I’ve been on the road now for over two weeks. It’s hard to really be sure, but I think am getting used to my new life. When camping in the woods I’m not scared by every sound I hear. I start to like my own company and found a way to spend the day effectively. Rather than walking till 5pm and then rest. I now walk till about 8.30 before I’m done, taking a long break at lunch.

Then a couple of days ago I stayed with Onkar in Bonn. He thought, quite understandably, that would stay for two nights. I didn’t plan on it but found his company so enjoying that I seriously started to doubt about whether or not to walk the next day. When I woke up next morning a kind of restlessness befell me. I just couldn’t stay in the same place for two nights in a row anymore. Bonn also meant the start of a couple of days waking along the Rhine. When I saw the river in Bonn for the first time, I realized it was the same river along which I spend the first years of my life. I grew up seeing it every day. I swam in it and when the water came too high, I fled for it. It felt like seeing and old friend again. One that you might not see often, but when you do, you know the friendship is real. It goes deep in the soul. No questions asked, just being together. Now this friend is guiding me south-east on a new adventure and I trust her fully. Walking from the Eifel into the Rhine valley was a wonderful experience. I saw the landscape changing before my eyes and felt part of it. Looking back I saw the hills I crossed, looking forward the hills I’ve yet to walk. Between them wide open fields and flat lands. With the sun on my face in the morning, I know I’m going east finally. These are the moments I know that what I’m doing is what I’m supposed to do. No more hopes and dreams for the future, no more thoughts and regrets about the past. Both make absolutely no sense at all. The one had been lived already, the other never comes the way you’d hoped. All worries are gone and it’s just me and the road in these moments. I know some people worry about me, and wonder if I’m really doing well. Last time I wrote about going home, or at least thinking about it. This was just one of the thoughts going through my mind, it was no serious consideration. As long as I feel like going home, I’ll keep on waking. As the Rhine keeps flowing till it has reached the sea, so will I be walking till I merged fully into the ocean that’s called life. When I no longer feel the need to go home, or to anywhere actually, I might be ready to return physically to you all. In thought I’m with you more than you know. I and know the opposite it true as well. But still it’s nice to read messages and e-mails at the end of a long day of walking!