Some of our Travel Experiences!

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Some of our Travel Experiences!

I tend to read a lot of non-fiction. Whenever I come across something interesting I would make a note or scan it into the computer. Normally I would date it and indicate the source.

However, for some reason, I have no information on this poem. I think I found it in one of H.V. Morton’s books published by Methuen. I hope you can relate to it as much as we can!

“This beautiful wayfarer’s poem by Gildas, written about 600, the first British travel document on record, has caught the spirit of the time and indeed of all time:

In health may I and all of my companions

Safely arrive with no harm or injury –

May my boat be safe in the waves of the ocean,

My horses safe on the highways of the earth,

Our money safe as we carry it with us

To pay due heed to our poor necessities.

May our enemies fail to do harm to us,

However evil the counsels which inspire them,

In the eternal name of Christ our Master,

May my roads all lie plain before me,

Whether I climb the rugged heights of mountains,

Or descend the hollow depths of valleys,

Or trudge the lengthy roads op open country,

Or struggle through the thickets of dense forest:

May I walk always in straight ways and shining

To longed-for places . . .”

When you live in a beautiful part of the world, it would be criminal not to go and see and experience some of those “longed-for places”. We try to do that once a month, but writing about it takes a lot of discipline.

Over the years, Catrien was the one who diligently recorded some of these experiences in e-mail. Some reports were written by our daughter Evette, with sketches, and some by our son-in-law Christoff. I wrote one or two, and our daughter-in-law, Kathy, wrote one. And our friends and family enjoyed it so much, that we decided to “publish” it here on this website. Most of these reports are in Afrikaans. We hope to add some more in English sometime!

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1995:

Ø Indië – Catrien

1998:

Ø Europa Januarie 1998 – Catrien

Ø Ons 'Road Show' in Noord Amerika – Catrien

1999:

Ø Shopping Spree – Evette

Ø Campione - Evette

Ø Provence – Evette

Ø La Provence is Inspiration! – Philip

Ø Como - Evette