I’ve just posted on the Gone Tours website some preparatory information for those of you who are coming on the Indian tour – the Mother Ganga tour.

Here’s the link:
http://gonetours.com/2015/05/14/mother-ganga-tour-a-heads-up/

For those of you who are interested in joining us, please let me know soon. We will have to close it off shortly.

Waited until good light this evening to start filming –

Around the spectacular Blue Mosque.

Tomorrow we shoot Whirling Dervishes. I’m fascinated by their process, and the way it raises their vibrational energies. I am eager to learn more.

Feeling much better now. The coughing is almost gone – except for when I spoke to Ken Mitchell on the phone earlier this morning, and got myself into a coughing fit.

He reckoned I only cough before I tell a porkey….
(Cockney rhyming slang: pork pie = lie)

I told him he’s an old horse and cart…
(Cockney rhyming slang: horse and cart = fart)

Because of lousy internet in many of the places along the way, it was not possible to post all the shots I wanted to –

Also, it’s not possible for me to fully visualise the majesty of this walk. It was magnificent. Every day we climbed mountains and looked across valleys to distant farmlands and castles and villas and more misty hills and mountains – and we were often left speechless by the sheer beauty of it.

On this walk there wasn’t one ugly day – well, except for the day when I took my trousers off to adjust my brace.

That wasn’t pretty.

So here now is the first part of a small selection of shots that for me encapsulate the spirit of the tour –

They’re by no means the best shots I took – I’ll post a separate blog of the shots I like the most – but they document moments which hopefully will jog memories for us.

Also, I missed a lot of shots of stuff that happened which I wasn’t witness to – Patty for instance riding down a freeway embankment on a wheely bin. Wish I’d photographed that! But when that happened I was climbing halfway up a mountain trying to get around a timber blockade.

Anyway, this is the first part of these disparate shots – and some are desperate too! – and as I say, they haven’t been selected for their photographic virtuosity, but to tell stories that mean something to those of us who did the walk…

I’ll do the second half in the next day or so…

I would like to add: To Ken, Angela, Peter, Marie, Patty, Ivan and Giovanna, Elena, and Jennifer, I’d like to thank you for making this tour something that will live with me forever.

I needed a slow day today.

Slept nine hours, and my coughing has now virtually ceased. All I needed was rest.

Spent the morning checking locations – in particular at the Blue Mosque, one of the most famous Islamic mosques in the world.

Across from the Blue Mosque is the Hagia Sophia, one of the oldest religious structures in the world –

Had lunch then with Zeyno and her business partner Fatih, and we discussed the coming days, and our trip to Konya at the end of the week. Here’s what we ate: Chicken, chicken, chicken, lamb, and bread.

Guess which is which…

The chicken was flamed grilled, and the bread was freshly baked from a clay oven under the restaurant. It had to be pierced with a knife to let the steam out. Delicious!

On Thursday night we’re to film some Whirling Dervishes, and on Friday I’m to interview a distant descendant of Rumi, the 14th century poetic and mystic. Friday as well we fly to Konya, which is regarded as the spiritual heart of Turkey.

This afternoon Jennifer and I went for a walk around the city, and I took some photos in the bazaars. Unfortunately I didn’t find the bazaar very interesting visually, but what caught my eye were some of the clothing models outside the stands and stores…

Oh alright – here are a couple of boring bazaar shots…

Tomorrow we begin filming – looking forward to getting into it!

The Assisi Tour is now over, and we’re starting to think of the next one –

The Mother Ganga Tour, in September.

We are now finalising arrangements – organising hotel rooms and flights – and there are still places available – so if you wish to come and you haven’t already placed a deposit, please get in touch and I can connect you with my travel agent Duncan Ford, who handles the money.

Here’s my email:
bill@gonetours.com

The Indian Tour promises to be amazing – check the website for the itinerary.

http://gonetours.com/mother-ganga-tour-sept-2015/

Looking forward, we’re considering a Celtic Camino next April / May 2016 – where we walk around various “rings” on the west coast of Ireland, culminating at the spectacular Cliffs of Moher.

Whether we do that tour or not will depend on the level of interest.

Remind me never to do this again.

Finish a tour, then hop on a plane and go somewhere else.

You really need time to settle, take stock of what just happened, get your energy reserves back, and allow your soul to catch up to your corporeal body.

In my case, my coughing got worse towards the end of the walk, and by the time I got to Assisi I was no fun to be around. I would get into a coughing fit which would be hard to stop.

I just needed rest time.

I didn’t get it. We headed straight to Rome, and then to an early flight to Turkey. Got off the plane, had 45 minutes rest at the hotel, then had to hop in a taxi to meet with the lovely lady who is organising our time here for the PGS film.

Her name is Zeyno, and I will tell you more about her later. She runs a karmic healing centre in Istanbul, and uses past lives to find out what’s wrong with you, and how you can sort yourself out.

Zeyno was introduced to us through Joni Patry, in Dallas – the Vedic Astrologer.

Dallas continues to have resonances – and we’re not finished with Dallas yet, not by a long shot.

Slept nine hours last night, dosed up with medicines from Marie (thank you Marie!) and woke this morning feeling half human. Which is better than the quarter human I’ve been feeling these past few days.

Today will be a slow day. We have an interview lined up at about 3pm, and I want to scout some filming locations, in particular the Blue Mosque.

The tour is starting to resonate. I need time to reflect on what we did. It was an intense and profound walk, amidst all the fun and laughter, because there was plenty of that. But the walk itself, its meaning, and some of the places we visited, will stay with me a very long time.

I thought I would post this photo I took this morning at breakfast. These two Muslim ladies came in, with their identical handbags. I asked them for a photo, and of course I wanted to position them a particular way. I made the mistake of touching one of them on the arm, to put her in position. It was like I’d touched her with a cattle prod.

Urgh…

I’ll have to readjust to Middle Eastern mores.

Love the shot though…

Today we went our separate ways.

Very sad.

It was a fabulous group of people, including Ivan the Terrible and his Beautiful Wife Giovanna – and for a very brief time, Sigrid and her husband Roland. Sigrid is a die-hard pilgrim, and it was wonderful to catch up with her again.

Meeting and getting to know Patty Talbot has been a true highlight for Jen and me as well.

She is a remarkable lady – she has a sharp intellect and an even sharper sense of humour. She creaked us up many a time. I look forward to her coming to Australia, so that I can show her once and for all that Drop Bears are in fact real, and will suck out your brains.

Also, for someone who claims she did no training for this tour, she did amazingly well over some of the steepest terrain. She nailed a few long days, which on this walk was no mean feat. I hope we stay in touch…

So this morning, Jennifer and I woke up early and went up to the Basilica one last time –

I took too many photos of Jennifer and she tried to kick me – which I didn’t think was very pilgrim-esque, nor appropriate behaviour for where we were…

We said goodbye to Patty, who took a cab to the train station to head back to Pisa, then home to the UK – then we loaded up the small rental and piled in – Jennifer and Marie in the back, in between luggage –

Me driving and Pete in the front beside. Ken and Angie waved us off –

They’re staying in Assisi for a few more days before heading back to Oz –

We then whizzed down to Rome, where we dropped Peter off at the airport, which was sad too. Peter has been a strong and steadying figure throughout the walk – and a huge amount of fun too. Over the past two weeks we’ve shared many a laugh – in fact I’ve shared many a laugh with Ken and Angie too, and Patty, and Marie, and Ivan and Giovanna – bloody hell, it’s actually been a very funny tour.

I forgot to mention, we got our Via di Francesco Compostelas yesterday. That was very cool…I’ll finish off this blog bow with a series of photos I took of Marie last night.

Marie had asked that we bring her an insect net from Australia, because often she walks and has problems with bugs. She had seen someone wearing an insect net in one of the posts I’d done from Uluru – and asked if we could get her one.

Yesterday we gave it to her – and I asked her to do a little modelling – firstly I asked her to  act like she was a bank robber or killer – then I asked her to dance.

I’m not sure which is the scarier…

Today was the last day of the tour – a free day in Assisi.

And we made the most of it.

After breakfast we wandered up to the central square area of the town, stopping to take photos of interesting things –

We got to the main square, where bleachers were being assembled for activities tonight to do with the May Spring Rites Festival.

We have tickets to attend, and it should be a wonderful way to finish up the tour.

(pictures and story on this tomorrow)

Jennifer had found the house where St. Francis lived and grew up, and we visited his bedroom and the place where his father locked him up for being too compassionate.

We then hopped in the van and drove down to the plain below Assisi, to the Basilica of Santa Maria degli Angeli – a huge Cathedral and the most sacred place of the Franciscan Order of the Catholic Church.

This is where St. Francis renounced his world of privilege, decided on a life of poverty and to help others – and where the Franciscan Order was established.

The small chapel where all this started is now housed within the Basilica, and it looks strange – this tiny medieval chapel in the middle of a massive cathedral. But it’s this chapel that attracts hundreds of thousands of pilgrims and worshippers each year.

After sneaking off dozens of photos – under the tuft-tutt eyes of guards – we walked across the road to a well hidden local gem of a restaurant, and our final meal together; a lunch of local meats, cheeses, beautiful wines, scrambled eggs with truffle, risotto with truffle, spaghetti with truffle, beef with truffle, and truffle with truffle.

Oh yes, and Peter has become fixated with Buffalo Mozarella so we made sure to order a serving. He will go into withdrawal when he returns to Melbourne. I feel an importing business coming on.

After lunch we drove back up to Assisi – and then said our farewells to Elena, who has been a most wonderful van driver and assistant and general all round help and lovely young lady. We will all miss her.

She dropped me at the Perugia airport for me to pick up a smaller rental, while she drove the van back to Florence.

It’s been an intense and incredible two weeks. And I will write separately on that in the coming days. But everyone has had profound experiences on this journey. For one or two, it’s triggered some major reshuffling.

For Jennifer and me, it’s the completion of about 12 months planning, and we’re mightily pleased that everyone has had such a wonderful time, and everything has gone to plan without incident.

More than that though, we too have had some profound experiences – and this two weeks will live with us for a very long time.

Tonight we made our way back to the square to see the last night of the Spring Rites festivities – hundreds of townsfolk dressed up in medieval costume, with heralds and musicians – and several teams of operatic singers doing a kind of “Battle Rap” amongst themselves.

The music was extraordinary. It was hard to believe these were live performances, they sounded so good. They were cheered on by thousands of spectators, who clapped and booed like it was a footy match.

We sat on the bleachers and watched this all, and marvelled at the quality of the singing. What a great way to complete the tour.

Tomorrow we go our separate ways – Ken and Angie are staying on in Assisi a few more days; Marie and Patty are heading back to their respective homes, as is Peter, while Jennifer and I prepare to fly to Turkey the following day.

Tonight Peter and I did a calculation – we added up the total metres climbed during our nine days, and the total metres descended. Over nine days we averaged a per day climb of 600m, and a per day descent of 640m.

The climb to O’Cebreiro is 600m or thereabouts – so each day for nine days we averaged an O Cebreiro climb, and an even bigger descent.

No wonder we felt knackered.

Unfortunately I can’t post my full contingent of shots this evening – because the internet is so weak – however I’m hoping that either in Rome or Turkey I will have better connections, and I will post those shots you’ve missed out on.