3.7 – average speed in km/h for #MyLongWalk2019 including all stops
4 – municipal albergues stayed in
4 – Spanish autonomous regions walked through
5 – 3* or 4* hotels stayed in
7 – Spanish provincias walked through
10 – number of kms in taxi to avoid Burgos airport and industrial estates
20 – number of albergues privado stayed in
28 – number of km missed on day I was too ill to walk.
30 – total number of days walked
34 – total number of pilgrim nationalities I walked with
108 – total number of sellos in credencial
118 – number of Camino hierro photos taken (drain covers)
200 – plus 22 minutes is total hours walked
738.87 – total km walked
1,164 – total number of photos taken on #MyLongWalk2019
13,029 – total amount of vertical ascent in metres
1,165,635 – total number of steps walked on #MyLongWalk2019
As for today’s walk… very short. Into city past the random starfish and into an empty Praza do Obradoiro. Later it was packed. Picked up Compostela. Went back to Albergue and lay down after a shower. 4 hours later I woke. Unscheduled siesta. Body obviously needed it.
5km from the end of my 750km #MyLongWalk2019 and I am staying in one of the more surreal places of the whole walk. It is now called Benvido Monte de Gozo but many experienced pilgrims refer to it disaffectionately as ‘prison camp’ or ‘refugee camp’. It is currently undergoing a massive overhaul and I am staying in one of the first refurbished Pabellons. The whole complex was built in 1993 for a Holy Year (this is any year when St James’s Day falls on a Sunday. It is July 25th. and the next one is 2021, these years are known as Xacabeo, hence the massive overhaul and obras). The creation of this auditorium and accomodation complex was also to co-incide with a Papal visit and the hundreds of thousands extra that this attracted. In a Holy Year there will be up to 3 times more pilgrims than a normal year. This may be over a million in 2021.
Monte de Gozo is the last hill before Santiago and translates as Mount of Joy, ancient pilgrims got their first thrilling glimpse of the cathedral as they walked down it’s slopes. Now you have to struggle to the very top to peer round the trees and development to make out the three spires in the hazy distance.
The pabellons or blocks as they really are, strike me as somewhere between a POW camp and Butlins – must add never been to either! Be assured my particular block has been refurbished and is fine. Work is ongoing on many of the other blocks. Four of them will remain Albergue Municipal rather than the privately run Benvido ones. Currently it’s facilities run to an ATM, a lavanderia (automatic laundry) and a very nice Estrella Galicia Bodega bar.
There is also a swimming pool complex and a massive auditorium, which was the venue for shenanigans on Lisa and my last visit to Santiago. To avoid Reading Festival we flew on to La Coruña and drove down here only to be kept awake by a full-on music festival at Monte de Gozo, headlined by Muse, light show, fireworks the lot!
It will, no doubt be much better when it is finished being renovated. The manager told me that will be in time for 2020 season, then the Holy Year onslaught that will follow in 2021. There are already signs of more on offer for future pilgrims who decide to rest up here at the ‘holding pen’, so they can walk the last 5km into the Praza do Obradoiro the next morning.
As for today’s walk…. it was the longest of the Camino for me. Most of the Turismegrinos stayed at Pedrouza which means a 20km+ walk tomorrow. I’ll be done and dusted, with Compostela in hand, well before they arrive. I set off well before dawn and a sneakily walked behind a French couple who were wearing head torches! Today’s odd stuff included a bar decorated entirely with Peregrino branded beer bottles; discarded shoes used as plant pots; a nice hierro; a bar proudly showing off the cross of Galicia; a massive frog; a caged pilgrim? and of course some cows.
Other than the flecha amarillo the most common symbol on the Camino is the scallop shell (or it’s diagramatic equivalent). They dangle from 99.9% of peregrino’s rucksacks for starters. Even the Decathlon kitted out Turismegrinos have theirs, all bright, white and new.
Mine hangs from my bag too, slightly irreverantly and seemingly quite unique on the Camino. Being black, rather than white, as is the norm. In Estella/Lizarra – way back in Navarra – a man who sold scallop shells, walking sticks and other Camino paraphernalia, chased after me to ask why I had painted my shell black. I told him I found it on the beach in Doñana and it was that colour naturally. He did not seem convinced. I am however, very pleased to have a shell that stands out from the crowd.
It is the other manifestations the shell takes as I walk the Camino that fascinate. Local councils use it with aplomb, private individuals decorate their homes with it, and obviously businesses that thrive on it, show it off proudly. It truly shows how much the people who live and work on The Way love the Camino.
As for today’s walk … long and busy. 34km. But now I am so close to Santiago it is just a case of getting the kilometres done. 34km more tomorrow and I’ll be virtually within sight of the Santiago cathedral towers. Today’s random assortment of unexpected things the Camino threw at me included; a strange piano keyboard to illustrate chemistry’s periodic table; a much more pleasant road sign for Santiago; more cows; the Guardia Civil’s mounted cavalry keeping the Camino safe; some amazing pulpo gallego in Melide that lived up to guidebook claims plus a house that someone is very lucky to live in.
Say what you like about the masses of peregrinos that join the Camino at Sarria but they have certainly spent a huge amount of money in Decathlon in order to complete their 118km hike. There can’t be many small rucksacks left in the stores in Spain at this time of year. Almost everyone carrying one has the tell tale squiggle and Quecha emblazoned the nylon backpack.
Before I continue with this post, I confess I am walking in Decathlon shorts everyday on Camino, I also use their walking poles and one of my three pairs of socks are also their brand. I also possess, as does almost every pilgrim I have encountered at albergues, one of their microfibre, quick-drying towels. The washing lines are jam-packed with a multi-coloured patchwork of them, green ones, orange, real, blue purple, black, red, pink, yellow – there seems to be no end to combination of towel and trim. They dry very quickly, but are not great at their primary purpose of drying the body! This great multi-coloured Quecha invasion was evident from the moment I walked out of Sarria on Sunday. The bright array of coloured backpack rain covers was a sight to behold. They stretched as far as the eye could see. Moving like a giant, sponsored, multi-coloured worm into the mist and rain.
Today was the same, this time, as it was dry, the bags were uncovered and the colours slightly toned down. But I estimate over 75% of bags too small to have walked further than from Sarria were Quecha on the Camino today. There was also a huge proportion of these Sarria 118km pilgrims wearing Quecha or other Decathlon branded clothing and shoes. The sportswear megolith is taking over the Camino.
As for today’s walk … nice to be back to dry walking. It was certainly the coolest day of my Camino thus far, the sun broke through occasionally but the warmth was checked by a chilly wind. I kept my arm sleeves on all day. It is supposed to be heating up again through the week. Scenery wise today was like walking in the West Country – sometimes almost moorland, others times pine forest but all the time very, very green with lots of heather and gorse. Some horreos, crossed the rio Miño, which further west becomes the border with Portugal, a weird tortoise and an abandoned Bianchi : but most of all, all day ‘Tourismegrinos’ everywhere. Again queues for coffee were mind blowing compared to previous 3 and a half weeks. Very pretty little albergue for tonight – Paso de Formiga – Just 12 beds and not a bunk in sight!
34km tomorrow to get to Arzua, famous for it’s cheese apparently. Regarding the walk itself, just for some perspective, if I had walked north from Reading I would now be past Aberdeen!
As I write this the big countdown number on the blog says 36 days till #MyLongWalk2019 – it only seems like yesterday I booked my flight to Biarritz – booked on January 9th! In fact, it doesn’t seem that long ago that I decided that the end of July 2019 was the time to set off – I think I finally committed after my last cycle trip abroad last July!
June has been a chance to get some walking in – and finally decide on which of the three pairs of shoes I have been ‘wearing in’ I will actually walk the Camino in. More of that later!
Back at the end of May I went for 2 days walking in Belgium with the aim of finding the grave of Sydney Henry George (see previous post Practice and a very personal pilgrimage). The Commonwealth War Graves of Ypres (Ieper) and the surrounding Flanders countryside are some of the most beautiful, yet thought-provoking, places I have ever been. They are also places for contemplation and gratitude for the greatest of sacrifice that allows people like me to go on Camino. I found Private George’s name on the Tyne Cot Memorial and laid a small stone from our garden at the base of the panel his name appears on. I was also privileged and humbled to attend – on two occasions – The Last Post ceremony at the Menen Gate in Ieper.
Tyne Cot gate
Tyne Cot
Sydney Henry George RIP
The Last Post, Menen Gate, Ieper
After allowing my feet a couple of weeks to recover (the 5° wedges given to me to insert into my shoes by the podiatrist gave me incredibly sore heels – we have dropped down to 3° now and all seems fine!) I headed out on a hike on another of the great ancient routes that are local to Reading, The Ridgeway. A beautiful walk from Goring to Didcot via the chalk downland trail, then down to Blewbury before train home.
This past weekend I managed a double header – walking both Saturday and Sunday – although both were a little shy of 20km! Firstly it was the latest leg of the St James Way trail with the ‘Reading peregrinos’ from Kings Worthy to Eastleigh via Winchester Cathedral, The Hospital of St Cross and the Itchen Way. A fine day out with surprise appearances from The Flying Scotsman, a Model T Ford and a Spitfire! Sunday was also spent walking a riverside trail – the Blackwater Valley Path from Shinfield to Crowthorne.
Finally, the shoe dilemma appears to have been resolved. It appears that the shoes that are most comfortable and create no hotspots, blisters or sore toes are my Hoka One One Challengers. These are actually running shoes but, as I have discovered on many forums, they are sworn by for many Camino veterans.
Hoka One One Challenger – my Camino shoe of choice, eventually!
As Dave Grohl says at the start of the classic Best of You -“I’ve got another confession to make” – well I have a confession to make rather than another one! I have a pretty nerdy fascination with something rather trampled on and mundane. The humble Spanish manhole cover.
Each city and town – and many villages too – seems to have a specially designed and forged design on the theirs . It looks like civic pride amongst Spanish manhole cover designers may be bordering on competitive! So on my camino I will be trying to chronicle all the civic ironworks that I see (or tread on) during the 800km hike. I have posted a couple of examples from previous trips to show the variety of designs from simple to quite intricate! The photos will be on my google album which can be found here IRONWORKS PHOTOS
Almeria
Oviedo
Merida
Palos de Frontera
Another thing to distract me from the large number of days, kms and steps remaining till I can find a manhole cover in the great Cathedral square of Santiago de Compostela.
Over the last couple of months I have been, along with the good folk of St James Church here in Reading, walking sections of the St James Way here in the south of England. History tells us that pilgrims from England travelled to Southampton and Portsmouth to take ships to north west Spain and complete their journey to Santiago on the Camino Ingles from Ferrol. Their exact route is not known but it is well documented that a great many medieval pilgrims convened at Reading Abbey – where there was something of a “cult of St James” in evidence – and walked south via Silchester, Itchen Abbas and Winchester to Southampton or Portsmouth.
The wonderful people at the Confraternity of St James (now rebranded as Camino Pilgrim) took it on themselves to create and map a route from the ruins of the great abbey at Reading to Southampton. Sticking closely to the presumed route and trying to visit churches dedicated to St James en route, the St James Way was born. A growing network of pilgrim passport stamp locations is being developed so that pilgrims can document this before their continental hike. These are initially churches on the route.
We have split the route into 6 days walking – three of which are already completed.
Reading – Mortimer (stamps at St James, Reading & St Marys Sulhampstead Abbots)
Mortimer – Worting (stamps at St Mary the Virgin, Silchester & St James, Bramley)
Worting – Upper Wield (stamps at All Saints, Dummer & St James, Upper Wield)
Upper Wield – Kings Worthy
Kings Worthy – Eastleigh
Eastleigh – Southampton
Hopefully there will be more stamps to add as we progress.
The St James Way, for the most part, follows footpaths and bridleways, with short sections on quiet country lanes. It is not, at present signposted, but a guidebook is available from the Camino Pilgrim shop.
After plenty of practice hiking around Reading I had become a little disheartened … having ridden the quiet lanes and back roads of the Thames Valley for 20 years I recognise where I am pretty quickly. This was very hard to deal with when following a trail for an hour or so to come out somewhere I knew and would have been reached in quick time by bike.
So in order to break this cycle I decided to head away for a couple of days. I booked return ticket to Kemble (15 minutes north of Swindon on the train) then set about working out a couple of hikes.
Wanted to do 25km+ each day and find somewhere nice to stay and eat. I looked at the Thames Path and found The Old Spotted Cow at Marston Meysey which was at 30km from Kemble. Ideal. So walks were sorted. Thames Path on day one via Cricklade and back slightly further north via Cirencester. 28km back. Perfect.
So after an early train from Reading to Kemble I easily found my way to the Thames Path – straight away I was amazed that the river that flows through Reading and onto London was merely a burbling, crystal-clear stream here in south Gloucestershire. No more than inches deep and a few feet wide.
The Thames at Kemble – some 300km from where it eventually enters the North Sea!
I was using this two-day walk to try out walking poles for the first time. I popped into Decathlon and picked up a pair the day before. Many people swear by them, if it makes it easier, hurt less and lessens chance of injuries then I’m all for it!
A few things I knew about the day ahead of me; it would be my longest walk so far, I would not have to map-read at all as I followed the Thames Path for all but 2km at the end of the day, and I would be very lacking in undulation!!
The first ten kms took me my through the lakes of South Cerney that are now the Cotswold Water Park. As well as containing a couple of picture postcard villages, these former gravel pits were teaming with springtime flora and fauna. One village, Ashton Keynes I think, even had a Pilgrim Cottage! I spent quite a large amount of time looking at birds and listening to their song, identifying a few calls via the BirdUp app on my phone! Saw a lot of tits, Great, Blue, Long-tailed, Coal, Marsh and Crested as well as woodpeckers, blackbirds, wrens, nuthatches, treecreepers, thrushes, early arriving swallows and plenty of ducks, geese and swans. Just before my lunch stop I saw a first for me – a pair of hawfinches on a bush just in front of my path – I followed them with my monocular into the trees and just couldn’t stop marvelling at their massive, powerful beak.
All along the walk I noticed oddities – particularly odd were a couple of old advertisements, the old metal type nailed to the walls. Nostalgia of a by-gone era.
No idea what it is?? Albino Bluebell?
First blue pool on Thames
Pilgrim Cottage
Cuppa?
A very old bridge.
Toast?
So after 20km I arrived in Cricklade and, having done a little research, found the Red Lion for lunch. A splendid home-made fish finger sandwich accompanied by a pint of Liquid Highway – a bitter brewed on-site and named in honour of the National Trail I had been following all morning.
Brewed in Cricklade. Top drop too!
Lunch stop Day 1
With a spring in my step and beer in my belly I headed further east along the Thames Path. The little stream growing in depth and width with every km. No longer a stream but a small fast flowing river. All the way to Castle Eaton the path hugged the banks of the maturing river. By the time I crossed it for the final time and headed north to my lodgings at Marston Meysey, it was about 5m wide and too deep to see the bottom!
The Old Spotted Cow is a treat for a tired peregrino. I was welcomed with a smile, shown my room and given a flask of fresh milk so I could make a cuppa! I think tea may be one of my biggest ‘misses’ on the Camino in the summer! After a blissful hot shower, including a trial run of washing the days kit in the sink, then rinsing in the shower tray, I settled down to watch the news and give my feet, and my eyelids, a rest.
My old college tutor joined me for dinner and my starter of macaroni cheese followed by bubble and squeak with back bacon really hit the spot. However this tired walker always wants to get his head down and sleep – so I said goodbye and it was an early night.
Next morning I woke, showered and went down for a delicious breakfast before setting off back towards Kemble. This time my route would follow a north-west direction via the Ampneys and Cirencester then back south to the actual source of the Thames and the final 3km to Kemble for a train back to Reading. Before leaving Marston Meysey I popped along to have a look at the village church, which was of course St James’. These quirks just seem to keep on happening!
St James’ Marston Meysey
Old Post Office I assume
The Old Spotted Cow
After a couple of kms I heard the sound of JCBs – having only really heard birdsong, wind in trees, and flowing water the day before, this came as a bit of an early morning surprise. Especially as the three JCBs I could hear appeared to be digging up a very green, arable field. Then a few hi-viz clad bodies popped up from the trenches and it made a bit more sense. A Wessex Archaeology vehicle confirmed my thoughts, a dig of some sort. The region is rich in stone age, iron age and roman history.
Painstaking excavations!
The Dig @ Marston Meysey
I then headed on to the charming cluster of villages, the Ampneys – St Mary, St Peter and Ampney Crucis. Here I noticed another house named Pilgrims and also a house bearing the Indalo. Now the Indalo is the symbol of Almeria – a place very dear to me, where we are lucky enough to have a small property and are priviledged to spend much time. Almeria is also the start of the Camino Mozarabe which is something I would like to walk at some time in the future. Ampney Crucis also had a Victorian postbox that had been painted gold in hours of a 2012 Olympic gold-medallist in dressage!
Gold Victorian Post Box
The Indalo – always there to protect
Pilgrims
This was 3km long dead straight. Roman?
Dry stone wall
Now that’s a better sign
After a lunch at 20km in Cirencester, an encounter with a large, multi-coloured hare and a brief foot-rest at the town’s roman amphiteatre I moved on for the final section of the walk. Passing through the grounds of the Royal Agricultural College and following the path of the Monarch’s Way south towards Kemble. The Monarch’s Way follows the approximate route taken by the fleeing, defeated King Charles I from Worcester via Cirencester, Bristol and Yeovil before heading east to Brighton and finally to the port at Shoreham – a 615 mile route for anyone wanting a long-distance trail in the UK.
Cirencester Amphitheatre
A large colourful hare … random
Feet need a break too!
The Monarch’s Way
Finally I reached the source of the Thames – or at least where it should have sprung from the ground according to the sign and the large stone memorial. However the source was dry and I didn’t see any fledgling Thames for its first 2km. But when I did find the first evidence of the clear, shallow water – I decided the only thing to do was to give my feet a refreshing, if somewhat chilly, foot bath in the Thames! The perfect end to a pretty good two days. The poles seem a great help, still getting hotspot on the ball of my right foot so will go and see chiropodist and see if there is something that can be done to alleviate that!
Another weekend has come and gone – a typical spring weekend here in the Thames Valley. I decided to ride my bike on Saturday – full summer kit in beautiful sunshine and a balmy 18°C, good to be back on the bike and not thinking about walking, camino or whether my feet are getting sore or not! 80km on the bike. Next morning I set off to walk from Twyford to Binfield, pretty much retracing the first half my route from February. The weather, however was unfortunately February like – cold and windy! Back to more wintry attire! But the trails and footpaths had dried out totally, and the River Loddon had returned back into it’s course. The photos below are from February and then this weekend!
March 31st 2019
February 10th 2019
After the walk along the Loddon I diverted into Dinton Pastures having read online that there were a pair of nesting Oystercatchers in residence. So nice to see a bird I have only seen in sunny climes here in Berkshire, and the prospect of chicks too! Also great to see large numbers of tufted ducks! Then it was the long walk parallel to the relentless hiss of the M4 and people heading who knows where to do who knows what! Here I watched a buzzard circling overhead and a few minutes later found out why, as I had to usher a young, apparently blind rabbit off the road! Not sure it would last too long, but at least it wasn’t roadkill!
Then a stunning route through the amazing Billingbear Park, home to King Power Polo as was hard to avoid as they plastered it all over all footpath signage! Manicured lawns, monstrous sculptures and pure thoroughbreds aren’t my thing but they are impressive all the same!
The rest of the walk proved uneventful except for spotting an unusual, very old oak, which appeared to be growing still allthough almost horizontal.
I have at last found a website that allows me to post my walks online for you to follow without needing to have an account yourself – wikiloc.com – final thought though – I have now walked 153.11km in preparation for MyLongWalk2019 – not quite enough to get me to Logroño!
Yesterday I went of on the first leg of the St James Way – the relatively recently revised pilgrim way from Reading Abbey to Southampton. This is thought to have been one of the most popular routes medieval peregrinos would have taken before sailing to Ferrol in northern Spain to complete their camino on the Camino Ingles.
The local St James church organised this walk using the CSJ guidebook – although the first leg appeared to be a little vague and erroneous in places. However, that aside, it was another good day out walking with an almost fully loaded (6.0kg) rucksack. There was also the added benefit of getting my first sello – I will now use this as my official credencial – so in effect my Camino will be from my own doorstep!
One of the main reasons I wanted to do the Camino was to be able to ‘notice’ more of what goes by – it flashes by in a car, and whizzes by on a bike. Out walking you really to get a chance to see things. Yesterday’s walk was a great case in point – I’ve ridden past Sulhamsted Abbots church many times, never really seen it. The house outside the gate has one of the very few surviving Victorian era postboxes with VR on the ironwork.
So I have now done a few long walks, in fact I can quite honestly say that I have “hiked” my 5 lifetime longest walks in the last 2 months.
Do I enjoy it? … too early to say.
Can I do it? … of course.
Does it hurt? … had sore soles on one of the walks.
Will this help my Camino? … probably although all the slipping and sliding on the muddy trails will hopefully be an unneeded skill!
I have however been amazed at the extensive network of footpaths and bridleways that criss-cross the countryside not far out of town. From the great ancient byways like The Ridgeway to roman tracks near Silchester to the waymarked Chiltern Way extension.
Next walk will be with local pilgrim group from St James’s Church in Reading who are walking St James’s Way over the next few months in preparation for their Camino del Norte in September. Only a short stage to start so I’ll load up rucksack and probably extend the walk after they finish at Mortimer.
Tomorrow (Tuesday 19th February and 155 days till #MyLongWalk2019) I will be doing the first of two back to back 25km+ walks with my rucksack loaded! I will be walking from Twyford to Cookham on Day 1 – 25.9km on a variety of surfaces, hopefully not too muddy! Then on Wednesday from Reading to Henley – 28.7km.
This afternoon I laid out all the kit I have accumulated on my dining table and proceeded to pack it into my back pack, quite methodically and without any hassle I must add. Almost everything I plan to take was in there – daily medication and water excepted. I was delighted to see it weighed in at 6.2kg – so with a litre of water and a few extra bits and bobs it will still be under 7.5kg!
Be interested to see how I feel after 5 hours walking tomorrow, having never walked with a loaded rucksack before! #BuenCamino
Peregrino is the spanish word for Pilgrim and in particular a traveller on the Camino de Santiago.
Tonight I went along to a Camino meeting at St James’ Church in central Reading. I went for the sole reason of finding out if anyone there would be able to stamp my Credencial – Pilgrim Passport – before I set of for Gatwick, and flight onto Biarritz in July. The priest, Father John, was charming and said of course he would do so.
I felt a bit odd as I am quite the non-believer! What I do like is looking around the amazing architecture that is found in religious buildings. I have walked past this small church many, many times over the years but had until tonight never been inside. It is delightful and well-worth a visit if you are in the town! There is even a shrine to Saint James himself! The church is located right between the now-closed HMP Reading (made famous by Oscar Wilde, who was imprisoned there) and the ruins of Reading Abbey. Apparently in medieval times the great abbey and church were the ‘home’ of the cult of St James, as the hand of the saint was to be found in the church. It is no longer there. The scallop shell can be seen in many places around the town, including the coat of arms of both the town and it’s university.
Anyway – the meeting was in fact a planning meeting for the church folk to sign up for their camino at the end of the summer – they will be walking a 148km section of the Camino del Norte from Aviles to Vilalba – with the plan of completing it into Santiago in 2020. This will be the 7th annual Camino that has been organised by the church community! Kudos to them! They are also planning to walk the St James Way from Reading Abbey to Southampton via Calleva Roman Town and Winchester Cathedral over a series of Saturdays this spring.
It is amazing that so much camino-based activity is going on locally to me, and until now I was blissfully unaware of it. Just like the scallop, which I now see everywhere!
I bought this St James Cross pendant in one of the souvenir shops in Santiago on a Galicia holiday many moons ago. It was on that trip that I first witnessed the remarkable blend of joy, exhaustion and camaraderie of dishevelled pilgrims in the Praza de Obradoiro. I knew of the Camino a little then, but that was the first of the camino seeds in my head. So it was with great joy that I found the little red cross in amongst some old bits and bobs in a drawer last week – now I am more a scientist than a believer, but I do believe in fate – this little cross was bought ages ago, has sat in the darkest recesses of a drawer for over 10 years and was meant to be found at this exact time. The little red cross was always destined to make the journey back to Santiago. So I set about attaching it to my favourite scallop shell, a grey black one from the incredible, long, unspoilt sandy beach of Mazagon, Doñana in Cadiz. Perhaps it too was destined for more than just being washed up, picked up, looked at momentarily and discarded like so many others. So I have my own very personal pilgrim scallop shell attached to my backpack. It is strange but it has already made me feel like a ‘peregrino’.
So all the snow has melted away in Berkshire, and we are left with swollen or flooded rivers and very muddy tracks and paths.
Went out for 20km hike today. New insoles in my Merrells – Superfeet Blues – what a difference! Not even the hint of a hotspot.
Got train to Twyford with the aim of walking a bit of a circuit of the Loddon Nature Reserve and watching waterfowl for a bit before hiking on to Binfield to have a cuppa with Lisa’s Dad. Footpaths were very boggy and even flooded in places. This meant the lap of lakes was abandoned. Did see a few ducks of interest though – Gadwalls, Pochards and Tufted Ducks. As well as large flocks of Redwings in the bare treetops along the riverside.
After diversion to avoid the oft-flooded Whistley Lane ford, I headed on through Sandford Lane and across a field full of gulls and sheep to take another sodden track east alongside the M4 to the Straight Mile and Carter’s Hill. From here the Ramblers Route into Binfield meant coffee was only a couple of kms away!
Next weekend I’m at two different Camino meetings – Friday evening at St James Church here in Reading, then on Saturday Practical Pilgrim Day with CSJ in London. Then it is half term and the plan is to do a couple of back to back 25km walks with loaded backpack. It’s beginning to get very real!
So we got a whole load of snow on Friday here in Reading. This meant that I was not able to get out for a ride this weekend. Rather than sit around on sofa on Sunday – I decided to go out for a hike and try out my Camino shoes in the snow! Not that there will be any of the white stuff in Spain in July and August! Hopped on bus to Theale and then set off past Hosehill Lake and it’s wintering flock of Greylag Geese and Pochards! Even saw a Fieldfare foraging through the snow in the meadow. Then up past the church at Sulhampsted Abbots, I found a stunning snow-covered footpath around the edge of Burghfield and then on to Calleva Roman town at Silchester. There is something magical about walking on ancient pathways at any time of the year, particularly Roman ones. In the snow, it is even more spiritual. As I walked across the Drove Way, I imagined home the Roman residents would have felt this far north in the bitter snow fields of a Berkshire February!
After circling the very pleasant, but deep with snow, Silchester Trail I made my way on to Bramley just in time for the 4.15 train back to Reading.
21.85km in 5 h 13 m – not too bad, shoes felt great and pace ok even in up to 8 inches of snow in places!
From now till the summer I will be getting prepared for a massive challenge. This blog will chronicle the training walks and some of the interesting things I discover in the lead up to July.
Then join me from July 21st when I set off on My Long Walk 2019 – 792 kilometers from St-Jean-Pied-de-Port in southern France over the Pyrenees and across northern Spain to Santiago de Compostela in Galicia
My Long Walk 2019 