Searching for something is what we all do. Natalie didn’t think she was on a mission to find answers for her life until she stepped outside her comfort zone of family and familiarity. It wasn’t deliberate, but an accident. After discovering what it was like to be on her own and travelling without direction, she found herself on the pilgrimage trail from Paris to Santiago de Compostela. In Santa Cilia de Jaca Natalie experienced soaring in the mountains with eagles and vultures for company.
This is no ordinary romance, and you must read to the end to find out what happens to love in Natalie’s life. In the meantime, this is where she had fun flying with eagles. Clip #20 twisting and turning.
Some people on the Camino Way are on a Catholic Pilgrimage but by no means all. Natalie, like me, respects religion but doesn’t share in the practice of the faith. That didn’t stop her finding something inside herself because of her journey.
Clip #14 This will give you an idea of the adrenaline rush Natalie (heroine) must have experienced. Look this up This is the gliding centre in the Pyrenees. Try YouTube clips and you will see how amazing the experience is.
Market Street. Eastleigh. Houses like Natalie’s are pictured in blog 1.
In reply to the first part of this question I thought I would put up a link to Wikipedia About Eastleigh. This site tells you all about the old railway town and about the Spitfire connection. It shows you a map about where in the UK it is.
Eastleigh is 1hr 10mins away from Waterloo, London, by train; 20 mins from Portsmouth and the ferries to France and the Isle of Wight; 10 minutes from Winchester and right next door to Chandler’s Ford. Southampton isn’t far down the motorway, and from the M3/M27 connections you can access the South Coast and New Forest. So you can see it’s a handy area to live.
Oh, I forgot to mention Southampton airport from where Natalie flies. It’s a handy airport, but like all airports who wants to live under the flight path?
The community of Eastleigh includes a number of social housing areas. It supports a poorer section of the population.
The old houses built for the families of the railway workers are now popular with couples getting on the housing ladder and looking for a comfortable home, as well as people who have lived there all their lives.
At first it may appear an unlikely place to set a novel, but for the story I wanted to tell it was ideal. I needed a poorer town with lots of travel connections.
Older people remember Benny Hill, who lived in Eastleigh and worked as a milkman. This comedian was especially popular in America but not my cup of tea. He died in 1992. Whatever you think of him, he was a claim to fame for the town.
More to my taste is Colin Firth but we will come across him later in a Winchester blog.
Politicians have brought Eastleigh into the limelight for the wrong reasons. The recent case of MP, Chris Huhne, held the attention of the public like a tragic soap opera.
There are lots of interesting places Natalie visited and more photos and links to come.
I hope this blog continues to illuminate the book. I’m enjoying the experience of blogging with the readers of Marriage A Journey and A Dog.
Marriage, A Journey and A Dog 