Martinshof Story - Happiness - Awareness - Maps, Text & Photo series - Dolmen Tour - Travel

Wednesday - Monday, December 26 - 31 2012 (diary)

I exchanged Seasons Greetings with most of my contacts in Europe, including Pension Edorta and Rakel of Pension La Perla in San Sebastian. But will I ever visit that lovely coastal city again ?
I initially thought not, but after Paul Jnr's announcement that Walks in Spain is planning a new walking tour on the Camino route starting from Roncesvalles near the French border, perhaps I will.
Looking at the elevation profile from the French border via Pamplona to Logorno or Burgos, rather wets my appetite as much of the trail is down hill and the possible climbs appear to be smaller than the one I climbed this year.
I don't think I will attempt two walks like this in the same year, so it would have to be in 2016, if by that time I am still in sufficient physical shape to do it. If so I will be close enough to pay San Sebastian another visit. We'll see.

The political situation in the USA is becoming more depressing by the day. The National Rifle Association's (NRA) attitude is unbelievably infantile, even after a second slaughter of some innocent people (lured into a gunman's trap) this past week. Will these guys ever grow up ??
Also the Republican representatives appear to remain hell bent on saving their own re-election chances at the expense of the good of their country. In my view this borders on criminality, holding the entire country (and the rest of the world) at ransom.

As we end this calender year its gloom and doom all around the world wherever you look and the daily news is very depressing. In Australia at least the situation is not so bad although many businesses are struggling and more people are being helped by the Salvation Army and other charity groups this Christmas period than ever before. But there is some hope for the new year : a Federal election is coming up when hopefully the present incompetent and overspending Government will be thrown out.

Here on the farm the rain has been very patchy this month, with nearby Palmerston (10 km away) getting lots of brief downpours while we got next to nothing. But this past festive week things have improved and we had 64mm (compared to only 22mm the first 3 weeks of this month). This brings our total rainfall for December to 86mm, still only about half of each of the previous two months.
However everything here looks fresh and green, the sun is shining and the mango geese are quiet (because there is no fruit left to fight over) so that I can sit peacefully on my veranda with a cup of coffee and two sleepy dogs as company, not a bad ending of, what for me personally has been, a good, positive and interesting year.