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- Aug 18, 2023, 3:50 PM
- ☁️ 22 °C
- Altitude: 14 m
EnglandDoverWellington Dock51°7’30” N 1°18’48” E
England
Day 13
We did it! We now have the British portion of the Via Francigena under our belts. Our boots, that is.
Sunday the weather was beautiful and we had a wonderful walk through large fields, crops and grazing, and small villages, finishing in Shepherdswell, a village with about 1,600 inhabitants. There’s not much there, no hotels or hostels at all, so we were lucky to have located a couple who put up pilgrims in their spare bedroom.
There is a pub, which was everything a pub should be, cozy, with a warm fire, good beer, including a cask drawn ale (hand pumped from the cask, not driven out by excessive CO2), lots of crisps (what we call chips) and very nice villagers to chat with.
After a couple of pints, we checked in with our hosts, who were very welcoming. They even posted a U.S. flag over the door in our honor! They served a great dinner featuring vegetables from their garden and ending with apple crisp made with their home grown apples. In the morning they served up an English breakfast: eggs, fried tomatoes, English bacon, mushrooms and toast. We were well fortified for our final walk of this year!
That was a good thing, as we needed all the fortification we could get! It was pouring rain for most of the day, and the majority of the walking was along or through farmers’ fields. Unbelievable mud and very slippery footing (especially for Karl, whose boots have no tread on the heels any more). The good thing was it was not particularly cold, not terribly long, and there were only a few, not very steep, hills. Nonetheless, it was one of the most difficult walks of this year, certainly in the top ten!
But we made it and arrived in Dover well before our guest house was open. Naturally, we went to Google maps and did a search for “pubs near me open now”! The first place Google took us was closed, but the second was open. It was a very nice place with cask drawn ale and good food. We forgave Google for steering is wrong to the first place and had a couple of pints and some food to celebrate finishing the Via Francigena in a third country.
Our guest house is very pleasant and our room has space to hang up our gear, so we should be dry in the morning for our trip to London.Read more
Traveler There is no sand on this beach. I dipped my hand on the English Channel, and it was surprisingly warm. The sun came out just as we were leaving and it changed the colour of the Cliffs, they went whiter.
Traveler Photos 12 and 13 are where Winston Churchill and King VI watched the evacuation of Dunkirk in 1940. I couldn't see France, but on a good day, you are supposed to be able to.
Traveler
Great pic