The Traveller

We saw him again today.  I think I have told you about him before.  We see him roughly every 6 - 8 months perhaps, usually walking northwards; somehow we miss his southerly journey, and we are probably not catching him every time he goes north.

Tonight I dropped the YFG off at her piano lesson with her friend and decided to take the EFG and head further north than we usually go, to a town which has an Aldi.  I wanted to get one of their four-bird-roasts for Christmas as I have heard very good things about them.  It was definitely getting dark, just after 4pm, and all of a sudden, we caught sight of him on the other side of the road, facing the southbound traffic.  

Now he is wearing a high visibility coat [thank goodness] and he is carrying bags, just a couple, but that is more than he had last time we saw him - perhaps someone has given him a blanket, or he has bought one somewhere....

By the time we returned along the road at about 5.15pm, he was nowhere to be seen, and we both wondered where he could have gone - has he holed up in a shed somewhere for the night, has he reached a destination somewhere in that area, has someone given him a bed for the night?  We had bought some food that we could have given him if we had found him again, but of course, we don't know if he would have accepted it.

He is an older gentleman of the road, with a grey beard and a weather beaten face. 

He feels to me like a Fenlander, at home on the road, travelling where he will, and answerable to no one.  He is mysterious and intriguing, and I would love to know his story, but I don't suppose we ever will.  Each time I see him, I am glad that he is still here, alive and walking, but I do wonder where he goes.