Day 47. Pilgrims

I forgot to mention yesterday that as Septimus and I were walking through the streets of Alresford in search of Tiffins, we espied a walker, rucksack, maps and all. He had set out from Winchester the day before, on his first multi-day walk, to follow the Pilgrims’ Way. He intended to average 10 kms or miles a day, his companion had already deserted after one day, and he had just found out that the Pilgrims’ Way goes to Mont St Michel in France, not just to Canterbury. The key point to me is that in 1,300 kms of walking, in France and England, on major trails, this was the first walker I had seen.

Septimus went home yesterday, straight from the finish of the day’s walk in Brown Candover. This morning Gay ran me back to that same spot and I carried on. The Wayfarers Walk, which we have already found to be very overgrown in places, not showing much evidence of use, was a veritable jungle in places - nettles up to my shoulders (and of course wrapped around my legs) and far too much bramble over the track.

In Dummer I asked a group of young mothers if there was a café nearby. Nothing doing, but we had a bit of a conversation about VBW. One of the ladies had lost her mother to pancreatic cancer and has already donated via my JustGiving page.

As I was passing Basingstoke on an incredibly straight road which was clearly once a Roman road, another lady with a bike asked me if I had seen much. I think maybe, having seen all the equipment dangling from me, she thought I was a bird-watcher. Of course, in 1,300 kms I have seen much, so we talked about that for a while.

I marched on to find Gay waiting at Sherborne St John, as arranged. She was parked in a pub car park, so after I showered, we went into the pub and had our wedding anniversary lunch.

Then we plunged into Basingstoke in search of a PC World, where we changed the dongle for one which can actually do the business.

Today's walk was 21 kms. Total now is 1306 kms.