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
- Day 3: Brockenhurst to Lyndhurst — 4 comments
Author's posts
Sep 06
Day 6: Somewhere near Kemsley to Conyer
Our guest walker is an eminent judge who spent part if his early youth in the British South Africa Police and based in Rhodesia.. We spent a happy time talking about the old days. I thought the walk would be too much for him, but we were plain wrong. At the day’s end, we walked …
Sep 05
Day 5: Lower Halstow to Somewhere near Kemsley
A long walk in a hot sun. Is there a bush or a hedge in Kent that is not nursing a rotting fast food container or an old beer can? All to the shame of the Kent local authority. Rayner Clouds “High flying adored”. Am I the only Tory sad to see the end of …
Sep 04
Day 4: Fort Apache, Gillingham to Lower Halstow
We left Gillingham and ended up in the village of Upchurch., The weather was a mix of violent rain and blue skies. But it was a good walk with lunch in The Crown and tended by delightful Cheryl with a megawatt smile and a bubbling personality to match. Compassionate Clarification I read in The times …
Sep 03
Day 3: Hoo St Werburgh to Fort Apache, Gillingham
All the rain that failed to fall in the summer was blown on us in a series of gales. .The tiny path led us by the side of where the Medway meets the Thames, and where both rivers meet the mud. The rain acted like a scattering of Vaseline on the cobbles so it was …
Sep 02
Day 2: Rochester to Hoo St Werburgh
Bright sunny morning, birds chirping, alls well with the world, we feel fine; the walk is going well… We asked our walk creators to ensure we have no hills, no plough, and please no frightening roads…. and Bingo! Is this a hill? , No it can’t be, yes it darn well is, quite the longest hill …
Sep 01
Day 1: Gravesend to Rochester
A staccato start in Gravesend as we wound our way out of the town. Heavy showers were punctuated by an African sun so we dried quickly enough . We walked along miles of Thames Estuary, in the past swarming with ships, today but a sad ship’s graveyard. Just imagine Turner’s tragic “The Fighting Temeraire”, being …
Aug 31
The Day Before
I reckon the reason ZANE supporters give so generously is that, when they read the walk solicitation over breakfast, they say, “For goodness’ sake, not again. Surely, they’re too darn decrepit to be doing another walk! I suppose we’d better sponsor them – next year, they’re bound to be dead… Now, where’s the cheque book?” …
Sep 09
The Day After
From Our Weaknesses… Sometimes, it’s not a whole poem that gets me – a mere line can be enough. I was reading “She Teaches Lear” by Iain Crichton Smith. It’s not a poem that touches me particularly, but then the third line of the last verse smacked me right in the guts: “From our weaknesses …
Sep 08
Day 14: Northwick to Stoke Gifford
Vets In 2017 I met a veteran in Bulawayo who was more or less destitute. He was living on a meal a day yet had served the UK and Empire all his military career. And he was dying of prostate cancer, and he couldn’t afford treatment. The services charities were more or less skint. So …
Sep 07
Day 13: Shepperdine to Northwick
A watery few days in beautiful scenery. Some of those who have hosted or walked with us (and they will, of course, remain anonymous) have related tragic stories of the conduct of their children or in-laws behaving cruelly towards them. Our friends are elderly and vulnerable and, in the main, widows. In two cases, the …