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Pilgrims Way 2

August 2021
This route was supposedly taken by pilgrims from Winchester to the shrine of Thomas Becket at Canterbury . It’s an ancient trackway c600–450 BC, and in use since the Stone Age. It’s about 80 miles! https://goo.gl/maps/fCpCquPQbbttJszi7 Read more
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  • Ant TravelsPilgrims Way 2
    Day 1

    Winchester to Alton

    August 23, 2021 in England ⋅ ⛅ 18 °C

    After a relatively easy train from Slough to Reading to Winchester I’m here and the weather is cloudy but it’s warm!
    As I walked through the wilderness of this world, I came upon a certain place with a den.
    After a quick visit to see St. Swithun… Let’s walk !
    I find myself tracing the early beginnings of the river Itchen next to the path and it stays there for most of the morning as it develops into chalk based trout stream ! There’s an odd church or two and some Norman arches and the impressive stained glass window ! It’s a long walk ! 10 miles until lunch ! Close to the watercress beds and the watercress train line ! Through woods , across fields of alfalfa (and a barely visible path!) , and across a field that’s being ploughed with no path remaining ! Directions aplenty , redundant stiles ? and I only got lost once ! Tree lined tracks and eventually through to Chawton and Jane Austen’s cottage (which isn’t!) and day one finished on Alton ! Check the monitor 23 miles ???? Bath!!!!!    Read more

  • Ant TravelsPilgrims Way 2
    Day 2

    Onward to Guildford

    August 24, 2021 in England ⋅ ⛅ 20 °C

    As I walked out one midsummer morning … I was about to revisit old haunts of my childhood .
    Yesterday was tracing the Itchen but today it’s the river Wey onto Guildford.
    An earlier start and a bit overcast and I pass an ancient small cinema in Alton - it’s looked better but it’s still oddly there !
    Holybourne church and then it’s cross country and fields of wheat at least with a clear pass!
    Then a slight detour to check out an old courting pub - it’s closed !
    Back on the way I again cross the Wey at Coldrey and then visit the very weird mysterious Kew limbed tree growth ( over 350 years old )in the churchyard at Bentley where pilgrims drew water .
    After many fields later I reach the outskirts of my old home Farnham!
    Down West street starts with the graveyard I used to cut grass in and dig graves for the council !
    Then a surviving brewery ! The Lion , past its great days !
    Many pubs and shops are still there and bring back old memories ! The church of St Andrews is still as impressive as ever ! I’ve promised myself a beer in the great William Cobbett pub , birthplace of the great parliamentarian ! It’s closed ! Gasp! I press on to the station and down the north downs way which tracks the Wey , pass Moor Park House . I hope for a beer in the old fave the Jolly Farmer at Runfold- it’s very closed in fact it’s an upholsterer company ! In the shadow of the Hogs Back onto Seale and a very impressive church ! I pass an old primary school pal’s company - I pop in after a 50 year absence ! He’s still alive and well but not there today !
    It’s a straight road to Puttenham and hop fields !!! Back and being used by the Hogs Back brewery ! Very impressive ! A bit further and an open pub the Good Intent- afternoon beer ! The church here is again very impressive and has a porch dating to 1170! Passed by some fantastic golf courses emerge under a Lutyens bridge with two crosses to mark the pilgrims way! I finally emerge at St Catherine’s and Ye olde Ship inn!
    That’s it 22 miles - easier but hot! A night in the Angel in Guildford !    Read more

  • Ant TravelsPilgrims Way 2
    Day 3

    Betchworth or bust

    August 25, 2021 in England ⋅ ⛅ 19 °C

    There was nowhere to go but everywhere, so just keep on rolling under the stars …..or at least blue sky today !
    Up the hill to St Catherine’s ancient chapel of rest and back on the path and now heading east ! Down to cross the Wey which has been canalised to here ! Across the bridge and onward and too soon climbing up to St Martha’s hill only 750ft but ….! A view of seven counties and featured in the 1944 film Canterbury tale ! His knows how they got up here ! It’s a good view ! Down and across the fields of wheat, past an impressive Albury park house before reaching Shere ! It’s a beautiful village and site of a Lutyens lynch gate , the site of Bridget Jones wedding ! And most impressive a 2 inch Madonna supposedly a lost pilgrims staff emblem ! Abinger Hammer named after a 1557 iron mill hammer but these days commemorated by a blacksmith 1900 statue! And then .. damn …it’s up the hill to the North downs way ! And a great view from a bench of Blatchford downs ! Gasp!
    A curious but grateful track path passes many WW2 pill boxes ( why ? What were they defending up there?) and lots of yew trees !
    It’s a nice flat ancient trackway that eventually emerges near Debbies vineyard !! It’s the biggest ! Downhill to the stepping stones of Boxhill and then around to Betchworth for the night ! Only 17 miles easy ….but those hills !!!    Read more

  • Ant TravelsPilgrims Way 2
    Day 4

    East to Westerham

    August 26, 2021 in England ⋅ ⛅ 16 °C

    The farmers along here, have, most of them, begun to cut to-day. This has been a fine day; and it is clear that they expect it to continue…..and it continues but it is overcast today!
    So back up the hill to the north downs path ! Today it’s all up on the ridge with the occasional down and then up ! Still surprised by how many yew trees are here! Great views south and north ( in the distance the Shard and others ) . An art work commentating the wartime bomber that crashed here - marked by wooden wingtips !
    Passing through attractive Merstham and Quality Street ! Through Chaldon and its odd church from 1086 but with an odd mural of a Ladder of Salvation , drunken pilgrim and pilgrim marks ! Lunch at the Harrow, highest pub on the way and odd home guard base during the war!
    Round the bend a folly , Whitehall Tower ! Then it’s hug the hill and hope there’s not too many dips ….and hills ! Great views though !
    And finish today is Botley Hill , the highest point on the Way path and my bed is south so taxi and I’ll come back tomorrow to finish
    - only 17 miles !    Read more

  • Ant TravelsPilgrims Way 2
    Day 5

    I have been here before Otford

    August 27, 2021 in England ⋅ ⛅ 17 °C

    Far have I travelled and much have I seen, dark distant mountains with valleys of green!
    It’s still east to Otford and the end of the track or at least to join the London pilgrim track there - but I’ve done that already!
    A shorter trip today - back up on the way and a leisurely 7 miles to Otford! Paved track but good scenery and it’s pretty straight apart from the enforced detour around Chevening House - closed by previous owners , cannot be blamed on Raab but today why not! Fields of corn and wheat and the sun has come out ! A jump over the motorway and it’s almost all done . Cross the Darenth river , coming in from the north , and it’s Otford - the end ! Now for more conventional transport - a train! COYR !

    Why ?
    Well it’s a great way to see the country and history and geography and usually it’s off the beaten track and ….it’s fresh air, it’s also about time to think , to map read …,and it’s an endurance test and there’s a sense of achievement ! and sore shin!    Read more

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