Thursday, February 12th – The day before tomorrow : Bensafrim - V. do Bispo

It would have been all too easy to have spent the morning out on Monte Rosa’s picnic table, drinking coffee and chatting, enjoying the garden, so beautifully dressed in sunshine.
But I said my goodbyes and set off by ten, packed lunch in hand, eager to eat up the miles ahead of me.
I can’t say I remember all that much of what I saw throughout the day, spending most of it within my own head (where else would you be on a sunny day). I do remember going through a quarry of some sort, then through a marsh. Most of ground I covered in the morning was a sticky liquid clay, this didn’t do my last remaining sliothar any good, it has seen better days. However, we have discussed it at length (the sliothar and I) and we feel that it will have no problem reaching it’s final destination (rather than simply being resigned to it’s fate, it actually seems to be looking forward to it).
The day ended with costal views, grass verges, more like Mayo (with the occasional giant cactus) than the forests of previous days. Once I arrived in V do Bispro, a dude (by which I mean a Portuguese surfer dude) was able to sort me out with a fine room in the centre of town.
There was the inevitable slogging periods in the middle of the day, sometimes they come early, sometimes later, but they always happen, part of getting from A to B. If there was one thing I wanted to get straight in my head on this trip, it was how we get things done, how we get from A to B. Consistently.
Here is looks from where I’m sitting.
Firstly, it’s very important to know where B is, that always seems to be the first step. The second (and oft forgotten) step, is find out where A is, i.e. where you are now. After that, it’s all about preparation, gathering all the information, knowing your route, having all the tools, experience and support at your disposal to get you there. But that’s not all, because you always have to know how to handle the obstacles that will be in your path. Be they barking dogs or rivers to traverse, chances are they will not only knock you off course, but also remove your facility for straight thinking. Only experience can teach you this.
Having said all that, I am more than aware that life and what we face within it is not linear.
We all have our own journeys, we all have our own compass, and hope it can tell us where or who we want to be. If we are lucky, it will point to true north before we look at any map.
With a bit of luck, we are north of where we have been and south of where we want to be.
It’s difficult to navigate adventure’s maps, when distance traveled is measured not in miles, but heartbeats.