Pilgrim's Progress – Long Distance Walks in Europe and the UK

You can’t be a successful Dictator and design women’s underclothing.’‘No, sir.’‘One or the other. Not both.‘ PG Wodehouse – The Code of the Woosters I must confess I wasn’t looking forward to the day’s walk from Villeneuve to Toulouse one little bit. After the tarmac crunching through the centre of Montpellier, I awoke with a…

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Faber est quisque fortunae suae Appius Claudius Caecus A day which began well nearly ended in disaster 12 hours later, the unlikely person who saved the day, being the proprietor of a Renault repair shop. I set off from my hotel in the centre of Toulouse with the sun yet to rise and made my…

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In truth this was a fairly easy day’s walk. The previous evening’s jollities had continued until well after midnight, and I didn’t start my merry way homewards the next day until shortly before 10am! Thankfully it was a fairly leisurely yomp home over familiar territory without the need to consult a guidebook, look out for…

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“To be a pilgrim is to be on a path of adventure, to move out of our comfort zones, to let go of our prejudices and preconditioning, to make strides towards the unknown.” Satish Kumar – Earth Pilgrim Barely a week has passed since Lammas Day (1 August). In this part of Wiltshire, on the…

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I have wandered over Europe, have rambled to Iceland, climbed the Alps, been for some years lodged among the marshes of Essex – yet nothing that I have seen has quenched in me the longing after the fresh air, and love of the wild scenery, of Dartmoor. The Rev Sabine Baring-Gould – A Book of…

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Crowded places, I shunned them as noises too rudeAnd fled to the silence of sweet solitude. John Clare I couldn’t resist a quick sneak around Holne Parish church before I left. From the outside, there is nothing particularly remarkable about the church of St Mary the Virgin, but step inside and everything changes. The medieval…

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Tom Pearce, Tom Pearce, lend me your grey mare, All along, down along, out along, lee, For I want for to go to Widecombe Fair, With Bill Brewer, Jan Stewer, Peter Gurney, Peter Davy, Dan’l Whiddon, Harry Hawke, Old Uncle Tom Cobley and all, Old Uncle Tom Cobley and all. Widecombe Fair I was packed…

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We are human beings first and last. Our religion is faith in Humanity – and there can be no religion greater than that. Satish Kumar – No Destination – Autobiography of an Earth Pilgrim According to the Cicerone guide to The Two Moors Way, a long day lay ahead. From my campsite near Witheridge to…

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Suivez vos rêves, ils connaissent le chemin. French saying The day began in Stygian gloom shortly after 5am. It was an early start – I needed to be back home in Wiltshire and beat the Bank Holiday traffic by 6pm. As I was cooking breakfast of spicy cheese ramyon, a shadowy figure emerged from the…

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The clock is ticking and there are now less than 3 weeks left before I set off from St Peter’s Winterbourne Stoke to St Peter’s Rome on a 1,600 mile journey into the unknown to help raise funds to repair the leaking roof at St Peter’s Church, of which I am the Treasurer. The walk…

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