Most commented posts
- Day 2 – Gone with the Wind — 7 comments
- Day 15 – Blenheim — 6 comments
- Day 6 – Rollright Stones — 5 comments
- Day 23 – Walking with the End in Sight — 5 comments
- The Day After — 4 comments
Author's posts
Jul 10
Day 7: Day Off
“Perhaps we should hurry as fast as we can? We had to go to a funeral of a friend today – for our generation is being called up. Our social lives are punctuated with memorial services and funerals. Around seven years ago there was a cull of roughly six of our friends: then the grim …
Jul 09
Day 6: Middle Woodford to Warminster
Salisbury plain proper this time, one vast hot frying pan with no escape from the sun beating down from a vast sky. Last time I was yomping across this plain was in the coldest winter on record, 1962/3, when I was a Sandhurst cadet trying to excavate trenches from the frozen flint and, as I …
Jul 08
Day 5: Farley to Middle Woodford, Salisbury
We slotted half an hour to watch the England match yesterday and the pub room was crowded. As England won, it was a happy occasion. Okay, I know I am a sour old thing but I couldn’t help noticing that everyone watching was noticeably overweight, including the children. As a follow-on to yesterday’s blog, are …
Jul 07
Day 4: Lyndhurst to Farley
Still scorching weather, getting used to it. Just as well for there is not a lot we can do about it! The country – long white roads – makes me wonder if I am about to meet Hardy’s Henchard on the way to sell his wife at the fair, thence to become the Mayor of …
Jul 06
Day 3: Brockenhurst to Lyndhurst
A steaming day with record beating temperatures. We walked, fortunately, down scrunching tracks that bisect the New Forest. Moses dived into every pool he saw. I met an aged man who, to my irritation, began the old boast: “I’ll bet you can’t tell how old I am?” Nonsense! I am always tempted to answer “104!” …
Jul 05
Day 2: Christchurch to Brockenhurst
Another hot and fairly humid day that didn’t start well; we found we were sited on a dangerous road with vast lorries whirling towards us winding round hair pin bends. What looks like a dainty and harmless little B road on a map can turn into a big bastard of a road in reality. And …
Jul 04
Day 1: Bournemouth to Christchurch
Five miles along the front with chatty and fun guests, we pass miles of wooden beach huts selling so I was told for at least £0.25m each. It’s a crazy world. We pass sad memorials to young men and crashed planes and continue into Christchurch. The men of greying Britain have been taken by surprise …
Jul 03
The Day Before
We drive slowly through the ancient paths of the New Forest avoiding herds of tiny ponies towards our first host. Our gentle hosts will have to remain nameless because if we begin to praise one we have to praise them all and any gradations in gratitude or enthusiasm would be immediately noticed and although no …
Jul 02
Two days to go…
We start by thanking all donors for their generosity. Without your support and encouragement ZANE would not exist. Jane and I started walking a fews days early. We thought it prudent to whirl our old limbs up a few hills to see if they could, once again, stand the strain of a new long distance …
Jul 10
Lovely words from The Phraser
Georgie Knaggs, aka The Phraser, freelance writer and ZANE Trustee joined Tom and Jane on the last afternoon of the walk and has written this lovely account on her blog: ZANE (Zimbabwe a National Emergency): walking for the forgotten in Zimbabwe