Category: Uncategorized
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Day 2: Pitton to Winchester (35 km) From the ridiculous to the sublime.
Season of mists and mellow fruitfulness,Close bosom-friend of the maturing sun John Keats – To Autumn One of the many treats of going on a 1,500 mile charity walk, is that it takes you out of your normal routine. It’s not every day that I can sit outside a tent…
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Day 4: Alton to Compton (32 km) Hop springs eternal
The hop that swings so lightlyThe hop that shines so brightlyShall still be cherished rightlyBy all good men and true. Hop picking poem – anonymous The day got off to a slightly disappointing start when I awoke to find that my washing had failed to dry overnight! Thankfully I have…
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Day 5: Compton to Dorking (24 km) Reconnections
When to the sessions of sweet silent thoughtI summon up remembrance of things past,I sigh the lack of many a thing I sought,And with old woes new wail my dear time’s waste: Sonnet 30 – William Shakespeare It was a short day but a full one in every sense –…
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Day 6: Dorking to Tatsfield (36 km) Stepping Stones to Tatsfield
A thing of beauty is a joy forever. Endymion – John Keats Mark Easton and his partner gave me a lovely stay at their house in Dorking. We stayed up chatting until well past 10pm! Mark sent me on moy way with another ‘Full English’ – my fourth of the…
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Day 7: Tatsfield to Wrotham (29 km) A “chance” encounter and other strange happenings….
Expect great things from God; attempt great things for God The Baptist Herald and Friend of Africa – William Carey I was sad to say good bye to Vince and Veronica Short. They were incredibly kind, highly entertaining and were also a mine of information about the history of Tatsfield.…
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Day 8: Wrotham to Aylesford via Rochester (34 km) Walking on sunshine and diet coke
I caught this morning morning’s minion, king-dom of daylight’s dauphin, dapple-dawn-drawn Falcon, in his ridingOf the rolling level underneath him steady air, and striding The Windhover – Gerard Manley Hopkins What ended up as probably the most satisfying day of the walk so far, didn’t get off to a particularly promising…
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Day 9: Aylesford to Charing (33 km) A day when not a lot happened and I mused on the abstruse!
Who, or why, or which, or what, Is the Akond of SWAT? The Akond of Swat – Edward Lear I found myself reciting the first few verses of Edward Lear’s famous poem ‘The Akond of Swat’ as I woke up this morning and pondered the question, who are the Order of…
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Day 10: Charing to Canterbury (28 km) Canterbury Tales – Plantaganets, Argentine railways and Edith Cavell.
‘A horse, a horse, my kingdom for a horse.’ Richard III Act 5 Scene IV – William Shakespeare Today was an early start so that I could fit in an appointment in Chilham and make it to Canterbury in good time to look around the town and Cathedral. I made…
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Day 11: Canterbury to Shepherdswell (20 km) Pinch, punch!
Journeys end in lovers meeting Twelfth Night Act 2 Scene 3 – William Shakespeare In some strange way, I feel that my journey to St Peter’s Rome will only really start in earnest, if and when I make it across the Channel to Calais. Until then, it is a bit…
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Day 12: Shepherdswell to Dover (15 km) Fond farewells
The sea is calm tonight.The tide is full, the moon lies fairUpon the straits; on the French coast the lightGleams and is gone; the cliffs of England stand,Glimmering and vast, out in the tranquil bay. Dover Beach – Matthew Arnold What an amazing night! I’m still not 100% convinced that…
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Day 13: Calais to Wissant (22 km) The kindness of strangers.
Dirty British coaster with a salt-caked smoke stack,Butting through the Channel in the mad March days,With a cargo of Tyne coal,Road-rails, pig-lead,Firewood, iron-ware, and cheap tin trays. ‘Cargoes’ – John Masefield As my alarm sounded at 5.45am I must confess that I wasn’t hugely optimistic about my chances of making…
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Day 14: Wissant to Guines (26 km) In search of fields of gold
‘Its eyes blaze and with quivering tongue it licks its mouth,which opens wide; the dragon hisses through its gaping jowls. Its monstrous head bristles with bloody crests, the rest of its body skims the boundless air behind’ Jacobius Sylvius – epic poem about the Field of the Cloth of Gold…
Pilgrim's Progress - Long Distance Walks in Europe and the UK 