For many years I held this fixed idea in my head that Pilgrimage was solely a religious practice, and therefore not of any real interest to me. Perhaps reading The Pilgrim’s Progress too early in life was too much for me at an impressionable age. As for The Canterbury Tales, I didn’t even go there, although in retrospect maybe that could have helped to dispel the dark cloud over Pilgrim. Many years on I’ve embraced pilgrimage as a means of gaining insight, direction and purpose in life – as well as quite a bit of fun and not a little adventure too. Although generally a physical journey with purpose, sometimes to a destination with historical, spiritual or transformational aspects, the journey is usually accompanied by an awareness of the parallel inner journey unfolding. This can add a special element to the process, an added dimension which gives life a mythological quality. This makes life more entertaining as a psychological journey to self-awareness played out against the landscape of an outer world. The reverse is also true of course, taking an inner journey with intent can then be played out in the external world with sometimes surprising results, which becomes a self-reinforcing concept of the intertwining nature of the inner and outer worlds. And along the way I get to make photos  that interest me.