A record amount of photos at the bottom 😊

22nd October 2022

On the train to Delhi after a month in Uttarakhand! We stopped over in Kasar Devi for two nights where we got to witness an awesome thunderstorm and catch up on The Handmaid’s Tale. We also stopped by Heal Farm for a night where we were well fed, well rested and introduced to some more amazing folk from around the country. That place just kept on giving the good stuff.

The train keeps shifting from unbearably hot to super chilly as the AC turns on and then turns off. Dodgy electrics. It’s packed on here. There’s a vivd spectrum of smells from samosas to popcorn, chai and fragrant farts. I’ve had to retreat into headphones because there is no sound etiquette from my fellow passengers; Cartoons, YouTube shorts, action films, cricket and music which are all seasoned with coughs and slurps in a binaural sound scape. It’s a stimulating 5 senses fiesta in here.

We’ve been travelling since 12pm. It’s 17:41 now and we’re due at the station around 9pm. I’m struggling with the rate that time is passing and I just want to be in Delhi now, it’s so uncomfortable. Also I really need to unpack my bag as the washing we attempted to get done in our 24 hours at heal farm did not dry and was handed back to us really not dry so I had to load it into my bag wet. Yay! I’m not sure what’s worse, dirty clothes or clean, wet and smelly clothes.

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28th October 2022

21:09 I’m aware of the time gap in my writing, though I’m far from feeling guilty about breaking my habit of a daily entry. I daren’t do my rituals too strictly. For me, breaking a streak/missing a day comes with too much guilt and I don’t allow that kind of self shame in my life. It wouldn’t allow me to cultivate the motivation to continue.

Anyway…

We’re now in Mcleodganj, the home of His Holiness The Dalai Lama (HHDL). Two days ago I saw him, I saw the Dalai Lama with my own two eyes!!!!! I feel so lucky to have seen him, he represents so much. He embodies compassion. People like him have caused such ripples in the world. He has moved the souls of so many.

Amz and I had been told by our friend that he would be doing a talk and that we needed to get up early and to leave our electronics at home as we wouldn’t be able to take them into the temple. It was a great heads up because on arrival we saw people being turned away, having to rush back to their hotels to drop off their phones.

It was a long but wonderfully fascinating event. What made it longer was our empty stomachs and the language barrier. Luckily, hearing the Dalai Lama laugh doesn’t need translation.

It’s so nice being back here in Mcleodganj. It’s so chill. It’s so beautiful. It’s so friendly. In particular it has been wonderful to reunite with our Tibetan brother, Sonam. We met a few years ago and have stayed in regular contact since. He is a very special person and it’s a privilage to spend some quality time with him.

We arrived here on the 24th which was Diwali, which is equivalent to Christmas in terms of religious, cultural and commercial significance in India. One of the biggest events in the country’s calendar. We took a train from Delhi to Chandigarh on one of India’s newest trains which was quiet, clean and very comfortable - a wonderful surprise. Amy had been managing a stonker of a migraine since we left Uttrakhand so although the strip lights weren’t helping things, a comfortable seat that she could melt into whilst llistening to podcasts about how to survive migraines, was welcomed. On arrival in Chandigarh, we were collected by a friendly Himachali driver called Hans. He smelt very very strongly of stale tobacco, he liked to be on his phone while driving, he drove really really fast AND he liked taking both hands off the steering wheel so he could look at me in the eyes when he spoke to me. Eventually he deposited us in Dharamsala, alive, but a little broken and in need of rest.

We arrived after 6 hours of being on the road and waved goodbye to our driver. I took a moment to acknowledge my life. We had survived another hair raising journey. Amy had survived another migraine. As lovely as the driver was, I’m not sure we’ll use him for the return journey.

We were excited to arrive. We had been meticulous in choosing our accommodation and had opted for an AirBnB which had incredible reviews. Well, it was a farce. A joke. The owner greeted us with a warm and welcoming smile but then showed us to a room that looked nothing like what we’d seen and paid for online. A dark, damp, dusty and dingy room. “Sorry but this looks nothing like the listing” I said. “I understand your emotions sir” was the weirdest response that came back to me. The owner sensing our discontent tried to win us over by upselling the fact we’d have our own large work surface in the kitchen… which was an interesting choice of amenity to win us over with. We were then shown to another 2 rooms which were considerably worse. These rooms left me scratching my head trying understand how he thought it was going to work out. The managers excuse? “Unfortunately the girl in the room you booked extended her stay and wouldn’t leave”. Needless to say we requested a full refund and swiftly moved to another hotel.

The new hotel was somewhere we’d been before. It has a spectacular view but is also the kind of hotel where you don’t want to look too closely at anything. How did those stains on the wall actually get there? Squinting helped a lot.

The highlight of our first evening here was being able to see the illumination of Diwali from this quaint hill station. We had a view across the plains and fireworks lit up the sky like glitter. The sound was too far away to be audible but fortunately the local kids had stocked up on firecrackers.

The grime got a little too much and we lasted 3 nights at that hotel.

The decision to move came after requesting an extra bathroom spritz. Our shower hadn’t been draining, meaning the whole bathroom was basically being flooded after a short shower. A member of staff come down to unblock the drain. I stood on guard to alleviate my concerns of the cleaning methodology and watched in horror as he grabbed the toilet brush and used it to scrub the sink…

We now have a room that is that size of a small studio flat in north London. It’s clean, comfortable and a solid £18 a night. There’s also a family of maybe 15 monkeys which hang around outside which makes our balcony unsuitable for lazing around, but really entertaining. Earlier today a tiny baby monkey tried to break in which was very very cute!

I’m also very excited about how charismatic the housekeeper is here. His name is Nilesh and his company is really enjoyable. He laughs so much, it’s brilliant. He was just telling us about how one guest had left their balcony door open and a monkey came in and destroyed everything and another guest who had fallen asleep on the balcony after smoking some weed and woke up to find a large baboon sat practically on her shoulder. He couldn’t stop laughing.

We’ve decided to stay in Mcleodganj for a while. We’ll soak into the hill. We’ll find some friends and frequent the temple on a daily basis. It’s a wonderful place to be and there is so much on offer. We can only stay in this hotel for 9 nights as they are fully booked from the 6th but then there’s another hotel super close by which I’ve managed to get from 4500INR a night to 2500INR a night.

This morning we went for a late breakfast and ended up chatting with some friendly Australians for a few hours about our shared love for this country. They told us tales of India in the 70’s, 80’s and 90’s and how they’d also travelled to Tibet back in the day. Wow!

This afternoon we spent a couple of hours volunteering at an English language class with some members of the Tibetan community, most of whom are monks. We spent some quality time helping them practice their conversational skills and understanding of our strange but widely spoken tongue. Volunteering this way is difficult for me because (apparently) I talk in a peculiar way. Being from the west country I don’t quite speak the Queen’s English, so I have to translate my habitual tounge to something hopefully understandable before I open my mouth. Amy is much more of a natural. God, I hope I haven’t taught them anything wrong. I remember during a previous class a few years ago saying “You’re dammed if you do, you’re dammed if you don’t” and finding it nearly impossible to translate what that means. It took a long time.

We dashed back to our home for a Facetime with mum for her birthday video call. I miss my parents a lot. They’re awesome. I love them dearly. I wish they were here, they’d love it. Maybe next year?!

This evening we popped down to HHDL’s temple for our daily meditation and to circumambulate the main hall.

Circumambulate. verbFORMAL

1. walk all the way round (something)."they used to circumambulate the perimeter wall"

In religions such as Buddhism and Hinduism, this refers to circulating an object of veneration, such as a temple, holy site, or in the case of Mcleodganj, the home of HHDL. 

We then sat and bathed in the deep, warm sounds of the monks chanting.

To round off the evening, we went to a comfortable and cozy snug, for some Tibetan delicacies for dinner; Momos, chowmein and Thentuk.

The “cocktail party effect” kicked in when I overheard a couple of women sat a few tables away mentioning a cafe we’d been to in the UK. Their voices floating above the noisy environment. I struck up a conversation and quickly found out they were from Totnes in the UK. Hundreds of words were thrown back and fourth in a friendly and familiar exchange and we spent the rest of the evening enjoying each other’s company.

“Share your knowledge. It is a way to achieve immortality”. HHDL

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29th October 2022

We’ve developed a habit of visiting a particular coffee shop that serves really really delicious coffee. We pop in and our order just appears on the table - magic! A quick transaction with both the server and the caffeine and we’re off.

We move onto another cafe that is quickly becoming a regular. We’ll be on first name terms before the week is done.

Amz had arranged to help her pupils from yesterday’s class with some of their homework. It was a delightful interaction lasting a few hours. They wanted us to help explain how to use ‘at’ ‘in’ and ‘on’. Using our language is obviously beyond effortless for us, but when explaining it to someone else it can be really tricky. There’s always an exception to a rule in our language.

After our informal class finished, we went on a 2 hour hike to the neighbouring town. It’s a beautiful walk and really got the heart going. Just wandering about here is great exercise for the mind, body and spirit. Great air quality and lovely steep hills to clamber up and down. Dharamkot had tonnes of vegan options so we indulged in a falafel wrap, a soy & coconut masala chai and a slice of triple chocolate mouse cake. On the way back to Mcleodganj we also picked up a cinnamon roll. My sweet tooth is getting sweeter by the day.

A quick stop back to the room for a breather and to hang up the prayer flags I bought, then down to the temple for our evening circumambulation and mediation.

We finished up the day back in the cafe we’ve had the majority of our meals at since we’ve arrived and we picked up the conversation again with our new friends from Totnes.

A joyful and tiring day.

1st November 2022

It’s been a busy few days with lots of walking and lots of socialising. It’s really easy to lose track of time here and time quickly moves from being an absolute to more of a concept. My previous life in England which was very much clockwork, is now a measure of just how fluid my days are here, flowing like a river.

The last two classes I’ve taught have involved meeting some incredible people. 2 young guys from Tawang who are here by themselves to study English. A Ladakhi monk who lives in Nepal but who is also here to study English. Padma, who has an already amazing grasp of English is difficult for me to teach, because in many ways his English is better than mine. He takes his time to think about exactly what he wants to say and carefully considers each and every word. Inspiring.

Amy and I have also been spending a lot of time with a wonderful monk called Gelek who walked over the mountains from Tibet when he was 22. Like many of the Tibetans living in Mcleodganj in exile, he chose to risk his life to escape the oppressive and violent Chinese government who had been systematically destroying his homeland and murdering his fellow Tibetans. Many choose to undertake this difficult journey so they can have the freedom to practise their Buddhist religion and be close to HHDL who escaped from Tibet in 1959. (Being caught with an image of HHDL or of the Tibetan flag is a criminal offence in Tibet. Punishable with prison time or worse.) Gelek told us about his gruelling journey which took 26 days. His group had to travel at night so they wouldn’t be seen by the Chinese border forces. If his group had been spotted they could have been captured, imprisoned or even worse (Film recommendation: Tibet -Murder in the Snow). He told us about one of the younger members of his group who had fallen down a narrow path, he’d cracked his head and although a few people risked their own lives to recover him, his life was lost a few days later. When Gelek finally arrived in Nepal, he was welcomed by HHDL’s refuge organisation. He was later relocated to India. When he finally had a place to call home he sent a letter to his family, along with a photograph of him in his new country. He received a response 3 months later!!!!!! His family responded, they were overjoyed he had made it! He told me he spent a long time crying.

This is our third visit to Mcleodganj. It was on our first visit in 2017 that we learned about the Tibetan situation. We continue to learn from our friends. The stories we’re hearing here are just remarkable. Harrowing. Inspiring. Devastating. Stories full of both despair and hope.

Yesterday we had dinner with 2 inspiring Americans who had flown in from Colorado to cycle from Leh to Dharamshala (approx 900km at altitudes of circa 3,500m). It took them 24 days.

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6th November

Yes, I realise that there are some serious gaps appearing in this travelog, if only I had more time, if only when I got back to my room I didn’t just pass out.

We’ve made soo many friends here it takes ages to get anywhere or to do anything. We’re having the best time but today we crashed. Amy says we’ve been over stimulated. It’s been a day of chill which has been much needed.

A little more about some of the locals I speak of that we’ve befriend: There’s Gil, a local who walks up and down one of the steepest hills to get to work. We met him a few years ago, when Amy used to sit outside his general store and paint. He inspired her to keep up the watercolours with his enthusiasm for her creations. Gil unconsciously colour coordinates his attire with the paint on the walls of his shop. Nabi, who is from Kashmere, has a really small shop selling jewellery and gemstones, fabrics and other treasures. He has an amazing face, an incredible beard and a welcoming presence. We walk past him several times a day to get to our volunteering class. Dolka is a wonderful Tibetan auntie who has piercing eyes and an incredible dog called Princess, who is her whole life. Amy bonded with her over the street dogs she feeds. Dolka has a small roadside stall selling many things. She says it’s Princess’ stall and that everything she sells is to give Princess a better life. “Princess is my heart”. she loves her dog so much. The people who live and work here are super kind, super welcoming and super friendly.

Yesterday, which is currently as far back as I can remember… we walked up to TIPA - Tibetan Institute of Performing Arts, for DIFF - Dharamshala Internation Film Festival. On arrival we were told that all the tickets to all the films where now sold out, so we got a coffee and a muffin instead. We sat and sipped and watched people eagerly queue up for the next showing. It was quite a remarkable festival considering the centre piece was a giant inflatable cinema.  Sonam has introduced me to one of his old friends, Paldem who is a super talented artist. Paldem showed me some of his work and I’ll try and post some below. He shared his woes as an artist, the predicament that pursuing art means sacrifice, little money, but more fulfilment compared to working for some corporation on the other side of the country.

Paldem also shared with me his journey from Tibet. He arrived in Nepal when he was five. A Nepali family had pretended he was their child and snuck him across the border on a bus.

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13th November 2022

According to the Totnessians who have now sadly departed, there is some strong cosmic energy affecting everything right now. This would explain the violent illness I survived at the start of the week along with the loss of my grandfather and Amy’s great aunt.

RIF Grandad. Rest in Forever.

I’ve also been suffering with busy mind syndrome. The not knowing how long we’re staying here and what we’re doing next has been an itch I just can’t scratch. I know I need to breathe through it and that it’s my irrational mind/the monkey mind, but still, I’ve been plagued with busy mind, sorry Amz.

The illness came on early on Tuesday morning and I spent the day deflating. My body rejected and ejected everything it could - it was not fun, at all. Needless to say my wife was the perfect nurse and she carried me back to normality with flawless love and devotion and various herbal medicines. 5 days later I am pleased to type that I am now fine! I can also laugh about how reverberant the hotel is and that our bathroom backed onto a very resonant hallway. Every time I threw up there was a feedback loop that no doubt caught everyone’s attention.

Although it’s been a turbulent week it’s also been a rewarding one. We have decided to stay at Sherab Ling monastery next week for a Buddhist retreat led by Mingyur Rinpoche. We’ve also secured our accommodation for when we return until we depart. Much of our time has been spent with Tibetan friends whose English conversational skills are progressing unbelievably fast.

We spent a morning at Norbulingka Institute, which is a delightfully serene area dedicated to the preservation of the Tibetan culture in its literary and artistic forms.

We attended a film screening of “Murder in the snow”, a film about Mountain climbers who secretly began filming as Chinese border guards opened fire on a group of refugees fleeing Tibet in 2006. The director and one of the survivors were present and took questions at the end.

We experienced one of the most dramatic and powerful thunderstorms of our lives. Thunder claps in the mountains are loud and send you back to those childhood emotions of being slightly afraid of the skies. The windows actually rattled!

We walked a lot this week too. Up and down, up and down, up and down. We’ve both got legs of steel during the day and jelly during the evening. Our appetites are off the scale. All this walking is hungry stuff.

Mcleodganj is a fascinating place to be. Our daily walks, wether it’s to the temple or to get food are taking longer and longer as we stop and chat with all of the people we’ve met here. We’ve developed a nice pace. It’s a rare opportunity to be in such a special place for such long at a time. The weather is mostly sunny in the daytime and it’s getting a little colder at night. We may be forced to buy thermals to accompany us in the bedroom soon.

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23rd November 2022

I can’t remember what happened on the 14th, 15th and 16th of November but on the 17th we travelled to Sherab Ling Monastary in Bir, about a 2 hour drive from Mcleodganj.

We attended a course called ‘The Buddha within’ which took place over 4 days by various teachers. The main teacher was a face I recognised from the internet, but didn’t really have any other knowledge of - Yongey Mingyur Rinpoche. I’m now very familiar with his story and his energy. A phenomenal human being whose life has been nothing short of awe inspiring. As I peeled back the layers of learning more about him, my jaw dropped closer and close to the floor. It’s not a common occurrence in my life to learn from an enlightened, reincarnated Rinpoche (this transaltes as “precious one”) who renounced their prince-like status to live as a pure monk, jumped the fence of their protected compound in the middle of the night and spent 4 years of their life as a wandering yogi. There was something about Mingyur Rinpoche that I can only describe as cosmic.

We had made a new friend, Craig, a few weeks ago at one of our favourite places to eat in Mcleodganj, a Japanese restaurant called Lung ta. In between mouthfuls of the daily special, Sushi, we found common ground in our travel experiences and discussed our plans going forward. Craig who is a practising Buddhist, mentioned about the programme at Sherab Ling. Once again the stars realigned and here I am now, writing about that very experience.

 Craig is a wonderful and colourful soul who we have now been lucky enough to spend some deep time with. It’s great to be able to learn from each other and reflect on our experiences at the monastery.

Our time at Sherab Ling was remarkably nourishing and enlightening. I have long been a curious spectator of Buddhists, Buddhism and all things related, but much like any religion or community it’s a little tricky to find a beginning thread. This turned out to be the perfect introduction, a dipping of the toe in the water and actually a full submersion in the depth of what that area of practice and dedication is offering.

I was among circa 250 other students. Students from all walks of life and all corners of the globe: India, Switzerland, America, Japan, Spain, Sweden, Korea, Tawain, Canada, Australia, Malaysia, Germany, Israel… My discussion partner was a beautiful woman from the Buddhist region of Russia. This tapestry was rich in colour and diversity.

The 4 days revolved around a structured format of an hour of meditation at 7am, two 1.5 hour teachings from Rinpoche, a 1.5 hour teaching from a Khenpo, an

hour meditation session in the evening, various breaks and 3 tasty meals a day. Everything except the eating times took place cross-legged on the floor.

On the evening of the first day I sent an email to the producer of the event asking for the vegetarian buffet-style eating arrangement to be clearly labelled with which dishes were vegan. I took this action after my vegan-o-meter rolled back to zero earlier in the day. I saw the fruits of my activism the next day as labels hung off each dish. I laughed internally as a few vegetarians moaned about the labels that brought a new frame of reference to the same dish they’d been eating the day before.

I consumed soo much information from the teachings that I cannot begin to write a deep reflection here. What I do feel compelled to write is the open and inspiring approach to the teachings. I learnt so much about my meditation practice, the meditation practices available, the cultivation of kindness, compassion, awareness and the contemplations of impermanence. The opportunity to reflect on thoughts and feelings, what they are, how to watch them when they arise and how to meditate on them when I don’t. I was grateful for the time to consider the body, mind and spirit. All good stuff and all grist for the mill.

“Ultimately, happiness comes down to choosing between the discomfort of becoming aware of your mental afflictions and the discomfort of being ruled by them.”

― Yongey Mingyur Rinpoche, The Joy of Living: Unlocking the Secret and Science of Happiness

I spent a lot of time wriggling around while I sat on my mat, my spine elevated a little by another carefully placed matt. It was an experience in itself to sit for so long, crossed legged on the floor. I really haven’t spent that much time in that posture since junior school, so like 30 years ago. My body is now not shaped for this kind of sitting. I hope I can get it back into a more desirable shape over the coming years. Another goal to add to the ever growing list. Amy was religious about her 30+ mins of yoga every morning which may be why she didn’t complain about her back like I did. She did however develop a stinking cold the day before we arrived at the monastery, so her challenge was more about trying to breathe through a blocked nose and mask for the first couple of days.

Always a true highlight for me in any educational/travel environment is the chance to chat to new people and to discover new friends. On this occasion I was lucky enough to meet a collective of people who are all attending the Dharmalaya institute. A kind and enriching community who kept giving endless amounts of love and good energy. I struck up a conversation with the beautiful Bijal after noticing her vivid green jumper during the teachings. She introduced me to her friends Ayushi, Eve, Akriti, Daphne and Mark. Mark and I quickly fell into a spiral of discussions about spirituality, compassionate living, the corporate world, education and our lives - a lot of common ground and a lot of shared visions and goals.

During the teaching programme we were lucky enough to get private audiences (in small groups) with both the Rinpoche and a Khenpo.   The small group session with Mingyur Rinpoche was really interesting, as the questions that came up were deeply personal - I felt part of a unique experience, where people felt comfortable to share there troubles in-front of strangers. Mingyur Rinpoche’s responses were effortless, wise and concise. Amongst the Q&A I sat both tuned into being present and lost in thoughts of what I could ask. Every question that came to mind disappeared as I knew that I still have plenty of work to do and that the answers would probably revolve around looking within, spending time on kindness and working on my virtues such as patience.

The experience with the Khenpo was also really interesting. Translated from Tibetan by a wonderful nun (or Ani) The session took a similar theme with participants asking deeply personal questions. Our group sat with open hearts and alert ears. After hearing a few questions that were a little loose, I took out my iphone and sculpted a question that I could ask concisely.

“Tashe delek khempo la,”

Has Khempo had direct experience with difficult people? What methods does he use to develop a better relationship with these people? Is distancing himself from these people just as helpful as meeting them where they are? “ I read aloud.

After the completely unexpected fits of laughter from both the audience, translator and Khempo himself, he responded with various pearls of wisdom, including “some people are just hopeless”. I melted into the feeling that I’d inadvertently changed the tone of the room.

I’ve been digesting the deeper meaning to his response for a few days now. It makes sense to me. It’s playful. It’s Leela.

On our departure day we acted on our invitation to visit Dharmalaya. A 20 minute drive and a 10 minute trek took us to one of the most beautiful and considered dwellings I’ve ever been to. Organic gardening, clever composting, consciousness, plant-based eating, compassionate harmonious communal living, natural and organic existence, zero waste. Literally all the good s**t. All under one roof, actually many roofs and actually some of the best roofs I’ve witnessed because the properties here are made from mud, slate and other local materials. Everything made by hand, no power tools, conscious architecture. I’d never heard of Didi Contractor, I wonder if my Dad has? I’m desperate to talk with him about her, the place and my experience at Dharmalaya.

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27th November 2022

11:26am and a much needed coffee after a busy few days.

The Dalai Lama held 2 days of teachings on the 25th and 26th, so on the 23rd we urgently went to register for our passes, something that people had been banging on about for weeks. We expected long queues but the process was quick and easy. We also expected someone to check our passes on the day of the teachings, which no one ever did.

Day one of the talks was short and sweet. I arose at 6am (Amy at 5am) and we were out of the door at 6:30am. The stars were still twinkling in the sky and there was just enough light to notice the cracks in the pavements and the monkey poo. Apparently his holiness was not feeling 100% so he cut straight to some of Buddhism’s key elements. It was wonderful and inspiring to see him in person again.

In the queue we met some lovely folk from the Netherlands and Mexico. We shared some nourishing chat and reflected on our different views of the world. I tried my best to improve their vision of Delhi. The couple from the Netherlands had arrived in India to a flurry of scams which left them exhausted, with a bitter taste in their mind. I insisted they give it another go and gave them a list of things to experience on their return to the capital.

They also came a little unprepared for what could be a long morning so I lent them my blanket to sit on as well as some fresh batteries for their radio. They explained they had just bought new batteries. I explained that the newness of a battery in India did not reflect its longevity.

Radios are needed for foreign visitors at the teachings, as a live translation is transmitted on FM radio. We learnt the hard way on our previous visit that the Dalai Lama would be speaking in Tibetan, so this time we came prepared with two radios and plenty of batteries.

Day 2 of the teachings was a completely different experience. A lot lot longer and a lot deeper. Too deep to go into here but it was worth every second to be present and part of that audience.

At around 2pm yesterday we decided to go on a Hike to Gallu temple. An hour up the mountain from Mcleodganj. Moments after leaving the central market, the environment completely changed. We were alone. The hill was so steep it filtered out the masses. Magic. The air changed. The noise changed. The scenery became greener and we’d again shifted to a whole new experience.

Around half way, we shared our plans with our friend, Gelek who we were due to meet later in the day for tea and conversation (he is one of our buddies from the Tibetan/English conversation class). Much to our delight, he was on the same path and had already reached the summit. He met us when we arrived and took us a little further down a track we would never have found where, unbelievably, there was a small cafe with a pizza oven serving vegan pizzas!!!!

We headed back down when the sun had descended enough that the temperature changed from warm to a little nippy. The light disappeared quickly and we had to navigate a stony track for the next 30 minutes. When we arrived back in town my body was shaking, my back aching and my tummy rumbling.

Today we have begun to tie up some loose ends. We have booked our next accommodation in another town. We are leaving this wonderful place on Saturday which means embracing many goodbyes and preparing our minds and hearts for another new chapter.