Pilgrim Riders un anno dopo
Fonte: interna
Vi ricordate la curiosa storia di due pellegrini a cavallo pubblicata lo scorso anno?
Babette Gallard e Paul Chinn stanno ripetendo anche quest'anno il loro pellegrinaggio alla volta di Roma, con partenza da Canterbury, con una piccola variante rispetto al viaggio precedente: in bicicletta anzichè a cavallo.
Tra gli obiettivi del loro pellegrinaggio, che non è a scopo religioso, bensì benefico, c'è la raccolta di fondi per un orfanotrofio nel Togo-Benin, l'acquisto di libri per gli scolari del Madagascar e di attrezzature mediche per gli ospedali di Haiti.
Graditissima la sorpresa, quando li abbiamo trovati in scuderia ad aspettarci per un saluto, con il loro immancabile compagno di viaggio, il cane Vasco.
Babette ha fatto omaggio a Isabella di una copia con dedica del suo libro "Riding the Roman Way", dove, nel capitolo "End of the Road", parla dell'incidente occorso a Gwendolyn e del suo ricovero presso le nostre scuderie. Di seguito, una pagina di questo capitolo:
"...... Our minds whirl through a thousand possibilities but come up with nothing useful. Then we see a cafe where we can have a cofee and give Gwendolyn a break.
Inside the cafè the atmosphere is friendly and Paul has the brillant idea of asking the woman behind the bar if she knows of any nearby horse estabilishments. In my depressed state I am grumpy and sceptical about the possibility, but within seconds she is on the phone and summoning Walther, the local head of tourism and our hero for the day.When Walther arrives, everything seems to slot into place. He phones round, talks to people, negotiates with the owner of an equestrian centre in a place called Fénis, and then pushes me towards his car.
'You come'.
If only it could be this easy all the time. The owners of the establishment, Isabella and her partner Edoardo, undestrand the situation immediately and, with just a few mutually useful words between us, offer a place for Gwen to stay as long as we need it, a stable for Lubie until we leave, a patch of earth for our tent and, most importantly, a veterinary visit. Then, as if all this hadn't already exceeded our wildest dreams, she comes up with the solution that suddenly makes reaching Rome more or less possible.
The miracle is set in motion when she asks, via Walther in a mixture of french and Italian, how we plan to progress from here.
'Maybe one of us riding Lubie, maybe one of us walking on foot, maybe alternate days'. My reply is vague because we haven't really thought about it, but Isabella is a great deal better prepared than we are.
'Maybe bike?'
'Maybe...'
Then a friend of hers who is standing nearby sets the seal on the deal.
'My friend works in a bicycle shop in Aosta; she will give you a discount'.
Three hours later, Paul and I are the proud owners of a sleek, black, massively, discounted mountain bike that knows a great deal more about mountains than we do. Isabella puts it in the back of her 4x4 and grins at us.
'Now you get to Rome'
......"
Inside the cafè the atmosphere is friendly and Paul has the brillant idea of asking the woman behind the bar if she knows of any nearby horse estabilishments. In my depressed state I am grumpy and sceptical about the possibility, but within seconds she is on the phone and summoning Walther, the local head of tourism and our hero for the day.When Walther arrives, everything seems to slot into place. He phones round, talks to people, negotiates with the owner of an equestrian centre in a place called Fénis, and then pushes me towards his car.
'You come'.
If only it could be this easy all the time. The owners of the establishment, Isabella and her partner Edoardo, undestrand the situation immediately and, with just a few mutually useful words between us, offer a place for Gwen to stay as long as we need it, a stable for Lubie until we leave, a patch of earth for our tent and, most importantly, a veterinary visit. Then, as if all this hadn't already exceeded our wildest dreams, she comes up with the solution that suddenly makes reaching Rome more or less possible.
The miracle is set in motion when she asks, via Walther in a mixture of french and Italian, how we plan to progress from here.
'Maybe one of us riding Lubie, maybe one of us walking on foot, maybe alternate days'. My reply is vague because we haven't really thought about it, but Isabella is a great deal better prepared than we are.
'Maybe bike?'
'Maybe...'
Then a friend of hers who is standing nearby sets the seal on the deal.
'My friend works in a bicycle shop in Aosta; she will give you a discount'.
Three hours later, Paul and I are the proud owners of a sleek, black, massively, discounted mountain bike that knows a great deal more about mountains than we do. Isabella puts it in the back of her 4x4 and grins at us.
'Now you get to Rome'
......"
Buon viaggio, Babette e Paul!
> Il blog del nostro incontro, scritto da Babette e Paul, nel 34esimo giorno del loro pellegrinaggio.
A latere:Babette e Paul hanno raggiunto Roma il 5 settembre, dopo aver percorso 2.000 km
