I finished my pilgrimage as scheduled, on the morning on Saturday 12 July, when I hiked the last 7 miles from my campsite in the corner of a large windy field shared with a few sheep. Got to John O’Groats up there in the northeast corner of Scotland before the businesses that sell trinkets and refreshments to the tourists opened. But not before the tourists had arrived. I asked a woman who was part of a bus tour group to take my photo standing next to the iconic sign that I’d walked 75 days reach.

I took a few more photos and wandered around the closed shops until one place opened its doors to sell coffee, giving me a respite to form plans for the rest of the day. I’d given myself a whole day by booking a taxi for Sunday morning to take me south to Wick (where I would catch a train to begin my journey south to the Isle of Iona). I spent much of the day poking my nose around the tourist shops, taking photos, looking across the sea to the Orkney Islands, and waiting for the campground to open its reception desk so that I could claim a spot and put up my tent.

But I also took the time on my phone to create a little commemorative 2-part photo showing me at the beginning south and ending north extremes of my walk:

I posted it to the Facebook group I had joined where people share information about making this trip, and figured a few people in the group might give me a thumbs up for having finished.

Then 24 hours later I had taken down my tent, put everything in my backpack, and left the campground. I was sitting outside the cafe, with my pack on the chair next to me, waiting for the cafe to open so that I could buy breakfast before my taxi arrived. Off to the side I saw a man and teenager eyeing the cafe and coming in my direction. They stepped onto the deck and tried the door as they read the posted hours. When they stepped back the man looked at me and said “Well done on your walk!” I figured he had seen the pack and made the assumption. But then he added, “I saw it on Facebook.”

There’s your social media in action, my friends!

In the almost two weeks since then, that little picture and my brief summary statement about the pilgrimage have been seen by thousands of people (based on the number of “likes” and comments: right at the moment FB tells me the post is liked by Ann “and 19K others,” that it is weighed down by 846 comments, that it was shared elsewhere 69 times). I’m quite stunned by that.

Obviously most of the likes must have been perfunctory. Most of the comments are quick versions of “Well done,” “Hats off,” and “Good job, mate.” But there were some questions, some longer remarks, and a few people recalling brief conversations we had, or telling me where they had seen me as I walked. (I’d also gotten that last one a handful of times in coffeeshops during the walk: ‘Were you in ___ 2 weeks ago? I think I saw you there.’ or ‘We’ve seen you twice along the road. It’s so nice to hear your story.’)

My personal lesson at the moment is something I don’t think about much as a self-described introvert: people see me even when I’m not particularly trying to call attention to myself. People see you.

The other thing about that post is that a good number of comments came from people telling me that I am ‘an inspiration’ to them and that if I could do this at age 70, maybe they would start thinking again about trying it themselves. Maybe we can all inspire others just by doing things that, to us, seem normal and — so to speak — pedestrian.