Magical Mysterious Mauritius

Walking the waterfalls

So we spent near on four weeks in Mauritius, alright for some we hear you cry, well actually we won't lie it was alright for us, it was great to be able to explore a place rather than filling our time with prep, planning and training!

We stayed with a local family, some friends of Cho and Deborah from Toamasina, Madagascar, who made us feel so welcome at their stunning home on the west coast of the island in a little resort called Albion (quite apt for an English couple to being staying in Albion, the old roman name for England). They hosted us in a room on the ground floor which came complete with bathroom, bed (obviously) mosquito net (not that we saw any or had the worry of Malaria which is rife in Madagascar) and fan (much needed to keep the room cooler during the hot and humid nights).

Staying with our local friends

Our days were mainly made up of chilling at the beach, swimming and snorkeling in the lagoons which surround much of the island, protected from the Indian Ocean by the coral reefs which make for some amazing sightings of marine life, exploring either on the local public transport, taking trips out on boats or joining walking groups to enjoy the stunning interior of this volcanic formed idile.

Leadership for Life training

We did share the Leadership for Life programme with around 40 people from a local church which we ran in the evenings after people had finished work, these sessions went well and we are looking forward to hearing of the changed lives that we know will come as they start to implement the leadership principles that we shared with them. 

Maz snorkeling 

We had two amazing interpreters, Mauritius being an ex English and before that French colony has a Creole language, who were able to convey the essence of the training, it being based on repetition, activities and actions which help those attending remember the key principles in a fun and interactive way.

The Crystal Rock

I (Tim) shared a word at three different services on the three Sundays that we were there, starting at the main service then the English service and finally the youth service, I'm not sure if that was all a demotion or a promotion! We also went out with the youth team into one of the more challenging government housing estates, something like but then again nothing like the RDP housing projects that we are familiar with in South Africa.

The island really does live up to its billing of the Paradise Island, not only are the hotels and resorts set out amongst some of the most beautiful coastline in the world but the people are so friendly, multicultural and multifaith, there is very little crime, a stable government that looks out for it's people and a sense of optimism and well being that we haven't experienced in any other African (yes Mauritius is part of Africa even though it sits around 2000Kms off of the South East of the continent).

Some of our highlights were as follows:-

Sundrenched beaches

- Taking a catamaran trip out to a couple of the islands, one off the west coast called Ile aux Benitiers where we were able to visit the stunning Crystal Rock and one off the east coast called Ile aux Cerfs (Island of the deer) where we snorkeled in the clear aqua blue waters and saw hundreds of brightly coloured fish.

The view from Le Morne mountain before the rains came.

- Hiking up the remote Le Morne mountain which provided us with magnificent views over the southern part of the island.


- Visiting the Aapravasi Ghat World Heritage site and learning about the Great Experiment which followed the abolition of slavery but which led to a new form of labour where half a million Indian indentured labourers passed through the Immigration Depot going onto work on the sugar plantations which still cover a large section of the island.

The remains of the first Dutch settlement

- Seeing the historic landing places of the Dutch, French and British as they each took control of what was originally an uninhabited island.

- Understanding man's negative impact on the wildlife of the island, especially the extinction of the Dodo.

Maz swimming in the fourth waterfall

- Joining a local walking group to take a half day hike into the valley of seven waterfalls, where we swam in the fourth one which was so refreshing.

Sunsets abound

- Taking the local public bus transport which allowed us to join the throngs as they made their way to and from work, or the market. We broke down twice!

- Watching the sunset over the Indian ocean knowing that Madagascar lay far beyond the horizon. 

Buying Ylang Ylang

- Buying Ylang Ylang from a local lady who produces her own essential oils which Maz was very excited with.

There is so much more to say but maybe we've said enough, other than the fact that we can't wait to hear the stories of lives transformed from our training and following up on further invites which should see us return to the island sometime in 2020.

Three weeks in KwaZulu-Natal

Not a bad place to spend a couple of weeks.

 It's been a month since we last updated the blog and as usual so much has happened since we posted about our trip to the far east. Today I'm sitting on a balcony overlooking the Indian Ocean on the remote island of Mauritius, however before we go into the reason why we are here we need to go back a week or so and let you know what we have been upto since we left South Korea.

After our long flight, it took around 20 hours, what with two flights, one from Incheon to Dubai and the second into Johannesburg where we spent the night before catching the early flight to Durban which also sits on the Indian ocean in the north western corner of South Africa.

At the beach

We had been invited to speak at the E3 Initiative annual leaders conference in Pietermaritzburg, but before that and before we share about the amazing work that E3 are doing we spent two weeks in Durban staying in an AirBnB and renting a car which enabled us to venture further afield.

leaving a legacy in the sand!

As you'll know we lived for six and a half years in South Africa but only visited Durban at the start of our sabbatical in 2015, so it was great to be able to explore a new area of a country that we have grown to love. The AirBnB was wonderful, a small self contained flatlet, open plan bedroom, kitchen and lounge with a toilet and shower, overlooking the Indian Ocean with a pool and stunning garden.


We spent most of the time finding local beaches where we could sit and relax, reading our books or listening to podcasts, each morning we got up early, to beat the heat, and either went for a run along the front near Durban town or out at Umhlanga Rocks, a lovely and busy neighbourhood with good access to the beaches, a few bars and restaurants and a two and a half kilometer prom where we joined many runners and dog walkers each morning.

Our home in the trees

One morning we had the chance to meet up with an old friend who we had got to know in London and who had visited us at the Village of Hope before finding her passion at a charity in Durban. It was great to catch up and we are looking forward to seeing how a partnership might build as we seek to share the Leadership for Life programme into the leaders from around 150 local charities that her charity seeks to support.

Driving through the game park

As we had the car we used it to explore further up the coast to the seaside town of St Lucia, not to be confused with the Carribean island, where we spent a couple of nights in a tent which had been built on a platform in the trees of a local home. From that based we were able to take two drives, one to the west and one to the east of the Isimangaliso wetlands parks which sit at the edge of the town.


We've been on many safari's before, both in South Africa, Botswana, Zimbabwe and Uganda and we think we've seen most of the things we wanted to see during those trips, lions when we were on a walking safari in the Okavango Delta, Elephants at the Chobe river, Leopard in Kruger, Gorilla in Bwindi Impenetrable National Park in Uganda but nothing beats taking your own car and just driving through a national park at your own pace, enjoying the wildlife, no matter how great or small and spending time just being.

Spotting animals in their natural environment
(these are Zebra by the way! ;-) 

As always these precious times come to an end and after returning our car back to the airport after two weeks we were collected by our now friend Sinatra from E3, who was also picking up three other people, a Bishop from DR Congo, an ex-inmate from Kabwe where we have spent a few weeks working with Driven Ministries, and a Pastor also from Zambia. As we got into the car for what should have been an hour long journey to the conference center in Pietermaritzburg we were told that we were going to take a detour into the Zula homelands to share a meal with some local ladies who are part of an initiative that E3 supports.

New friends from Zambia and DR Congo

We are never ones to turn down a chance to see new places so it was great to go and share some time with these dear ladies who look after around 150 orphans, mainly losing their parents to the ravages of AIDS. Their heart for those in need was tangible but after singing a few songs, the Zulu language is very close to xHosa so we were able to join in with a couple of songs before we had to leave for our home for the next six nights.

Sharing a meal with ladies in KZN

Pietermaritzburg is a very lush, green but hilly part of South Africa and the conference center was set in some stunning woodland sitting above the busy city below. Upon arrival we learnt that a large tree had not only brought down a powerline but also damaged the generator which meant that we had no power for the first night and well into the next day where we were being joined by the 40 people who had come to join us at the conference from seven different African nations.

Sharing at the E3 Initiative Conference

We shared the Leadership for Life programme over the next three or so days, encouraging the pastors and those key members of the charities that were represented to change their thinking which could lead to them writing a new story for their lives, the life of their finances, their teams and their projects. We are certain that they all found the programme valuable and it was great to hear of the projects that they are setting out to do as they return home to either DR Congo, Zambia, Zimbabwe, Malawi, iSwati, Lesotho or different towns in South Africa.

Financial Management is a leadership issue

These people are truly involved and invested in their local communities, providing support to orphans or ladies and men suffering from domestic violence or human trafficking, and it was a privilege to spend an evening at a women's refuge in Pietermaritzburg, which is supported by E3, before we left.

As always we set up a WhatsApp group for people to share their stories and we are already hearing of how people are applying the leadership principles to bring tangible transformation into their own lives and we are looking into supporting E3 and those that they support with further interventions in the near future.

At Mandela's capture site

Following the week long conference we were put up at a lovely little guesthouse which not only allowed us to chillout for a while before we flew off to Mauritius, but also to get out and run, one thing that I had been doing from the hilly conference center each morning, and also explore the local area. On the Saturday afternoon we visited the site of Nelson Mandela's capture, a poignant place in history, not of just South Africa but the world and on the Sunday after sharing at the local church we took a longish journey to visit Spion Kop, the site of one of the most famous, or infamous, battles in the second Boer war, which saw the massacre of over 350 British Soldiers at the hands of a much weaker (in military personnel) Boer force.

Mass graves at Spion Kop

We visited over the weekend of Remembrance which really bought home the sacrifice that was made by these young men far away from home, but as with all wars one has to ask why does man come to the same old solution to work out our differences, a solution that only brings destruction and heartache for many with little or no change in the lives of those who we are seeking to either protect or conquer.

I did write a detailed Facebook post around that topic but can't seem to be able to link back to it here.

Anyways as we said we are now in Mauritius for near on four weeks and will provide a further update as and when we have news, however please keep a look out for our daily updates via FB and or Instagram and we send much love as we sign off.

A trip to the Orient

The weather was perfect, most of the time!

We've just spent three weeks in South Korea, a country so different from any that we have visited before, we've grown to love Kimchi (the spicy fermented vegetable based food that accompanies almost every meal), we've learnt to use chopsticks (metal ones not the wooden ones that are found in most other nations), we've explored Seoul (the huge capital city), used their extensive subway system (only slight shorter than the London Underground), we also ventured out on the 300 kph KTX train, we've run and walked, climbed mountains and taken lifts to the sixth tallest building in the world but most of all we've made new friends as we shared the Leadership for Life programme in three other cities in this most interesting of nations.

The Olympic Park Gate and Lotte World Tower
at Sunset

Since meeting our great friend Yougmum Cho in 2014 when he visited us at the Village of Hope in South Africa we have becoming increasingly more connected to South Korea, as you may remember Cho and his wife Deborah run the amazing 'Love'nCare' project in Madagascar, and are the people we stay with during our trips to Toamasina. This link has meant that we have met many Koreans, both in Madagascar and also South Africa, it was via this connection that we were invited by African Leadership to visit South Korea to share the Leadership for Life programme with three different groups of people.

Maz teaching about 'good financial management'
as applicable in South Korea as in Africa!

You may find it hard to understand our decision to make a trip to South Korea, a nation who in the 1950's was ravaged by war (a war that actually still continues with its northern neighbour) and had most of its culture and buildings stripped as the Japanese ruled for 36 years in the early 20th century, but one that is now amoughts the most powerful in the world with a GDP that puts it well within the top 20 nations in the world, a far cry from Madagascar or Zimbabwe which have been at the forefront of our most recent of trips.

Floor sitting students at our time in Daejeon

That thought could be correct, but as we've found when sharing either the Leadership for Life or LEAD NOW programmes, we are looking at a problem that affects all of mankind, it's not a poverty in your belly or bank balance issue that we are looking to address as we help people to start to lead their own lives and in doing so bring about a wider transformation of their communities and personal finances, but it's a poverty of thinking, thinking that is hopeless and leads nowhere. We are trying to help people become the amazing leaders that they are crying out for as they often look to others to become the answers to their current issues and people in South Korea are as human as the rest of the people that we have shared the programme with be that in South Africa, Uganda, Burundi, Zambia, Zimbabwe or Madagascar.

Students in Pohang with poor thinking that leads nowhere!

We were based in a small apartment towards the east of Seoul which afforded us quick access to the subway and also the wonderful hills and their paths that surrounded that area. Seoul is a huge city, it has 2 million more people than New York or London but has almost twice as many people per square kilometer, London at 5,518 people/km² vs 16,000 people/km² in Seoul. However as we said the transport system is vast and very very well managed, everything seems to run on time but as you can imagine the roads are packed full of vehicles, and as always most cars are only occupied by one person!

Our friends Pastor Kim and his wife.

A Pastor and his wife who we know from South Africa were also in Seoul at the same time and they were able to transport us to our three destinations outside of the capital. Our first delivery of the programme was to a group of students who attend the Hangdong University in Pohang, a large coastal city on the east of the Korean peninsula. These students were children of Korean missionaries and had a very good understanding of English which really helped us share the programme. They made us feel very welcome and we stayed in a stunning guesthouse (used to host missionaries). 

Standard city skyline from the Highway

Our second weekend again took us south to the city of Daegu, this time we stayed with a lecturer at the local university who also made us feel so welcome, she stayed on the 20th floor of one of the many apartment blocks that are synonyms to the city skylines. We shared the programme with around 60 people at a newly opened church, a church with strong links to Madagascar so it was nice to see pictures of their trips to places we know so well.  

the policeman and his wife!

The final city we visited was Daejeon, south of Seoul and home to our friend and trip coordinator Jinseong who after we'd arrived off of the extremely fast KTX train took us to see a traditional Hanok village in Jeonju. It was here that we saw a stunning demonstration of Taekwondo (the Korean martial arts combat sport) by some local young people and got the chance to put on some traditional Korean dress which was interesting and attracted some attention from the locals as we walked around their town for an hour dressed up as a local policeman and his wife!

Maz and Jinseong at a tea house

We stayed in the local Presbyterian college over the weekend which was close to a running track where both myself and Maz went for a couple of runs, the weather was perfect, the late autumn morning was cool but sunny with little breeze and as such we both recorded our fastest times (since we were teenagers at least) for 10km and 5km distances. 

Some of the group who attended our programme

The programme was run in the youth centre of a large church where over 30 people joined us for the four sessions, it's a big commitment from the people who attend, each session lasting between three to four hours and although the programme is designed to be run over a longer period to give the people time to apply the leadership principles in their own lives, we are pleased with how each of the groups received the programme and are looking forward to hearing how they have started real projects for the benefit of others in their communities.

We were joined in Daejeon by Cho who was visiting his Father in the east of the country, it was great to see him and share a meal together. We also met up with Lenna and Paul, again a couple who we knew from Madagascar, it seemed that we were connecting with some great people again! 

the Korean bullet train KTX

Unlike Africa where the issues around poverty, rubbish, poor health, uneducated youth are plain for all to see, Korea was slightly different. A culture built upon respect, good manners, efficiency and productivity mean that on the surface everything looks fine, however once we got to understand the people and helped them peel back their reserved masks there was still a sense of hopelessness, a sense of trying to be something that one could never live up to, a sense of the things that you own giving you that a self worth that was only as good as those around you, a striving for that elusive thing that you could never reach, an expectation from the elders to become better than them via education, better jobs, faster smart phones and bigger homes and cars and the very fact that other people were dictating their lives rather than them leading the lives that they wanted for themselves.

During our days off, we worked mainly over the weekends, travelling to the three other cities on a Thursday and then sharing the programme on Friday, Saturday and Sunday, we were able to explore, as we said we ventured up the Achasan mountain, in fact I have the Strava record for the fastest ascent of the mountain which took in one of my many runs around the city. We visited the Kings Palace (Gyeongbokgung the seat of the Joseon dynasty built in 1395 but broken down to its foundations by the Japanese in the early 20th century), our visit coincided with a public holiday so we wandered around this extensive site with thousands of other people. 

Street march

On that same day there was a huge public protest which so happens to be taking place at the exit of the subway station that we had nominated as our starting point. We never thought we'd get out of the malay as throngs of older people made their protest against the current government.

Buddhist Temple just up from our house

We also visited the local Buddhist temples where we spent some time just sitting and reflecting on life and how we'd ended up on this crazy journey, we were served tea by a local Buddhist in his tea shop and enjoyed the opportunity to sit cross legged on many a floor enjoying food and good company.

Maz bucking the system whilst buying veg!

South Korea cities are an amazing blitz on your senses, the bight flashing signs above the shop fronts, the smells of street food (of which we will speak of in a moment) and freshly roasted coffee, yep Seoul has an up and coming coffee culture with over 18,000 coffee shops and more starbucks outlets than New York, people 'do coffee' at any time during the day but to spend time at a cafe in the evening after a meal is to be Korean!

More food.

.....other sights that take up your view along a street are the following:- Restaurants, Clothes stores, especially outdoor walking shops, people walking around with masks on, Fresh fish stalls, fresh veg stalls, no Coke signs, exercising in the parks for the over 50's on the gym workout equipment, people looking at their phones, Pet grooming stores, Nail and hair salons, car sales, hardly any european people, we think we might have seen a total of 50 during our whole three week trip, however one thing we haven't touched on is the food that we ate.

Maz up the Lotte Tower

We were in awe of the food, yes meat is high on the list of items that are consumed, with the Korean BBQ being high on the list, but for us the plant based eating was amazing, each meal was made up of separate little side dishes rice and or noddles and vegetable dishes that you could mix in together with your soy based Tofu, sizzling or not, each meal was hot and spicy (they were surprised that we liked spicy food but coming from England where Indian/ethic food is a staple this was great). Although the meals were healthy we are certain we put on some weight by the shear volume that we ate.

Maz at the city walls, she always seems to
be hanging on, shame she doesn't do heights!

To end our trip we took a day to walk around 12kms of the 18km Seoul city wall which was interesting as it went through a military zone and two very steep mountains, like much of Seoul, and South Korea in fact, the government is striving to rebuild the culture and traditions that were lost in the last 100 years and the reconstruction of ancient sites is a huge part of that. 

The view down from the 218th floor
glass viewing platform.

One late afternoon we took the 123 floor lift to the top of the Lotte World Tower, standing at 555 metres this is the sixth tallest building in the world, it was awesome to look down upon the Olympic park, home of the 1988 Olympic games, the Han river and the rest of the Gangnam district as the sun set over the city and our trip.....we will be back!

Some thoughts along a run......

Some friends join me on a run....

So I set out on a run along some familiar paths, kitted out in my trusty Brookes off road training shoes, with a bottle of water and a power gel just in case I get too lost, to venture over the hill to Whitchurch and back. 

My first steps are tentative as I make my way along a tight country road, there's no pavement so I'm already running on the crumbling edge of the broken tarmac next to the grass verge against the traffic ensuring that any oncoming vehicles are aware of my presence on what is their domain. 

Before I turn off onto the much anticipated footpaths I have to navigate a crossroads, once again I'm having to apply the basic road skills I was taught by my mother some fifty or so years ago. 

The day is warm and the sun is still low in the sky as I make my way out before the predicted heat. The hedgerows are filled with ripening blackberries which look all too tempting, but no time to stop, not yet at least. 

Just before I turn from the road I say a quick hello to a group of cyclist who are also making the most of this late summer weather. Its funny that had I met that same group walking down the High Street of the local town we would have passed by our heads down without an acknowledgement that either existed. But out here in nature we are at peace and have time to wave even during exercise.

At the footpath sign I turn left, over a rickety bridge, ducking the brambles their thorns like tiny hands seem intent on keeping my cap, I slow to make sure its still firmly on my head with memories back to my first school days where caps were mandatory (it wasn't posh by any means just stuck in the past). 

The path is dry, we've had hardly any rain in Buckinghamshire for at least six weeks, I keep a close eye on the ground to avoid the cracks, some hidden under the fresh cut hay, waiting to snare me like a unfortunate rabbit set for the pot. 

A stile awaits as I cross the field of spiky stubble left by the gigantic combined harvester that I'd seen a few weeks before, the yellow monster stripping the heads of wheat or corn like a hungry dinosaur that fascinated me as a child. 

I'm keeping up a good pace not wanting to drop from the 5 min per kilometer benchmark I'd set myself before setting out, although the stile takes up some precious time as I make my way up and over it searching for the signpost as I slow to reset my bearings as the path opens up towards an upcoming hill. 

Overhead five crows or they could be rooks defend their territory from a wheeling Red Kite, the six of them dogfight in the clear blue sky. The black birds seem tiny compared to the kite but it's their numbers and persistence that sees off the intruder. 

The birds remind me of humanity wanting to keep the status quo, the crows intent to maintain their land against the recently released kites, not seen in these parts for many a year, if ever. Why is it we want to exclude, alienate and ostracise those who are different... Fear I guess, fear of the unknown, fear of losing out, fear of not enough. 

I've taken a wrong turn, I had intended to follow the 'Aylesbury Ring' until the main road at Hardwick but instead I'm running across a recently ploughed field, thankfully it's not too muddy, the clods that could have stuck to my feet are hard as rocks but it still makes the going all the more slower. 

I come to a gate, thankfully not locked but the latch is complicated and once again I'm frustrated that I'm losing precious seconds as I fiddle with the rusty clasp ensuring that it's fully in the position I found it before running on with a little more venom to gain the lost time. 

a view up to Whitchurch

As it happens I find myself with a well known view, the white church on a hill, I'm running through a field at the bottom of Whitchurch and scenes from my day's of early fatherhood come to the fore. 

This path was a well worn out route for an afternoon stole with Maz and the boys but its a walk with two of my youngest boys that fills my head, being chased by some cows and my middle son threatening to return home the way we'd come rather than running the gauntlet between the black and white beasts. 

Up Mill Lane, at least its a tarred road, and one that I also know well. When the boys were young we'd race a homemade go cart down this steep hill, accidents were common but its the memory of my nephew careering into the stinging nettles that most reminds me of times gone by. 

As I near the top I see the grassy hill that once supported a great castle, Oliver Cromwell put pay to its existence, however the surrounding houses were built from its rocky remains so everything was recycled even back then. 

The castle mound was the scene of another of my runs, probably the last time I'd actually run around this part of Whitchurch, way back in the late 1980's as a young married man I managed to hold off all comers in the annual May Day race. The event couldn't have been more than a couple of kilometres long but I remember with fondness that I beat the local vicar and his eldest son who were great sportsmen in their day.

I head uphill towards our old family home, we moved into that house just a week after we were married in 1988, a home that had belonged to Maz' grandparents, her father remembers seeing the skies filled with bombers setting off to the battles of World War Two as he stood in the garden in awe of the power and might of those enormous machines. 

The house was our home, our fortress, myself, Maz and our three boys, a fortress yes but with an open door and a friendly smile. The cul de sac road had claimed many a fall, off of bikes or skateboards or a trip when chasing a ball. It's a home that shaped us, dreams were shared and plans set for our futures many achieved but still some to come. 

The top of the hill was a welcome sight, past the surgery where I'd been advised to leave in haste to the hospital in 2001 was a life threatening lung infection. I could hardly walk the 200 metres from my home to the doctors then but now over 8 kilometers into my run I pass with renewed breath knowing that some flat sections were coming with views across the Vale. 

Turning into Oving and past the recreation ground, memories flood in again as I recall a headed goal I scored down the far end in the last minute of a match against the mighty team from CBS records, or pacing the touchline as the player manager hoping that our hodge podge of a team could hold on to a win against our rivals, Quainton, in the Oving Villages Cup. 

I spent hours mowing the football pitch to transform it for us locals to play a fun games of cricket in the summer months, each player bowling two overs and having a bat no matter their skill to ensure everyone felt like they'd had a game. It was also the venue of my fiftieth birthday celebrations a couple of years ago, good times now long gone. 

Has the spring and summer of my youth passed me by I think as I run under chestnut trees with the conkers ready to burst in the autumn sunlight, I can still run but the days of playing competitive football and cricket have long past, my skills and reflexes wilting and fading like the once green leaves that fall around me. 

Down hill yippee, I can now make up some lost time, into the 4.20's I fly, I'm amazed at how my body is able to maintain a pace that two years ago would have seen me gasping for air after a few hundred meters.

After that short road section I'm back into footpaths, a stile, then bridge and stile greet me and then to my wonder a whole field of sheep, but these sheep weren't the type to run off bleating in all directions away from me, no there are more inquisitive and end up chasing after me, I feel like the Pied Piper of Hamelin. 

I managed to make it to the gate, the herd of manic sheep still on my tail, although they'd lost theirs and in their place their ears bore a unique number. I couldn't help feel sorry for these precious animals and told them so as I knew of their plight and method of death, a sort of macabre production line where they would end up butchered, packaged, prepped then roasted, carved and cut up to be accompanied with the traditional mint sauce as to provide a mouthful of momentary pleasure to another animal who you'd think would have more sense than to take the life of another. 

Through North Marston and past the church, once the third most visited during the day's of pilgrimage I heard, nowadays the well worn paths of pilgrimage tend to be the endless motorways leading to the out of town shopping centres and onwards towards shiney things and further into debt. These modern day pilgrims then spend so much time working to keep the whole system spinning paying off the debt which gives little or no time to enjoy a morning run or walk with family and friends which provide fonder and more lasting memories, at least that's what I think. 

The village is eerily silent as I run down the main street, past the pub, a scene of much fun and hilarity the night before but now shut, it's inhabitants and those around taking time to recover before the doors open to welcome the Saturday lunchtime crowd who no doubt will be propping up the bar in a few hours time. 

Two women on horseback come trotting towards me, I hope that they've seen me in my bright pink top which if they had taken the time would have informed them that I'd completed the Winelands Marathon in Stellenbosch last November but I don't think they noticed however they saw me and I wave to acknowledge saying a quick hello to the two horses who although sweating even more than I seem to be enjoying their time out. 

Now I have one last choice, up and over Quainton hill, which will be a test but might be slightly shorter or carry on down Carter's Lane, an ancient Roman road tis said? My choice is made, I'll follow this well trod path, along begone footsteps of other intruders such as the red kite I'd seen earlier and save the hill for another day. 

What have the Romans ever done for us? well they'd at least left a faster straight if not slightly longer route home for this weary runner who's pace was now under that 5 minute per kilometre pace that was the target before I'd set out. 

Turning right and up and over a short rise I could see our van parked behind some stables not far off across a couple of fields. My run was nearing its end but I still had to navigate over two cattle grids, obviously designed to keep cattle from straying and providing just enough trouble for a worn out runner so I tip toe over ensuring I don't slip as I have in the past into the metal trap which caused such pain before.

And so it's with a spring in my step and a final swig of water to ensure my body stays hydrated as I bound towards the finish, stop the watch 10 miles in under one hour 18 minutes, pick a few of those oh so tempting berries before a few stretches, a shower and breakfast await. The rest of the day is filled with the knowledge of a well accomplished run which had stimulated memories of yesteryear. How many more I will run is yet unknown but I've enjoyed today and that memory will live on.