JUNE BLOG POSTINGS CONTINUED

Day 62 – Lushnje to north of Kavaje: 21.6 miles (44,844 steps)

June 24, 2011 Lushnje to north of Kavaje 21.6 miles (Total: 682.7) 44,844 (Total: 1,289,056) ‘Life isn’t worth living if there isn’t a camera around.’ Carmen Electra I was very fortunate to secure accommodation in Lushnje with a local church... posted 2:13 pm 

Day 61 – Fier to Lushnje: 19.7 miles (39,124 steps)

June 23, 2011 Fier  to Lushnje 19.7 miles (Total: 661.1) 39,124 (Total: 1,244,212) “A man saves up his roubles and is finally able to buy a car in Soviet Albania. After he pays his money the he is told he... posted June 28, 2011 5:00 pm 

Message of support from Ban Ki-moon, Secretary General of the United Nations

10 June, 2011 Dear Lord Bates, The Secretary-General commends your dedication to the Truce as well as the commitment you have undertaken through your campaign ‘Walk for Truce’. Your initiative is significant, given the importance of... posted 3:51 pm 

Day 56 – South of Pator to Fier: 8.1 miles (16,921 steps)

June 18, 2011 South of Patos to Fier 8.1 miles (642.4) 16,921 (1,205,598) “Criticism may not be agreeable, but it is necessary. It fulfils the same function as pain in the human body. It calls attention to an unhealthy state... posted June 24, 2011 11:11 am 

Day 54 – Tepelene to Dames: 28.5miles (52,896 steps)

June 16, 2011 Tepelene to Dames 28.5 miles (608.7) 52,896 steps (1,149,397) “Do not go where the path may lead; go instead where there is no path and leave a trail” Ralph Waldo Emmerson The walk from Gjirokaster to Tepelene... posted June 23, 2011 5:16 pm 

Day 53 – Gjirokaster to Tepelene: 21.2 miles (40,195 steps)

June 15, 2011 Gjirokaster to Tepelene 21.2 miles (580.2) 40,195 steps (1,096,501) “He who joyfully marches to music rank and file, has already earned my contempt. He has been given a large brain by mistake, since for him the spinal... posted 5:06 pm 

Day 52 – Kakavia to Gjirokaster: 19.7 miles (37,351 steps)

June 14, 2011 Kakavia to Gjirokaster 19.7 miles (Total 559 ) 37,351 steps (1,056,306) “When people are laughing, they’re generally not killing each other.”  Alan Alda My first impression on entering Albania was to be reminded what a piece of... posted June 22, 2011 1:56 pm 

Day 51 – Kitsmata (Greece) to Kikavia (Albania): 4.8 miles (9,230 steps)

June 13, 2011 Kitsmata (Greece) to Kikavia (Albania) 4.8 miles (Total 539.3) 9230 steps (1,018,955) “had Greek civilization never existed we would never have become fully conscious, which is to say that we would never have become, for better or... posted 1:35 pm 

Day 50 – Ioannina: Campaign catch up day

June 12, 2011 “Never doubt that a small group of thoughtful, committed people can change the world. Indeed. It is the only thing that ever has.” –Margaret Mead Men (especially this man) have never been good at multi-tasking. This walk... posted June 21, 2011 10:19 pm 

Day 49 – Kalpaki to Kitsmata: 11 miles (22,132 steps)

June 11, 2011 South of Kalpaki to Kitsmata 11 miles (Total 534.5)  22,132 steps (1,008,725) “Show me the money!”  Tom Cruise in the movie ‘Jerry Maguire’ This was a landmark day—I took my millionth step on the ‘Walk for Truce’... posted 9:25 pm 

Day 47 – Asfaka to Kalpaki: 10 miles (986,593 steps)

June 9, 2011 Asfaka to just south of Kalpaki 10 miles (Total 523.5) 20,136 steps (Total 986,593) “A foolish consistency is the hobgoblin of little minds, adored by little statesmen and philosophers and divines. With consistency a great soul has... posted June 20, 2011 9:46 pm 

Day 44 – Amifthea to Asfaka via Ioannina: 12.4 miles (24,626 steps)

June 6, 2011: 12.4 miles (Total 513.5)  24,626 steps (Total 966,457) “A tyrant must put on the appearance of uncommon devotion to religion. Subjects are less apprehensive of illegal treatment from a ruler whom they consider god-fearing and pious. On the... posted 4:57 pm 

Time to give the Greeks their ‘Marbles’ back…..

The Acropolis and the Parthenon are to Athens and the Greeks what Nelson’s Column and Big Ben are to London and to the British. They are more than monuments; they are statements of what it means to be Greek. So,... posted June 13, 2011 8:33 pm 

Reflections on the first 500 miles of the Walk for Truce

“Any man who has examined and human nature will agree that there is no such thing as a human heart that does not crave for joy and peace.” St. Augstine, ‘City of God’ When I set out on this walk... posted June 8, 2011 9:55 pm 

Day 43 – Ioannina to Miliotades to Amfithea

June 5, 2011 Distance: 23.75 miles (Total: 501.1 miles) Steps 47,808 (Total: 941,831) “Love of beauty is Taste. The creation of beauty is Art.” Ralph Waldo Emmerson After a very tiring and occasionally very depressing few days, it was a... posted 12:36 pm 

Day 42 – Korydallos (Panagia) to Medsova: 21.1 miles (43,180 steps)

June 4, 2011 Distance: 21.1 miles (Total: 477.35 miles) Steps 43,180 (Total: 894,023) “Life is full of misery, loneliness, and suffering—and it’s all over much too soon.” Woody Allen Day 42 will surely go down as the toughest day of... posted June 6, 2011 6:06 pm 

Day 41 – Kalambaka to Meteora to Kalambaka: 4.35 miles (8,800 steps)

June 3, 2011 Kalambaka—Meteora–Kalambaka Distance: 4.35 miles (Total: 456.25 miles) Steps 8,800 (Total: 850,843) “If God had wanted us to play football in the sky, He’d have put grass up there.” Brian Clough, legendary British football manager Remember my ‘frying... posted 5:41 pm 

Day 40 – Kalambaka to Korydallow: 20.7 miles (43,180 very hot steps)

June 2, 2011 Distance: 20.7 miles (Total: 451.9 miles) Steps 43,180 (Total: 842,043) Hitherto I have never quite understood the term ‘out of the frying pan—into the fire’. The reason is that in one you end up fried and the... posted 3:04 pm

Day 39 – Trikala to Kalambaka: 18.1 miles (32,960 steps)

June 1, 2011 Distance: 18.1 miles (Total: 431.2 miles) Steps 32,960 (Total: 798,863) Today I got quite depressed as I wrestled with the intense heat on the Thessaly plains with my backpack on and just a long straight road 17... posted June 5, 2011 8:36 pm

MAY BLOG POSTINGS

Day 38 – Karditsa to Trikala: 13.8 miles (27,613 steps)

May 31, 2011 Distance: 13.8 miles (Total: 413.1 miles) Steps 27,613 (Total: 765,903) “Every oak tree started out as a couple of nuts who decided to stand their ground.” Author Unknown Before leaving Karditsa, I spent some time in a... posted 11:56 am 

Day 36 – Rest day and some thoughts on Football

May 29, 2011 “I would love it if we could beat them. Love it. He’s (Alex Ferguson) gone down in my estimation. Manchester United haven’t won this yet, I’d love it if we beat them” – Kevin Keegan, Manager of... posted 11:48 am 

Day 35 – Asimochori to Karditsa: 19.2 miles (37,804 steps)

May 28, 2011 Distance: 19.2 miles (Total: 399.3 miles) Steps 37,804 (Total: 748,290) “The race is not to the swift, nor the battle to the strong, neither yet bread to the wise, nor yet riches to men of understanding, nor... posted June 3, 2011 8:21 pm 

Day 34 – Domokos to Asimochori: 16.4 miles (32,078 steps)

May 27, 2011 Distance: 16.4 miles (Total: 379.1 miles) Steps 32,078 (Total: 710,486) “You live a new life for every new language you speak.  If you know only one language, you live only once.”  - Czech proverb I wake up and... posted 8:09 pm

Day 33 – Happy Birthday – Lamia to Domokos: 20 miles (38,122 steps)

May 26, 2011 “Except ye become as little children, except you can wake on your fiftieth birthday with the same forward-looking excitement and interest in life that you enjoyed when you were five, “ye cannot enter the kingdom of God.”.. posted May 30, 2011 9:05 pm 

Day 32 – Lamia: Rest Day

May 25, 2011 Distance: 0  (Total: 342.7 miles) Steps 0 (Total: 640,286) ‘The main thing is to keep the main thing the main thing.” Stephen Covey Lamia is a strategically significant city, overseeing a vital coastal plain that is the... posted 4:14 pm

Day 31 – Lamia: 7.2 miles (13,894 steps)

May 24, 2011 Distance: 7.2 miles (Total: 342.7 miles) Steps 13,894 (Total: 640,286) “There are two kinds of people: those who say to God, “Thy will be done,” and those to whom God says, “All right, then, have it your... posted 4:01 pm 

Day 30 – Arachova to Gravia (Parnassos): 15.5 miles (33.170 steps)

May 23, 2011 ‘A bird does not sing because it has an answer. It sings because it has a song.’ Chinese Proverb One of the facts I had not appreciated before arriving in Greece, is that it has an abundance... posted 3:51 pm 

Day 28 – Arachova to Delphi: 7.64 miles (14,477 steps)

May 21, 2011 “Look well into thyself; there is a source of strength which will always spring up if thou wilt always look there”. — Marcus Aurelius It may sound odd, but you arrive in Delphi unexpectedly. The road down... posted 10:57 am

Day 26 – Livadia to Arachova: 25.3 miles (48,601 steps)

18 May, 2011 “We who lived in concentration camps can remember the men who walked through the huts comforting others, giving away their last piece of bread. They may have been few in number, but they offer sufficient proof that... posted May 26, 2011 3:56 pm 

Day 25 – Aliartos to Livadia: 15 miles (27,900 steps)

17 May, 2011 The Chinese refer to Westerners as people with ‘God’s on their wrists’, always watching the clock and people who can always tell the time, but never have the time. I left on the 6AM bus for the... posted 3:48 pm 

Day 24 – Thiva to Aliartos: 14.3 miles (27,400 steps)

16 May, 2011 “The world is a book and those who do not travel read only one page.” – St. Augustine I left Thiva, the ancient city of Thebes, and walked out of the town past the museum, which was... posted 3:42 pm

Day 23 – Vilia to Thiva: 17.2 miles (32,180 steps)

Arriving into Thiva, the ancient city of Thebes, I was struck by the bustling activity around the town square—there seemed to be a natural division as to which side of the square you sat on.  On one side there were... posted May 20, 2011 12:48 pm 

May 15, Reflections on the olive tree

As I leave Vilia in the early morning, I am captivated by the early morning sunlight catching the leaves of a grove of Olive trees. What is it about an Olive tree that seems to resonate with the soul? Thomas... posted 12:38 pm 

Day 22 – Elefsina to Vilia: 21.2 miles (41,658 steps)

This was the first serious test of my shin injury. There was a long climb out of the port of Elefsina into the mountains in the direction of Thiva. I had started at 6:30AM, but the weather was too hot... posted May 19, 2011 9:02 p

Day 21 – Athens to Elefsina: 11.3 miles (20,905 steps)

I left Athens in far better shape than I had arrived. It felt as if the pre-tibial bruise was healing and the remaining discomfort was certainly manageable. I had jettisoned five kilogram’s of luggage from my rucksack, including all my... posted 8:47 pm 

Day 19 – Meeting with the Prime Minister of Greece

“Destiny is something not be to desired and not to be avoided, a mystery not contrary to reason, for it implies that the world, and the course of human history, have meaning. “ Dag Hammarskjold  (Secretary General of the United... posted 8:45 pm 

Day 19 – Hellenic Olympic Committee & The Panatenaic Stadium

“Respect, excellence, friendship, courage, determination, inspiration, equality.” The Olympic & Paralympic Values Day 19 and another rest day brings a wonderful opportunity to realise what the Olympics are truly about. I am invited by Spyros Capralos, president of the Hellenic... posted May 18, 2011 2:31 pm

Athens: the Cradle of Civilisation

“Had Greek civilization never existed we would never have become fully conscious, which is to say that we would never have become, for better or worse, fully human.” W H Auden Mythology has it that when the founding fathers were... posted 2:20 pm 

Day 14 – Elefsina to Athens: 11.25 miles (24,187 steps)

“When the freedom they wished for most was freedom from responsibility, then Athens ceased to be free and was never free again.” Edith Hamilton (1867-1963 recognised as the greatest female classicist) Sitting at breakfast, suddenly the American National Anthem... posted 8:44 am 

Prime Minster Papandreou receives Lord Michael Bates

An excerpt from Athens News, which is Greece’s oldest English-language newspaper and offers news on politics, business, sport, travel, arts & features and keeps an eye on community issues and hot topics for English speaking people living in Greece. “Prime Minister... posted May 12, 2011 9:58 pm

Day 13 – Elefsina: Rest day, and coping with shin splints

4th May, 2011 One of the consequences of my exertions the previous day was to wake up with a sharp acute pain in the shin of my left leg. I can hardly walk to the shower. I take some ibruprofen... posted 9:55 pm 

Day 12 – Agii Theodori to Elefsina: 26.5 miles (52,549 steps)

2 May, 2011 Set out at 6:30AM to make a good start on the walk during the cool hours. I knew that the distance to my next stop Elefsina was at least 25 miles which would mean 9 hours of... posted 9:46 pm

Day 11 – Corinth to Agii Theodoroi: 12.1 miles (22,469 steps)

2nd May, 2011 “Twenty years from now you will be more disappointed by the things that you didn’t do than by the ones you did do. So throw off the bowlines. Sail away from the safe harbor. Catch the trade... posted May 6, 2011 2:54 pm

Day 10 – Corinth: Rest day, and some musings on love

I find myself still recovering from the events of Day 8 and spend most of the day in and around the hotel dealing with email and writing. I wanted to visit Ancient Corinth up on a hill overlooking the moder... posted 2:49 pm

APRIL BLOG POSTINGS

Day 9 – Chiliomodi to Corinth: 15 miles (26,140 steps)

30 April, 2011 If our body tells us to stop then it also has remarkable restorative powers.  After the blackness of the previous day, I rose feeling moderately okay and after breakfast decided to set off walking back to Chiliomodi... posted May 5, 2011 10:05 am

Day 8 – Mikines to Chiliomodi: 13.67 miles (23,922 steps)

April 29, 2011 The great thing about camping is that you don’t need much encouragement to get up in a morning and this was certainly my experience. I rose, packed away my tent and was on the road by 7am.... posted 9:59 am

Day 7 – Tripoli to Mikines: 34.8 miles (61,248 steps) plus a wedding

28th April 2011 I set out early from my hotel and made a strong start to the day: first target was Nestani a beautiful mountain village where I sat in a bustling village square and as a stranger in town... posted 9:51 am

Day 6 – Megalopoli to Tripoli: 22.3 miles (44,154 steps)

27 April, 2011 For those who are following this blog and notice that the maths of the steps doesn’t always match an exact number to the mile: the answer is that this is the reading off the pedometer and reflects... posted 9:47 am

Day 5 – rest day, and why I’m not a loner

Rose at 7:30am for breakfast and then off to the coach station to see Sam on his way. I would miss his indefatigable spirit and resourcefulness which had given such a great start to the walk. What had started at... posted May 4, 2011 7:28 am

Day 4 – Andritsena to Megalopoli: 32.3 miles (56,353 steps)

We step out on our most ambitious day yet: the plan had been to try and make it to Karitena, a distance of just over 20 miles, but a chance encounter along the way and the offer to take our... posted 7:23 am

Day 3 – Andritsena: 1.5miles (2,150 steps)

Feeling the effects of the previous day, we agree that Easter Sunday should be a rest day to do those essential tasks of washing clothes (found my XXX ‘Black Mint’ shower gel gave a great finish), recharging batteries for phones... posted May 1, 2011 10:28 pm

Day 2 – Mouria to Andritsena: 28 Miles (48,617 steps)

Getting up from our marble floor was not a problem on Day 2 and after visiting the church and lighting a candle for our journey, we were on the road at 7:30am. We found the main road on the map... posted April 27, 2011 10:45 am

First Day – April 22nd, 2011. Olympia to Mouria: 10.5 miles (18,312 steps)

The first day was tough on account of two things that I should have expected but hadn’t quite: the first was the weight of my rucksack which weighed in at 20kg even after Jessica Green had applied a radical female... posted 10:36 am

The Kindness of Strangers

Responses to the walk amongst people we meet along the way are different in many ways and yet similar in others: We stopped on the way to Olympia in Tripoli, no not that one, the original one. We were in... posted 10:28 am

Good Friday Inspiration

“All of the parties accept that all of its measures must be implemented. All of the parties insist that violence must be given up for good. All of the parties recognise that this obligation must be fulfilled according to the... posted 10:18 am

A postcard from Olympia

“Of course, sport cannot impose peace, but it can contribute to inspiring it.” Dr Jacques Rogge, President of the International Olympic Committee Our starting point on the Walk is The Temple of Hera in the centre of the site of... posted April 26, 2011 3:53 pm

Thoughts from “Base Camp” . . .

“You cannot reach second base by keeping one foot on first.’ Anon. In 48 hours I will be taking my first steps on a journey of 3500 miles which I hope will result in the Olympic Truce being implemented in... posted April 20, 2011 8:00 pm