Pilgrims Progress

It's been a busy week and more of it to come. I met with Dianne and Bruce Pope who are very keen to offer "refuge" to walkers as they go through the Chittering Vally. Dianne and Bruce have a heritage property near Blue Plains road that would be an excellent spot to have morning tea or an early lunch as you walk on to Bindoon. It also made us think about the future placement of resting points for walkers along the route. This was a subject that we raised at a meeting in Bindoon later in the week with a group of interested parties from the Shire of Chittering, the Shire of Victoria Plains, the DSR and New Norcia.
The meeting was principally about looking at alternatives to the Great Northern Highway north of Bindoon: and it's a big challenge! However, although there is no obvious solution, we are planing meetings with local land-holders to let them know what we are planing and to find out from them what is possible: whatever happens, it will raise awareness of the Trail locally and give us an opportunity to share our experiences.
Several other practical issues were discussed and the level of enthusiasm and support continues to amaze and encourage me!
Maggie and I then traveled onto New Norcia where we had a bite to eat at the Hotel and then had a delightful chat with Camel Ross, the CEO of New Norcia. I now have no doubt that we need to inform all walkers that if they intend to stay in New Norcia, then they will have to plan their trips well in advance: New Norcia is not equipped for casual "drop ins": there is no alternative accommodation: and public transport out the village is very infrequent! In other word, like all good trail walking, everything needs to be planned, down to the last detail, and that includes accommodation and transport, as well as good boots of course!

Pilgrims Progress II

On 29th September 2009, the leadership group of the Camino Salvado met to review the first walk that follows the current Pilgrims Trail. The Camino Salvado is a Pilgrimage, based on the ancient Camino Di Santiago in Spain, and is organised by the Parish of St Josephs in Subiaco WA.

Points raised were:

• The current Pilgrims Trail needs to be re-routed away from the Great Northern Highway north of Bindoon. Information provided since the recent Camino, and local knowledge suggests that the route can be rearranged to avoid all but the last 5 kms (approx) of the Great Northern Highway: ie on roads/trails towards Toodyay, travelling north from Walyunga National Park; utilising Julimar Road and fire trails and the Old Plains Road. Also, it was suggested that a route through Bindoon Agricultural College would also help avoid taking on the road trains.
• Safety is integral to the walk and permanent road signage through the Chittering Valley, to warn drivers that walkers use this route, will need to be considered: and all road walkers must wear appropriate “High Visibility” vests.
• Accommodation: Some was excellent and some less so. For groups in the future, paying a visit to all proposed premises prior to the Camino, and getting written confirmation of all details in order to avoid protracted waiting for facilities on arrival after a long days walk, should save a lot of headaches.
• Support Team: This was considered invaluable to the success of the Camino in terms of carriage of luggage, transporting pilgrims from and to finish/start points and ongoing support during the day. For future groups, it was thought that if 30 was the optimal number, then the breakdown should be 25 walkers and 5 support crew.
• Future Caminos: For 2010 there will be two Caminos to cater for an anticipated increase in numbers:

Monday 6th September
Monday 27th September

These points will be taken to the next meeting at the DSR on the 7th October.

Introducing the Pilgrims Trail - a new Heritage walk for Western Australia

On 5th September 2009, 28 People walked into the Monastery town of New Norcia, 125kms north of Perth in Western Australia. The journey was inspired by the memory of Dom Rosendo Salvado, the
Benedictine monk who had founded the town in the nineteenth century. It had taken the group six days and five nights to travel the distance, and since that first walk, well over 250 people have experienced the Trail in small organized groups.

The path they followed started in Subiaco, followed through to Kings Park the CBD and down alongthe Swan river to Guildford. From there it travelled through the Swan Valley to Walyunga National Park – a place of spiritual significance to the Nyoongar people who have links to the area dating back 40000 years. The trail then followed through the Chittering Valley and onto Bindoon. The last 50kms being along the Great Northern Highway to its destination of New Norcia.

Since that time, the route has changed significantly, and we no longer walk along the Highway, but have moved inland through Julimar Forest and private farms to the north, before following Old Plains Road to New Norcia.
The work of securing this alignment has taken a huge amount of time and effort by the volunteer members of the Pilgrim Trail Board - now a registered Foundation and a Charitable Institution.

The Pilgrims Trail Foundation.

We have now established a permanent alignment which allows walkers to discover what wonderful treasures lie just on the edge of the beautiful city of Perth WA. For safety reasons, and to comply with the wishes of the Private Landholders, we have limited Trail Access to the months of April through to the end of September - otherwise, heat, flies and fire are a real danger.

This year we have assigned oversight of the Trail Walkers to Inspiration Outdoors, whose website link occurs on this site. They are enthusiastic about their challenge and our Foundation believes this is a necessary "step up" in management to cope with the increasing demand for usage of our Trail.