A second bout of sciatica stops regular work and with money running very low it’s time to surely find a way of earning a living partially from writing.  Fortunately for me my sciatica allows me to walk.  In fact the more I walk the more the pain disperses-so I do a lot of it!

Two years ago I spent months fighting sciatica in France and I walked for miles, along beaches, along the very well kept French pathways called Les Voies Vertes, (The Green Routes) and along numerous small roads.

For those that are unaware, sciatica is usually caused by the collapse of one or more of the discs between the vertebrae in our back.  The disc wall weakens and that is then pushed out against the sciatic nerve very often causing horrendous pain in the buttocks and down the legs.  Rest can help, medication can help, surgery can help.  This time I would like to find a natural way of healing.

So walking it is.  In  the late 1990’s I won a weekly prize in the Telegraph newspaper’s “Just Back” travel competition.  They still run it.  Pre millennium the weekly winner received £25, now it’s £200.  Due to the fact that I moved accommodation at the time I missed the cheque in the mail and never received my winnings.

I wrote about the island of El Hierro, the Canary Islands most Westerly Isle.  It’s beautiful.  An extinct volcano, half of the island is missing.  50,000,000 tonnes of rock fell into the sea leaving the other half of the volcano still standing.  You can walk to the rim and hear people talking down at sea level who are far off in the distance.  I remember El Hierro for the walks, for the mighty spiders webs that had to withstand the constant tradewinds.  I remember it for many things and have visited at least 5 times.

The Just Back competition asks for no more than 500 words and I figured I would carry on my writing career for the moment with a series of articles of just that.  (I earned £80 last year for an article I wrote about bench plaques, so the payroll is moving!).

I walked 10 miles of the Jubilee trail in Dorset today and yesterday.  I got sore feet but my sciatica behaved.  I have always believed that I could make a living from travelling and writing and it would be great to do it with the proper clothes, proper directions, cash in my pocket…and a willing readership.  I’ve got lost too many times before, run out of money too many times before, slept under a tarp, under a table or in a field one too many times.  Here comes the proper stuff.

And if you are suffering from sciatica right now, I sincerely hope it disappears for good, very soon.

Now to e mail The Telegraph.  They might just reimburse me!  I’ll keep you updated.  Cheers, Simon.

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