The Slow Way Home – The Plan

Time for the mother of all adventures – what I am calling the Slow Way Home. The idea is to head out the front door and walk home – as you will note below, there are some modifications already envisioned to this simple idea.

Some operating parameters for the trip that I have settled on:

1. there are no rules: if it interests me, I’ll do it; if it bores me, I’ll do something else
2. I invite anyone/everyone to share their trip/place/event ideas, and we can journey for a day, a week, a month or a year!
3. It’s not going to be continuous in either time or space; life will get in the way
4. If in doubt, see rule 1.

The usual reaction from people that I tell about this tirp is a mix of disbelief and nervous laughter, here are the most common questions I have encountered are:

1.  WHY? In short, I want to head home slowly – not simply jump on a plane and arrive the next day. There is something about the idea of simply walking out the front door and starting the journey home, free of constraints of time and schedule that appeals to me. I have done some extended trips previously (6 month round the world tour, 2 month cross-Canada trip) but they have been driven by a need to get to a particular place on a certain date, which made me feel like I had to keep moving, and that I didn’t have enough time to dawdle for a day or two at a pleasant spot, or spontaneously add a weeklong sidetrip. Yes, now that you mention it, I do tend to dawdle poorly and need some remedial training in spontaneity.
2. WHAT IS YOUR ROUTE? The first decision that I had to make was whether to turn left (head east via the Silk Road, etc) or right (head west across Europe). I decided, after letting it rattle around in my head for some time, that I preferred to walk west, largely because the idea of hiking through the Alps appealed to me  more than the dusty deserts of Central Asia. The map below (sorry for the poor quality) is the route I have “planned”. The blue is biking, the red is walking, the green is I don’t know and yellow is sailing. More details to follow in future posts.

The Slow Way Home as currently “planned”

3. HOW ARE YOU GOING TO DO X OR Y? Frankly I don’t know; this is going to be a long journey, and it is impractical to think that I can plan every day (and in fact is a direct contradiction to the spirit of the adventure!). I know how to walk, I’ve ridden a bike, and I’m going to have to learn how to sail, everything else will be improvisation and whim. I think that I will sketch out each stage, and plan in detail a day or two ahead.

4. HOW LONG WILL IT TAKE? I don’t really know this either – the distractions and meanders along the way are going to determine the length. On the other hand, I might get a month or two into the trip and decide it was a dumb idea and get on a plane!

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