Barry Gepken, his girlfriend Monique de Haas and their dog Maurice started a pilgrimage to Jerusalem on June 26, but it does not go without a fight. During the hike through Albania, dog Maurice got worse every day, which necessitated a visit to a veterinary clinic. The animal was diagnosed with cancer. In the meantime Monique has flown back to the Netherlands with Maurice and Barry has resumed the trip on his own.
“We hoped it was just a virus so that he could at least recover during the trip,” says Barry. But when Monique went to the veterinary clinic with Maurice, bad news followed: the animal had cancer. “And what can be done in one day in the Netherlands, would take three weeks in Albania, so Monique went back to the Netherlands with Maurice,” he continues. Unfortunately, that turned out to be in vain. “Maurice could not be saved anymore and that is a big downer”, Barry gloomily.
It caused mixed feelings for the couple, Barry admits. Yet he refused to throw in the towel, despite the (temporary) loss of two of the three soul mates. “I will continue, because completing this journey is a dream”, he motivates. He once saw a barn that Barry built with his own hands and called it a dream barn burn to the ground, and this hike has to succeed no matter what. “Dreams are expensive and now I’ll finish them too. After all, you don’t just do something like that again.”
The fact that Barry continues alone and did not travel back to the Netherlands in Monique’s wake can be interpreted as ‘selfish’ and he understands that. “You can have different opinions about this, because it’s all very hard. But we made this choice together,” he explains. Moreover, Barry knows what it is like to walk without Monique, because she already fell out with a hernia at the end of July. “I’m used to something,” laughs the resident of Erica, who has now walked about three thousand kilometers.
Albania is now behind him, as Barry has continued his hike in North Macedonia, where he has settled around Lake Ohrid. “Initially I couldn’t find a place to stay there because it was a bit late, but then I came across a campsite and I was allowed to stand there,” he beams. And this morning he awoke to a beautiful sunrise. Barry already thinks North Macedonia is more beautiful than Albania. “I’ve even been invited to dinner somewhere, isn’t it great?”
Barry continues his hike for the next few days, passing the entire shoreline of Lake Ohrid, setting course for Greece. “I hope to be there in about a week,” he concludes.