The Tyranny of Distance

---

No, not Geoffrey Blainey...

Over the last three day´s I´ve put in some fairly heavy kilometres (although not as many as some freaks - more about them later). 30, 35 and 30 over the last three days have made me feel a bit footsore and a little less gushing in my enthusiasm for the scenery, the weather, the food, OH LOOK AT THE SHAPE OF THAT CLOUD, OMG!!!!! - that kind of thing. 95 kilometres and a chest cold will knock that right out of you.

But, you know, there is a little bit of martyr´s pride about it - until I remember that I´ve basically walked from my front door to Seymour - which seems just a bit sad. So here´s the thing - that distance seems so much further because I walked it (along with about 100 other people at the same time). I feel that the landscape and culture has changed dramatically. You hardly expect to drive to Seymour and find a completely different type of person... Oh wait, bad example - BUT YOU KNOW WHAT I MEAN!!!

The other thing is that all kilometres are equal, but some are definitely more equal that others. The last eight kilometers the day before yesterday into Los Arcos HURT. Badly. Sometimes you get it into your head that you´re fifteen minutes away from somewhere (where you can get a coffee, or eat, or go to the toilet, or sit, or all of the above at once) and when the fifteen minutes pass and you still can´t even see the town! Then you read the map again and realise you haven´t even crossed a road three km´s from the town, etc etc

There are very different sorts of walkers - I tend to walk fast and then stop for an extended break - less time on my feet the better I reason. There are those who seem to walk slowly all day and never stop. Those who get distracted by each tree and dawdle across the countryside. Those who walk alone - those who love to attach themselves to others. And the freaks - those who get up early, and walk 70 Kms a day and look as fresh as a daisy at the end of it. They´re always men and they tend to have come from some far away land. One had walked from Belgium, one from Innsbruck, but the record was someone who had walked from the Czech Republic. He´d done 2000Kms to get to my starting point.

Freak...

---

Photos

I can see for miles and miles
And now I have to walk them...