Background

In a couple of days, I shall be setting off on another pilgrimage walk.

Having enjoyed my Peak Wesley pilgrimage last October, I very much wanted to undertake another pilgrimage walk this year. My objective initially was to capitalise on the things I loved and found most helpful about last year’s experience and avoid some of the things I found more difficult! I love walking alone and I absolutely love walking from one place to the next and staying in different places every night. However, I have almost always used luggage transfer services on multi-day walks in the past to avoid carrying a week or more’s baggage and these are not cheap. Solo travellers will also be all too familiar with the disproportionate cost of single accommodation. I was unable to justify incurring the cost of what might have been my preferred thing to do. So, I lit upon the idea of staying in a single base and using public transport to travel to and from the start and finish points of each day’s walk.

I explored various designated (and potentially waymarked) routes but could not find one that worked in its entirety. So, I designed a circular route myself using parts of designated routes and trails. I am going to the Peak District again because the buses there are remarkably good and with a lot of careful planning it is possible to access lots of towns and villages (in my case, using my trusty Old Folks’ bus pass!). It isalso very familiar to me so the navigational challenges are less. I shall be staying in a self-catering studio apartment in the centre of Matlock which is a marvellous transport hub and has a couple of supermarkets so I can shop once and prepare all my own meals, snacks etc. reducing costs markedly.

So, is this really a pilgrimage? I shan’t necessarily be treading in the footsteps of known heroes of the faith or visiting lots of holy shrines. My answer is that a multi day walk (or pretty much anything else) is what you make it. The main objective for me is to spend time alone with God and it is down to me to make sure that that is what happens. Walking is for me how I can best experience prolonged intimacy with God. I shall not be covering vast distances or scaling any huge heights but multi-day walking is always demanding whilst at the same time, giving the days a simple rhythm and routine. Being in the right place to catch buses and trusting them to turn up as per timetables will be an extra challenge but one I am comfortable with.

I have felt quite conflicted as to whether it can be a “proper” pilgrimage without a lot more hardship! (We can hardly in reality think of it as “hardship” when people in our own country go hungry and homeless and people overseas are forced to flee violent conflict, are literally starving etc. so the question is a bit of a first world debate …..) Nonetheless, there are a lot of complex issues and it is probably no bad thing not to have everything we would like! At the end of the day, I am incredibly blessed and privileged to have the resources and the physical fitness to undertake what for me is still an exciting adventure.Read more