My Journey To Be A Tour Guide

I had to have 3 trains and a bus and then I would be at the boat to Ameland where my new adventure as a tour guide would start. Here I had an appointment with the participants of the 'Wandelen naar Jezelf' edition Ameland, a journey of Herstelreizen. I would be a tour guide from Monday to Friday for the participants, a midweek. I found it exciting, because I have never been a tour guide despite the fact that I travel a lot. The following questions were playing in my head: 

My Worries As A First Time Tour Guide

How would the participants feel? Did I prepare enough? It was not that bad and it is worth repeating I can say afterwards :-). The participants all walked occasionally so I could make hikes of around 10 km every day with them. Which benefited the variety of nature and the effect of walking on the participants. The walks were a mixture of walking in silence and the occasional conversation. I also stopped for a cup of coffee/tea along the way.

From Dreams To Deeds 

In addition to walking, I decided that I would like to give the participants a workshop from 'Domen naar Daden'. Many people have dreams, but they never come true. I wanted my participants to think about this and to act on them if they felt like it. 

• In part 1 of the workshop they were allowed to make a collage with their dream on it

• In part 2 they were allowed to come up with goals/action points to achieve this dream

• And finally in part 3 they were allowed to write down the dream or 1 action point/ goal on a postcard that they want to be reminded of in 2019, because the postcard was mailed their way in 2019. The purpose of this postcard is to give the participants a reminder of their dream.

Ameland

Ameland is a beautiful island with lots of nature and beach. It is one of the Waddeneilanden of The Netherlands. I was also lucky with the weather. The weather was beautiful everyday except Friday, the day I was busy cleaning and leaving the island. Which made walking easier.

The Reminder Of Their Dream

The participants were enthusiastic and had a great time. Repeatable. I visited a Herstelreizen group for a day that was camping in Deurne to talk to them and see if they were interested in the trip to Terschelling. I did another 'Wandelen naar Jezelf' edition in 2019 on Terschelling. There were more participants and 1 repeated participant. In this edtion it rained a lot, but I hiked in the rain with them and they were happy with the same workshops as in 2018. Unfortunately this was the last edition and my career as a tour guide ended in 2019! 

The Postcard

With both edition the postcard was sent to the participants, most of them were happy to be reminded of their dream and some even dare to tell what they were doing on their road to their dream and what changed in their dream.