Yesterday and today are combined because the internet where we stayed last night was sketchy –

Yesterday was another magnificent walk day; different from the other day when it was all frosty and white. This was through dark and moss covered woods, interspersed with frozen ponds and small lakes, and overseen at times by gigantic metallic wind-turbines.

Jennifer and Angie, before the walk, had stopped in at a local store and brought some Christmas accoutrements…

Bruce and his wife Sue are experienced walkers, and they fairly flew along the track. Bruce stopped for this portrait…

On this section of the walk the Romantic Road followed the Jakobsweg – the German Camino – so we had signs for the Romantiche Strasse alongside the familiar blue and yellow Camino scallop shell way markers.

I have been trying for some time to walk on water, and yesterday I finally did it… I was so happy I did a little jig.

Our Fitbits told us we walked about 20kms all up yesterday.

This is how big the tower is…

Certainly we were tired by the time we walked into Dinkelsbuhl, our home for the night, and another story-book town on the Bavarian Romantic Road.

We overnighted in a gorgeous hotel –

Angie got a nice room, for which she was appreciative…

We spent this morning wandering around Dinkelsbuhl and visiting the huge church – then we drove about 35kms along the Romantic Road to Craigligen – a small town which had its Saturday morning market in full swing when we arrived.

The tomatoes actually looked real…

And the pears had their nipples painted red…

Nordlingen is another town on the Romantic Road – this one famous because it sits smack bang in the middle of a massive crater made by a meteorite that hit the earth some 15 million years ago. The church, which is the centrepiece of the walled town, is constructed from rock compressed by the blast of the meteorite so many eons ago.

We climbed 70.5m to the top of the church so that we could view the crater rim. 70.5m doesn’t seem very high when I write it, or perhaps when you read it, but man o man, it was a hefty climb up. But worth it for the view once at the top.

We then walked a half circumference of the town along the ramparts…

Then from Craigligen we drove to Donauworth, another Romantic Road town, where I’d reserved a table at the town’s local tavern. We noshed up on such local delicacies as roasted deer with Bavarian noodles and cranberries, (yes I know, how can we roast and eat Bambi…) and the yummiest Wiener Schnitzel with mushroom sauce, the mushrooms from the surrounding woods…

Drinks were Weissbier – sublime – and local Schwabian white and red wines, which were very drinkable.

After a long-ish lunch, we hopped in the Mercedes van again and drove to Augsburg, a large-ish city on the Romantic Road. We checked into a beautiful-ish hotel right around the corner from the Christmas Markets and the old town centre.

We spent he evening wandering through the markets, drinking variants of Gluwein.

The last two days have been quite different – yesterday a long walk that took us through pristine Bavarian woods, dotted now and again with tiny villages – and today was experiencing a Saturday in Bavaria, with a produce market and a Christmas market full of revellers.

Tomorrow we have lunch in one of the world’s oldest breweries. That lunch no doubt will be long-ish too, I’m sure!

Tomorrow Jennifer and I fly out of Los Angeles to Dusseldorf in Germany, after a whirlwind three weeks working in North America.

We started in New York, then went to Dallas, then to Santa Cruz south of San Francisco, then north to Sausalito, then further north to Mount Shasta, then south again to Los Angeles, which is where we’ve been since Sunday.

The trip has been successful so far, in that I’ve shot some terrific stuff – interviews and overlay material for the film – and I’ve had some very useful conversations with some key people regarding marketing and distribution.

Last night I spent nearly 5 hours shooting a sequence which comes early in the film, and which prompted the whole thing: a sequence where I’m driving to the airport before dawn and I hear a voice telling me to slow down. I do slow down, then narrowly miss getting smashed to death by a truck that runs a red light on the cross street.

So we recreated that whole sequence last night, with full police lockdown in an intersection in downtown LA. We had permits, insurance, the whole deal. As you do. Oh, and a marauding truck. It was a long night, but I got the shots I needed to make a nice little sequence.

Also on this trip we’ve been receiving feedback on the current 88 minute Work in Progress cut of the film. I wanted to get a North American perspective, because Americans look at films differently to the way Australians look at them. Even simple things such as comprehension of language and clarity of storytelling. It was a very useful exercise, and I gained some important insights which I’ll take back into editing when we recommence in mid January. We see North America as being the major market for this film.

Tomorrow is Dusseldorf, and then a week of scouting before we start the Romantic Road Tour in Bavaria, Germany. I’m really looking forward to that. Also we’ll be doing some filming for the intuition film in Germany too.

So it’s been a busy time, and it will remain so until Christmas. But I’m excited about the film, the reaction here to it, and what I can do to make it even better….

I don’t often recommend books on this blog – and I have to say that my reading lately has been predominantly of the spiritual nature, particularly Paul Selig’s books…

However, on a long plane trip sometimes that spiritual stuff can get a little heavy, so on the trip over to the US I began reading a book called A MAN CALLED OVE, written by Fredrik Backman.

I’d read an article about the book in the New York Times, in which it said the book was the most popular book out of Sweden since the GIRL IN THE DRAGON TATTOO series. 

Here is that article:

Unlike the DRAGON TATTOO series though, A MAN CALLED OVE is a gentle and whimsical book about a stoic man who tries to commit suicide after his wife dies. Every time he tries though, life gets in the way and prevents him from doing so.

It’s funny, beautifully written, and very emotional.

It’s been a huge success world wide, and some of you might already be familiar with the book – I always come at these things late! – but for those of you who aren’t aware of it, I can highly recommend it. It would make a great Christmas present too.

Here is an excerpt – about how he met his wife…

A MAN CALLED OVE – written by Fredrik Backman

“She had a golden brooch pinned to her front, in which the sunlight reflected hypnotically through the train window. It was half past six in the morning, Ove had just clocked off his shift and was actually supposed to be taking the train home. But then he saw her on the platform with all her rich auburn hair and her blue eyes and all her effervescent laughter. And he got back on the train.

Of course he didn’t quite know himself why he was doing it. He had never been spontaneous before in his life. But when he saw her it was as if something malfunctioned. He convinced one of the conductors to lend him his spare pair of trousers and shirt, so he didn’t have to look like a train cleaner, and then Ove went to sit by Sonja. It was the single best decision he would ever make.

He didn’t know what he was going to say. But he had hardly had time to sink into the seat before she turned to him cheerfully, smiled warmly and said ‘hello’. And he found he was able to say ‘hello’ back to her without any significant complications. And when she saw that he was looking at the pile of books she had in her lap, she tilted them slightly so he could read their titles. Ove only understood about half the words.

‘You like reading?’ she asked him brightly. Ove shook his head with some insecurity, but it didn’t seem to concern her very much. She just smiled, said that she loved books more than anything, and started telling him excitedly what each of the ones in her lap was about. And Ove realised that he wanted to hear her talking about the things she loved for the rest of his life.

He had never heard anything quite as amazing as that voice. She talked as if she was continuously on the verge of breaking into giggles. And when she giggled she sounded the way Ove imagined champagne bubbles would have sounded if they were capable of laughter. He didn’t quite know what he should say to avoid seeming uneducated and stupid, but it proved to be less of a problem than he had thought. She liked talking and Ove liked keeping quiet. Retrospectively, Ove assumed that was what people meant when they said that people were compatible.”

It’s been about three and a half years now since I started this blog – and since I walked my first Camino.

A lot’s happened in that time.

I’m now nearing completion on a film on intuition that began seventeen years ago with my narrowly being killed by a marauding truck. And now, after traveling the world several times over, filming more than 70 interviews and amassing nearly 90hrs of footage, the film is on the home stretch.

Where does, or did, the Camino fit into all of this?

If you remember I dedicated my pilgrimage to PGS – my Personal Guidance System, which is what I call intuition. And that’s why i titled my Camino blog PGStheWay.com.

I walked the Camino intuitively, allowing The Way to lead me. And it led me to some wonderful and sustained friendships – and to insights and experiences that would begin a transformative phase of my life that is ongoing.

It’s easy to say: The Camino changed me. I don’t see it that way.

Personally, I see the Camino in terms of alchemy. That it instigated changes that were lying dormant within me – that were in a state of potential. That were in wait.

The Camino acted like an alchemist to awaken those potentials. It triggered change that was waiting to happen, if given the right set of mixtures. Had I not walked the Camino I have no doubt the transformative phase that I’m currently going through would not have happened so emphatically.

I think it’s the same with many who walk the Camino. Some walk it with that dormant potential, and The Way helps to unlock it. Some have their potential more deeply buried, more heavily protected, and the Camino Alchemist has to work harder.

The Camino is a ley line. It has a powerful energetic imprint that is the product of millions of pilgrims having walked those paths carrying powerful spiritual intent. Through their footsteps it seeps into Gaia, Mother Earth – and Gaia in turn transfers that energy back to those that follow, and who allow themselves to ground.

Grounding is plugging into the spiritual energy of Mother Earth. We have chakras – energy vortexes – in our feet that facilitate this energy flow. This is why so many people with major health issues are able to walk the Camino. They are able to walk 800kms. The elderly and the infirm. They are energised, and some are healed, by the spiritual imprint of The Way.

Everyone has the potential. That’s why we incarnate. It’s to change, and grow, and learn.

Of course you don’t need to walk the Camino to affect change. But in my instance, it was the Alchemist. It did unlock my potential to transform. To raise my vibrations.

Every day is a test, every day a challenge. Every day an opportunity.

Tomorrow Jennifer and I head off for seven weeks – to the US and Germany.

In the US we’ll be working on the intuition film, and in Germany we’ll be leading our Romantic Road tour through Bavaria. I believe it’s already started snowing on parts of our route!

We fly into New York tomorrow – and we’ll be there for the elections. On Wednesday I’m doing an interview with Paul Selig, author and channel. I’ve mentioned him several times on this blog. His books have been a big influence on me during the making of the film, and it will be wonderful to meet him, and get his insights on how intuition works.

If you want to read some of his work, start with I AM THE WORD. 

Whilst in America we’ll also be going to Texas and then to California. Our schedule is jam packed – almost every day is now booked with either filming or meetings. Many of the meetings will have to do with marketing and distribution. The film is quite unorthodox, and it will require non-traditional unorthodox distribution.

Technology and viewing behaviours are changing quite rapidly, and ways of distribution that worked even a year or two years ago won’t be working in a year or two years’ time. It’s crucial for me to find out what’s the most current way to best get my film to audience.

Germany will be wonderful –

We’ll be walking each day, and going from fairytale town to fairytale town along the Romantic Road. We’ll be there for the wonderful Christmas Markets, which are unique to that part of the world.

In between all this I’ll be working on my revisions of PALACE OF FIRES – Initiate, for Penguin Random House. So it’ll be a busy time.

I’ll be blogging regularly, and on Facebook too. Watch out for the posts. It promises to be an exciting time!