08/01/2024 So, “here” isn’t where we thought we’d be…

Our downtown lease ends on 29th February 2024. The camino doesn’t really “open” until mid-April/early May. That gave us 2 months to “bridge” between packing up in Calgary and “Day 1” of our walk.

Allowing 6-7 weeks for walking, has us back in Calgary in early July, into the chaos of Stampede and just in time to pay summer rates while we look for a new place. September seemed smarter.

And so, “Supertrip” was born: March to August, with the camino nestled in the middle. Repurposing our rent and getting creative we could make it work. Our “secret weapon” is Hannah, an extraordinary travel agent who operates from Marlborough High Street in Wiltshire, UK.

Marlborough, a market town in the Wiltshire downs, was my parents’ last home. My dad died in 2017, my mum in 2021. Helped by Hannah, Carey, my mum and I circumnavigated Iceland. We visited the UNESCO World Heritage sites across Andaluçia from Seville to Barcelona. For Carey and I, Hannah arranged low-budget trips across Europe: Stockholm, Athens, Vienna, Amsterdam, Prague, the length of Italy, Casablanca and, of course, was instrumental in our Paris reunion after our 2020 Lagos evacuation. For a creative, cost-effective travel collaborator, we recommend Hannah to everyone: https://travelbyhannah.co.uk/

We will drive the jeep to Atlanta, park it with Carey’s daughter and her husband, visiting with them and catching up with other friends Carey made during his 20+ years in Georgia. We fly from Atlanta to Paris. We stay in Malakoff, where we lived in 2020. In late April, we meander, via Tours, Bordeaux, Biarritz to St-Jean-Pied-de-Port. From there, we walk to Finisterre (the “end of the world”), then fly to Madrid and back to Atlanta.

Finally, we take the long way home: via Niagra Falls, Montreal, PEI, Nova Scotia, Labrador, Newfoundland, Halifax, Old Quebec City… before gunning it West, back to Calgary.

In 2022, we drove the Dempster Highway to Tuktoyaktuk in the far North-West. This time, we take the ferry to Blanc-Sablon and explore the North-Eastern shore.

Man plans. God laughs.

Just as we locked-in Supertrip, we found our perfect Calgary condo: in Bankside; cosy, yet ample and with a wow factor; in budget… unmissable.

For 20 years, traveling as I/we did, my little London flat was my anchor. I sold it in 2021 to finance our move here. I mourned. We house-hunted in Calgary for much of the last 2 years. I always found some issue. Another acknowledgment of privilege is necessary.

I believed I made an irrevocable commitment, choosing to move to Calgary with Carey. In truth, I continued to hold back. Perhaps planning Supertrip “proved” life here does not deny my global curiosity/identity; perhaps, I have accepted I won’t work again, forcing a pragmatic reassessment; perhaps I just love the condo. I am finally “all in”.

We have had such fun already making a real, permanent home in this space. It is a commitment to each other, and to return.