I started part two of CanWalk Number Three noticing the pool of blood.This is what the highway is—a place of living and moving travel but it is also a place of standstill, of frozenness and death. I am so impactfully reminded of this on this first day.

"This is what's happening today. This is the reality. It is the wave of the future," said Bishop Paul Bootkoski of the Metuchen Diocese, which is building the crematory. "We're going along with what our Catholic population is looking for."

The walk begins each day at 4 or 5 a.m., and Swami spends about nine hours walking 45 kilometres per day. He carries with him a sack holding his meditation beads, and often chants and talks to the Creator along the way.

The personable monk, who joined the Hare Krishna movement in 1973 and changed his name from John Vis, said he runs into a lot of cyclists and marathon runners, along with regular citizens curious about his exploits.

“Walking in the summer, it‘s when people are out and about,” he said.

“It‘s the real natural time to be there, and the really big part of this project is to meet people and get inspired . . . and to inspire.”