Going On A Long Pilgrimage From The North To The South Of Taiwan

 

Going On A Long Pilgrimage From The North To The South Of Taiwan

It has been many months since I last shared my thoughts and adventures through this blog.

In recent years, I discovered that I have a real passion for underwater photography, and I have spent much of my time diving and taking photos of macro creatures.

It has become an all consuming passion for me.

I would wake up early every morning, full of energy and excitement, eager to go diving.

I would eat a small breakfast, so as not to feel nauseous, just in case the ocean that day was a bit choppy. 

I would gather my camera gear and lights, dress in my dive suit and pack up all my diving gear.

By nine in the morning, I would do my first dive, followed by an hour break and then my second dive.

Then, upon my return to the hotel, I would shower, rinse off my camera gear and let everything dry, before recharging everything, just in case I would want to do a night dive.

Despite the daily routine, no day was the same.

Sometimes, I did return to the same dive sites, but each time it was different, and I was full of excitement and wonder at the different creatures that I saw each day.

The ocean is so full of beauty and mystery.

I saw colorful creatures that I hadn’t even imagined existed, decorated with beautiful designs and having unique living habits and  behaviors.

Each day I would load the camera’s memory card into my ipad, to see how my photos had come out and what I could learn from the prior day, and how I could improve.

Taking underwater photos is a fabulous art form.

Taking pictures transforms diving into a more purposeful and meaningful activity.

I don’t just see the beautiful small creatures, I also think about how to approach them, how to light the scene, and how to get the best photo to show their patterns and designs, all without scaring the creatures away.

After many months of diving, we finally returned home to Colorado for a short summer.

We visited family, took care of our house and cars and fixed whatever needed to be fixed.

We did our best to enjoy the summer in the mountains, and plan and prepare for our next set of adventures.

Time flies, and soon we will embark on our third year of multi month adventures around Asia.

We designed a very long trip, that will combine alternating our time diving with cultural experiences, and taking a long walk around the island of Taiwan.

Years ago, before the Covid pandemic closed down the world, we walked with Joseph and Wendy, our friends who live in Taiwan, along the east coast of the island.

We had such a fabulous time that we swore that one day we would return to complete our long walk around the island of Taiwan.

Joseph and Wendy have completed their walk around Taiwan, which they did in installments.

We were hoping to complete the whole walk on this trip, but as I was planning our daily walks, I realized that staying in Taiwan for three months of walking, without diving, would be too much for me.

So instead, we will walk the length of Taiwan from Taipei in the north to the tip of the south, and then turn back up and stop at the train station on the east coast that we had arrived at on our first walk, with Wendy and Joseph.

After that, we will go diving in Bali.

We decided that we will return to Taiwan at the time of the next annual Mazu pilgrimage festival, to complete our walk, as well as to participate in the colorful and challenging Mazu pilgrimage.

I needed some help from Wendy, because the southeastern coast of Taiwan is a protected historical trail that can only be hiked with a permit and a mandatory guide, but it is only a one day hike for us.

I am both excited and a little scared to embark on this pilgrimage.

Excited, because it is all unknown to us, unlike our pilgrimages in Japan, that always feel like coming back to a familiar home.

We do not speak Chinese, and in many of the rural places we will be visiting, most people do not speak English. 

We are learning to speak a little Chinese, just enough words to order in restaurants and cafes, and to be polite in our communications.

My biggest fears are not related to safety or being able to communicate; they are centered around my ability to walk for many hours per day.

I know that I have the same fear every year before we start a new long walking pilgrimage, but I cannot help but worry.

Last year I developed plantar fasciitis on the sole of my foot, which made walking the Kyushu Pilgrimage painful and more fatiguing. 

Still, I completed our three month walk around the island of Kyushu, and during that time, the plantar fasciitis on my feet healed.

I did not suffer from it again until my recent visit to Linda, my husband Jules’ sister.

Linda lives near Washington DC, and on our visit, we walked daily around the Capital of the US.

My plantar fasciitis came back in both feet, and the pain was shooting up all the way to my lower back.

We didn’t even walk that much per day, only about 12-14 km, much less than what I plan to walk each day on our walk around Taiwan.

The doubts kept crawling into my heart….Will I be able to do it?

Linda mentioned to me that she had plantar fasciitis, too.

She visited two doctors.

One asked her what does she do for sports, and when she mentioned that she was a runner, he told her to stop running.

Instead of quitting her running routines, she quit that doctor and went looking for different advice.

The second doctor said that she should exercise the bottom of her feet by rolling them on a tennis ball, and wear a plantar sock at night, which stretches the toes backwards.

Linda has healed and now she is running again.

When we returned home from our visit with Linda, I bought a plantar sock and I have been rolling the bottom of my feet on a tennis ball every day.

I still have some time before we start the walk.

We first fly to the Philippines for a month of diving, before heading to Taipei, so I am hopeful that my feet will improve.

I am less concerned about Jules, because he walked last year’s pilgrimage around Kyushu island with relative ease.

He had no blisters, no pains of any kind and his spirit was good.

Like always, a walking pilgrimage is not an easy walk in the park.

It is a very challenging adventure, and an opportunity to explore both the outer and inner landscapes that we walk through.

It is a challenge to reinforce our belief that the mind can rule over the perceived limitations of the body.

I am using the term “perceived limitations of the body” because the body doesn’t have any inherent limitations.

It is an energy field that only appears real.

But even if you believe that the body is solid and dense, we are NOT our bodies.

We are powerful eternal Spirits, created by the Divine, to live eternal, powerful and light-filled lives.

A walking pilgrimage is an opportunity to see how wide or how narrow is the gap between what I believe to be this eternal Truth, and what limiting beliefs I carry inside me….

Wish me luck!

 

With love and light,

Tali