hell instead. This statement shocked me.

“I raised my hand and asked the pastor: ‘Do you mean to say that even someone living in a faraway place like India who has never even heard of Jesus will go to hell because they don’t believe in Him?’ To my utter amazement, the pastor said yes.” 

This started the author on a life long quest to learn more about eastern religions. And it drove him away from Christianity, believing that it was too dogmatic and hardline.

The author then goes on to detail how the Bible in fact is only an approximation of what Jesus said, because the Gospels as attributed to Matthew, Mark, Luke and John were written by anonymous Christians between 70 CE and 120 CE, well after the death of Jesus. And so the writers of the Gospels were not eye-witnesses to what was said – and in fact given the time line they probably didn’t even have access to eyewitnesses.

They were later interpreters of what was said to have happened, and what was said to have been spoken.

Jesus and Buddha were historical figures, unlike Krishna and Lao Tzu – and their words were handed down orally over many generations before they were committed to scripture. This leaves a lot of room for interpretation. Also the Gospels were written in Greek, whereas Jesus spoke in Aramaic.

Hooper cites a group of New Testament scholars called The Jesus Seminar that believes that as little as 18% of the words attributed to Jesus in the canonical Gospels are actually words spoken by Him – the rest was written by later Christians who believed they were writing the spirit of what Jesus said.

I find this really interesting.

Krishna is a mythical figure – an avatar ultimately of the Hindu Godhead Brahman – and Lao Tzu (meaning Old Master) is also considered by scholars to be a fabrication of perhaps many ancient sages. Hindus in fact believe that both Jesus and Buddha are / were avatars of the same God force as well –  and this is where the parallel sayings in this book are so fascinating.

Here are some examples:

JESUS:
Original man has one original mind. It was unified.

KRISHNA:
To attain the One, one’s mind must be in harmony with itself.

BUDDHA:
The sky has no east or west.
Nor does it make distinction between this and that.
Distinctions arise from the human mind alone. 

LAO TZU:
He who says he knows, knows not.
He who truly knows, says nothing.
Unite all things as one whole. 

or this –

JESUS:
In the beginning the Word was moving towards God, and God was the Word.

KRISHNA:
Before He manifested Himself, He existed within Himself.
Out of Himself He manifested all things.
He is known as the One who alone exists. 

BUDDHA:
Universal Mind is like a vast ocean.
On its surface waves disturb its tranquility, but beneath all is serene and unmoved.
Having no personality all things exist in it. 

LAO TZU:
In the beginning there was only Void.
Within the Void there was the One.
The one is without form.
It has no features.
But within it all things exist. 

It’s been less than 24 hours since I announced the Indian Tour, and we’re already almost full!

We now have 8 people confirmed.

I wouldn’t want this tour to be more than 10 people.

Highlights will include:

• The Taj Mahal at sunset & sunrise
• Staying in the best ashram on the Ganges at Rishikesh
• Visiting the Red Fort in Delhi
• Visiting the markets in Haridwar on the Ganges
• Visiting the Dalai Lama Temple in Dharamsala
• Getting in amongst it all on the beach at Mumbai at sunset, as the gigantic Ganesh statues are taken down to be immersed in the sea – a unique and spectacular end to the tour.

So if you’re thinking of joining us, I’d suggest you get in fast.

bill@gonetours.com

We are organising a tour to India in October this year.

We’re calling it the Mother Ganga Tour.

It will be two weeks, visiting Delhi, the Taj Mahal, Rishikesh and Haridwar on the Ganges, the Dalai Lama Temple up in the far north in Dharamsala, and then finishing off in Mumbai.

In Mumbai we’ll take part in the incredible Ganpati Festival celebrations – where millions of people take their gigantic statues of the elephant God Ganesha down to the sea, where they immerse them in the waters.

It’s an amazing spectacle.

This is not a walking tour, although there are some wonderful walks around Rishikesh and Dharamsala. It’s more of a spiritual tour of India, although there’ll be plenty of time for shopping, sightseeing, and eating the glorious regional food.

Jennifer and I have been to India countless times, and we know these areas well. We’ll stay in beautiful hotels, and we’ll have local guides and drivers.

Itinerary and costings are to come, but please let me know if you’re interested.

bill@gonetours.com

I think this one will fill up fast.

My wife and I are in Sydney at the moment for business meetings, and last night we had dinner with friends.

Wayne and Libby Pashley are amazing people.

Professionally, they are top of their tree.

They are sound designers for motion pictures, and they're not only the best in Australia, they're amongst the best in the world.

What's a sound designer?

Imagine going to a movie in the cinema, and you're watching the pictures but there's no sound. What they do is they create the sound.

The sound you hear in movies is there because of the work of the sound designer. It is one of the most complex crafts in the filmmaking process.

And Wayne and Libby do big movies.

Their credits include:

• The Great Gatsby
• The Lego Movie
• Happy Feet
• Babe

They recently finished working on MAD MAX – FURY ROAD, George Miller's fourth instalment of the iconic franchise. That's a big sound job, as you can imagine.

Oh and they've also done some of my films too…

They are special friends and special people.

Last night Wayne told me an amazing story.

Shortly after Christmas, their cat went missing. They loved their cat. And it had never gone missing before. But they couldn't find it anywhere.

They searched everywhere.

For days they walked through their suburb, calling out the cat's name, knocking on neighbours' doors, printing up posters to put on power poles, phoning the animal shelters and the local council – all to no avail.

They were becoming more and more frantic.

And upset.

Their children would break out into tears at he mention of the cat's name.

Still it remained missing.

Wayne and Libby had a friend staying with them at the time, and so they had to be bright and cheery with their guest, but underneath it all they were grieving.

It was as though they'd lost a member of their family, which I guess they had.

Now, Wayne is not a religious person. He's not a regular church goer, but he does believe in the kind of stuff that Jen and I believe in.

A few days after the cat disappeared, Wayne was dismantling their Christmas tree. He reached up to take the angel off the top of the tree, and as he grabbed it something induced him to say to the angel:

Angel of Mercy, please bring us back our cat.

He said this out aloud to the Christmas decoration.

As he was putting the angel away in it's bag, he heard Libby outside screaming with delight:

WAYNE, GET SOME FOOD! I'VE FOUND THE CAT!

Wayne was stunned.

Absolutely stunned.

He told me, across the dinner table last night, that he heard Libby's voice literally ten seconds after he'd spoken to the angel, just as he was about to put it away.

Okay, that's an amazing story, right?

It's true.

It's what happened.

I told Wayne that what I've learnt so far from those that I've interviewed for my PGS film is that things like that will happen to those that believe, or wish to believe, to validate and encourage that belief.

Like getting the perfect parking space.

Little ticks of encouragement.

Anyway we had a glorious evening together. We stayed late, swapping stories, catching up on stuff, laughing a lot, while the restaurant staff piled chairs up on tables around us.

We didn't want to leave, there was so much to talk about.

And as we walked back to our cars in the dark, and as we hugged and said our goodbyes, I thought about the powerful nature of our friendship.

Of the powerful nature of true friendships.

Of love, really.

It's something very special, and something to be treasured.

(Rick, a work mate, with Jennifer, Libby, Wayne)

(Taken with my iPad camera.)

(Notice the correct amount of headroom)