Mudgee is a small town in the New South Wales central west. It’s about 4 hrs drive north west of Sydney (nearly 300 kms).

It’s a beautiful little town – population approx 8000. No parking meters, no traffic lights.

It’s a wine growing town, and the wines from Mudgee, whilst not as famous as some other Australian regions, are growing in popularity and respect. Mudgee produces some very fine wines – particularly reds.

My wife Jennifer was born in Mudgee, and she has family here. We live in town. Jennifer’s sister lives next door, and their mum lives one house over. They have relatives scattered all throughout Mudgee.

Mudgee is popular as a weekend destination for people from Sydney. It’s a big B&B town, and large groups come from all over to have their weddings here, it’s that beautiful. It’s a wealthy town too. There are grand stud properties out of town, and further afield there are mines which bring a lot of money into town.

Mudgee gets hot in summer – up into the low 40s Celsius some days, (105-107F) and drops to minus 6-7C in the winter. (17-23F). These extremes in climate are great for the winegrowers!

I’ve shot two movies here – The Nugget, and Spider & Rose. I shot the movies here because Mudgee is a quintessential Australian country town.

I love it here. If I need to take meetings in Sydney it’s a relatively quick trip in – yet most of my work now is overseas. I have 20 mb/sec broadband, and Sype is brilliant.

There are some beautiful walks around Mudgee.

I’m a creature of habit and I have a few walks that I do all the time; a 10 km walk, a 15 km walk, a 20 km walk, and not so often I do a 26 km walk and a 34 km walk. That last walk takes me to the next town, Gulgong, and Jennifer picks me up and drives me back. It takes most of the day.

Oh and I also have the Mt. Misery walk – that’s a gnarly mountain at the back of Mudgee, which is a real test on the heart and the legs. It’s like a mini Pyrenees.

From my house it’s 4 kms to the base of the mountain, then 4 kms to the top, 4 kms back down again, and 4 kms home. 16 kms in all. I only do that walk towards the end of my training, before I’m about to embark on a Camino. It really tests me.

On Sundays I usually do my 20 km walk, which takes me out of town and loops me around through some beautiful pastoral land and beside some vineyards.

At the moment, I’m stepping up my training in preparation for the Via de Francesco Tour, from La Verna to Assisi, in April. It’s only 240 kms but some of it is hilly.

Lynda, who frequents this blog (and is a dear friend!) asked me a little while ago to take some pictures on one of my walks, so she could see a bit of the district. So last Sunday I took my little Sony RX100 MkIII out, and took some shots.

On Sundays I usually leave before dawn or just after dawn. I head off through Lawson Park beside the Cudgegong River. Henry Lawson is one of Australia’s great poets, born in the district in 1867.

I exit the park, opposite one of Mudgee’s classic old pubs, and head out of town.

At 1.2 kms out I take a right turn into Lue Road, which leads to a small town called Lue about 30 kms away.

This road is tar all the way –

I pass fields full of cows, and a couple of B&Bs.

On Sundays there are a lot of cyclists out – Mudgee has a very big biking community.

At 8kms I pass an old church, and a farm that has an old windmill with wooden blades propped up against a shed, then I turn right again into Rocky Waterhole Road. As you’re probably gathering by now, Mudgee names its roads with due diligence, and Rocky Waterhole Road leads to a rocky waterhole.

But first I pass some vineyards, some wineries and some more cows.

Oh – and a curious dog…

At 15 kms I turn right again onto a road that runs parallel to the Sydney Highway, leading back into town. There are some residential properties on this road, mixed in with olive plantations (Mudgee is a big olive producer) and some smaller farms.

And more cows.

At 17.5 kms I hit the Sydney Highway, and begin the last hook back into town.

That’s my Sunday walk. I’ve done it in just under 3 hrs, which is moving fast for me – usually it takes me about 3:10 or so. This last Sunday, what with all the stopping to take photos, it took me 4 hrs 30 mins – but I took in total 160 photos.

It reminded me just how much time it takes for me to take photos on a walk.

I’ll do a post soon on the 15 km walk – and on the 26 km walk too. Not sure about the 34 km walk – might have to build up to that one. And as for Mt. Misery… argh….

Steve McCurry is a master with Colorado!

I’ve had no time off during January. I’ve been working on the PGS film, and hoeing into the Photo Camino book. I’m on track to have it all finished by the end of this month, February, with publication in March.

I’ve decided to change the title – Instead of calling it Photo Camino – A Practical Guide to Photograpjy on the Camino, I’m now going to call it Photo Camino – A Personal Guide to Photography on the Camino. 

I’m discovering in the writing that it isn’t a dry practical guide, it’s very much a personal approach that I’m taking. In that sense it’s consistent with my book, The Way, My Way. 

Photo Camino will detail my way of taking photos on the Camino, which at times is unorthodox and idiosyncratic – and quite funny.

The book will cover:

• What camera to take.
• Won’t my iPhone do?
• Challenges for a photographer on the Camino.
• Composition (how to compose a shot and the rules of composition)
• Landscapes (how best to shoot them)
• Portraits & Selfies (how best to shoot them)
• Light (how best to use it)
• Lenses (which are the best lenses for the Camino)
• Twelve Classic Camino shots (how best to take them)
• Sharing your photos on the Camino
• Using your camera to see what’s around you.
• 75 Top Tips

As well, between each chapter I’ve got a series called How I took the Shot, which gives detailed information about how I took a particular featured shot. It goes into the reasons why I made certain decisions, both technically and aesthetically.

These sections also give me an opportunity to have a bit of fun with my writing…

Jennifer once again is editing, and turning my splodgey writing into something coherent. I have a couple of other folk giving me notes too – and they’re all helping enormously.

The book will feature quite a few photos taken on my two Caminos. I’m using them to illustrate the photographic concepts I’m discussing.

I have a formatter on standby for when I lock off the manuscript, and I have the same wonderful designer, Demi Hopkins from Carnival Studios, working on the cover art.

There’s a huge amount goes into writing a book – I’d forgotten how painstaking it has to be – particularly with a book like this, which can be offputting if it’s too technical.

I’m having to find a balance where it’s accessible to non-photographers, yet not dumbed down too much – and still offers something for enthusiasts and advanced amateurs. As well though I’m using every opportunity to give a greater insight into what it means to walk the Camino – both as a photographer and as a pilgrim.

I’m enjoying it. It’s fun. And I hope that reflects in the writing.

My memoir, The Way, My Way, keeps going from strength to strength. In fact the sales in January were the largest yet. And the reviews have been incredibly gratifying.

For me that book has set the bar high. Even though Photo Camino is a vastly different kind of book, I still have to make sure that it’s received with the same degree of favour.

Ultimately I hope that it inspires, photographically and spiritually.

Angela Mitchell came with us on the Portuguese Camino last year.

I determined very early on that she was seriously weird and whacky.

Of course she and Jennifer got on like houses on fire – Jennifer being one of the weirdest and whackiest people you’re ever likely to meet.

Angela and her husband Ken have become good friends. Angela is on a spiritual journey that is taking her to some amazing places.

I asked her to do a guest blog, and here it is:

~~~~~~~~~~~~

‘Fair dinkum brussels sprouts’, Bill has done it again, taken me by surprise, threw a challenge at me when I was not looking!! The challenge is to write a contribution on his blog about an aspect of my spiritual journey that I am finding very exciting.

It is an aspect that I have been sharing quietly and secretly, almost surreptitiously with my close friends and family members.

When I expressed my very real and heartfelt apprehension to Bill about ‘coming out of the closet’ and baring my soul, quietly saying that I might lose friends, I only heard Bill say how new like-minded friends would come into my life.

So, my logic says to stop resisting because the door has opened for me to enter and put the fears aside, to feel content and inwardly know what I already know and that is, all is as it is.

My personal experience walking the Camino Portuguese in April last year was an incredibly joyful meeting of new friends, feeling the energy of the Way and one where I was able to emerge myself into the beautiful countryside.

I did not experience any mind-blowing spiritual revelations; only enjoyment and a deep serenity that was in tune with my spiritual self and my Higher Self.

Your Higher Self is your link, your connection to the Source Energy, also called Creator or God depending on an individual’s religious and spiritual beliefs and values.

What was exciting on this walk was finding like-minded people who also were in tune with spirit and the universe.

The energy of the Camino has stayed with me and has become a part of my spiritual being. I have been seriously reading and researching esoteric literature for over twenty years and as I continually gathering knowledge I have naturally moved from one level to the next in my understanding of the Divine Oneness of the Universe.

As I journey along my own way there have been an endless number of questions inside me that I needed to find answers, hence my ever growing fountain of knowledge.

Recently my questions were about my soul, questions like where did my soul come from? As it is meant to be, I found out about Simone, a gifted energetic healer who does Akashic Record Profiles, also known as ‘soul profiles’.

I learned through Simone that my soul origination is Arcturus, I have since read much about Arctureans, who they are, where they are from and their role in Cosmic Intelligence. I have learned that there are many star systems in this amazing universe, and that there are many high dimensional intergalatical beings living and working harmoniously alongside human beings on planet Earth.

Most importantly I have learned that these beings are working for our highest good. In the end, the soul origination of light workers on Earth is not of major importance because we are essentially all part of the universe working together to raise universal consciousness.

You might very well be saying at this stage of the blog, “What the heck! Soul origination! Aliens!” That is perfectly okay because everyone is entitled to his or her own opinion.

Where I am situated on my path of my own growing evolvement is that information on my soul profile for me is a ‘goodness of fit’, it feels right and it is confirmation that I am an important part of this wondrous universe doing my job.

The joy and excitement of learning of my Arcturean soul origination has bubbled over into something bigger and exciting, because whoever I speak to about soul origination and what it means are curious to know about their own soul origination. Simone has been a very busy energetic healer.

Our greatest asset in our spiritual journey is knowledge, the power of knowledge and knowing that each of us alone is fully responsible for our soul and for our Higher Self.

Angela at Valenca / Portugese Camino 2014

My brother Bob is 18 months younger than me. He’s a vet, and he lives in Brisbane, about 1000kms north of Sydney. I have an older sister, a younger sister, and there’s Bobby. I’m the only one in the family that moved away from Brisbane – 

Late last year Bob and his son Rupert walked the Camino Frances. I was worried about them before they headed off, because they’d done very little training. But they walked the whole way without stopping for one rest day. Remarkable. 

Bob and I have always been very close – from childhood on – and even though our lives have taken us in different directions, that bond between us is still as strong as ever. 

Here now is his guest blog – 

Bill (on left) our mother Stephanie, and Bob

My brother has asked me to make a guest blog about the Camino.

I predicate this by saying I am no writer. Bill is the writer of the family – a position he holds with great capability. When he was walking the Camino, we, his siblings would wake early to read his posts. Sometimes we would cringe, other times laugh out loud. But every time we were in awe of what he accomplished.

And then he wrote his book, The Way, My Way. Well, what could you say. A more honest depiction of the emotional roller-coaster that is the Camino could not be found.

Bob Bennett with Fujifilm X-E2

Bill and I are very close, so it was natural that I would follow his travails closely. We talked a lot. Bill is great at giving advice. I am great at doing the opposite. But for me to walk 780km was out of the question. I have a busy veterinary hospital to run. I’m unfit. It would cost too much. I’m inherently lazy. (I will keep driving around the block till I find the closest car park to where I need to shop). I actually don’t walk. It’s boring. I can get there so much faster by car.

But my son who was 21 and in a gap year said one day, “I want to walk the Camino. Do you want to come?” Of course I said ‘Yes’. Rupert (my son) now refutes that he said that, but that is my memory of it, and so began the planning, the purchasing of gear, and the training for the Camino.

My son had suffered a major foot injury when he was 16 – a boat propeller had sliced his foot, requiring multiple surgeries. Despite this, he is remarkably fit, running 7km a day. Regardless, the relentlessness of the Camino would test him.

photo – Bob Bennett

I, on the other hand, was in reasonable health despite suffering a stroke 4 years ago. I didn’t think the walking would be an issue – I work 12 hour days, mostly on my feet. But cardio-vascular fitness would be a major issue. (I had a nightmare one night and woke up saying, I can’t do it. I can’t do it.) I was pretty sure that the climbing would kill me.

So with that, Rupert and I went about doing some training. We did three walks together, one with our packs. None of them more than 15km.

We were set!

I was still worried about the climbs. Even the little hills around my home were huge obstacles. So I started doing squats to strengthen my legs. Every day. I started to feel a bit more confident, and although I still wasn’t fit, I figured the cardio-vascular fitness would come in time, which it did. Or cardiac arrest. Which didn’t. We truly were set.

The Camino cliche is ‘Everyone walks their own Camino’ and it is true. Rupert and I walked for different reasons. I wouldn’t begin to say why he walked. But I walked to be with my son. I walked for the challenge of testing myself. I walked to see magnificent scenery. I walked to take photographs. I walked to follow thousands of years of history and tradition. I walked to see if I could.

And so we set out on a great father son adventure.

I am blessed to have walked with Rupert. It is something I will cherish to my dying day. That is not to say it was always pleasant. We had days when we didn’t talk. We had other days when we shouldn’t have talked. But I challenge anyone to endure 31 days of physical and emotional hardship and always be good humoured. (Well except me.)

But I saw a side of my 21 year old son that made me so proud. He learnt enough Spanish to have a swage of Senoritas hoping to become the next Señora Bennett all across the Meseta. He organised us and set the pace. (I did say 31 days!) I look back at the photos now and realise that there were days when he was really struggling with pain. The legacy of his boating accident showed in his face. But he soldiered on. He is a remarkable young man.

Rupert Bennett – photo Bob Bennett

I expected to see magnificent scenery on the Camino. I am, like Bill, a photographer and if I were told I couldn’t take a camera, I probably wouldn’t have gone.

We stayed in Orrison the first night, a third of the way up the Pyrenees, and crossed to Ronscavalles in 2 days – that was my concession: to start slowly to garner fitness. As we approached the Col de Leoparder, the wind must have been 50-60 knots. A lovely rather stout fellow who stayed with us at Orrison was blown off his feet, quite literally, 3 times. Clouds were skudding by at eye level. Sleet stung our eyes. This was Nature at her most beautiful in a way the camera can’t capture. I wasn’t prepared for that.

Bob on Pyrenees

We had so many days like that. Leaving Falcebadon in the snow before sunrise. Approaching O Ceberio up those wonderful dark mud streaked deep paths. Crossing into Galacia in the rain, the clouds parting momentarily to see snow on the surrounding mountain tops and occasional glimpses of the deep valleys below. These things I wasn’t expecting. I wasn’t expecting the pride of a pharmacist in Vianna, who with very broken English implored us to visit his humble local church, which he said was a Romanesque wonder. And it was.

photo – Bob Bennett

Neither was I expecting the warmth from those who’s lands we crossed. In an up-market panaderia, the store owner, after I purchased our modest breakfast of croissants and chocolate pane, rung up a Peregrino Prix on her cash register, a discount I neither needed nor expected, but humbly accepted. The constant Buon Camino as we passed people in the street. The help with directions (even if unneeded) whenever we stopped to look around in a town. These also were unexpected. Or at least the extent of their warmth was unexpected.

And also the other Peregrinos. We met some interesting people, all with their stories even if they didn’t think so, and would have met many more but for the barrier of language. People who we saw repeatedly and would nod and smile and try to converse.

And the people we saw only once but left a huge influence on our trip. Like the urbane Spanish man who stopped at a fountain to let a gaggle of young people walk past. “They’re too noisy for me,” he said. Then he asked if I was walking with my son. I said yes. He told me that he had walked the Camino 25 years ago with his father, and he said it was one of the best things he had done. And now he was walking alone.

Blue door – photo Bob Bennett

And the man we met on our last day. We had seen him from afar 3 times that day, and he had stopped, taken a wrong path and so we met up with him again. He said in Germany, where he came from, if you saw a stranger three times in one day it was good luck, and he should buy us a drink. We were at a bus shelter, so we talked instead. He said he had started walking from his home in Germany 15 days after his wife had died. He had good days, he had bad days, but the nights were always bad.

These and more are my memories of the Camino.

Rupert and I arrived in Santiago 31 says after we left St Jean Pied de Port at 5.30pm in the rain. We walked 40 kms on the last day. I had been pretty sick for the previous 4 days with a cold that developed into bronchitis, and I wanted to finish. As if that wasn’t enough, a night lying next to a snoring Canuck who then started talking then screaming in French had left me equally terrified and exhausted.

photo Bob Bennett

That pipe dream of showers and sheets was driving me. But strangely, after 2 days in 5 star comfort, I wanted to put my pack on and start walking. I found I missed the discipline of the path. But I didn’t because our plans now lay along a different route, and Rupert and I went off to Ireland, a place neither of us had seen.

It’s only after the walk that one can pause and take stock of one’s accomplishment. We walked 780km (give or take) in 31 days. We had no rest days, and carried our own packs. Did all of this really happen? Some of it was done in a fugue of fatigue and pain. But yes, it happened. I have the photos to prove it. And my blisters haven’t all healed. And I have some lingering and painful plantar fasciculitis in my heal and ball of my foot.

Yes it certainly did happen.

But is it such an achievement? I met two very overweight women in Villafranca de Orca who had decided to walk the Camino 2 weeks before they left. No training, basic gear. They didn’t know they could have stopped in Orrison and walked from St Jean Pied de Port to Ronscavalles in one go. It took them 15 hours, and they came in after 3 meltdowns, in tears at 9.00pm. Now that is an achievement.

Many people walk the Camino, some only do parts, but many like the German man walk thousands of kilometres. And everyone walks their own Camino.

photo – Bob Bennett

Bill asks, did it change me? Yes, and I have the scars on my feet to show it. My clothes no longer fit me – I have lost 10kg. But as well, I approach problems in a more relaxed way. I don’t let small things bother me, and large things don’t bother me as much, and are dealt with in a more relaxed way.

I try to live in the spirit of the Camino – shun excess, eat modestly and try to be relaxed about my life and those around me. After all, for many days the thought of a hot shower and sheets were, well, a pipe dream. I appreciate what I have and am more concerned for those who have to go without.

I park where I can now, not as close as I can. (That is a huge change for me.) I read in this blog yesterday that one poster said they wear a pin to remind them of how they felt on the Camino, rather, I imagine than as a badge of honour for others to see. I like that idea. I want to keep feeling like this. Time will tell.

Bob Bennett

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