Not the Pilgrims' Way: Walking to Canterbury, Day 1

Back in 2007, when I was making the pilgrimage to Santiago de Compostela with my best friend Anne, we walked 500 miles over seven weeks. We would start walking where we'd left off the day before, we would take a rest day once a week or so, and we walked until we got there.

But there's another way to do it. Towards the end of our journey, we found ourselves falling in with a group of four folkies from Ely. Two of them were only walking the last bit of the camino, but for the other two the stretch from León to Santiago was the last of many stages. Over several years, a week here and a fortnight there, whenever they could get the time off, they had walked the camino a bit at a time, picking it up where they had left off the last time.

My current pilgrimage is a lot closer to home. So close to home, in fact, that I can walk every step of the way, from my home in Woking to Canterbury. I don't have to mess around with trains and boats. However, I'm not in a position to take a huge amount of leave in one go, and I'm not in a state of physical fitness sufficient to up and walk one hundred and fifty miles at a time.

Happily, the cluster of bank holidays around Easter, May and the Royal Wedding have sorted themselves into a nicely paced schedule. On the days off I can walk, and on work days I can rest my legs. I'm walking this pilgrimage a day at a time.

Adding to the fun is the fact that I'm completely reliant on public transport. Fortunately I'm reasonably handy with a bus timetable, but it does mean that I'm having to be a bit creative with the paths I take. It does help to end a day's walk in a town with a railway station.

I began walking on Easter Saturday, and persuaded my long-suffering partner countertony to join me for a gentle stroll into Guildford. Woking is some way north of both the historic Pilgrims' Way and the modern North Downs Way, so before I could join a recognised path I had to make up a route south.

We struck out towards Old Woking and Send, and joined the Wey towpath at Cartbridge - resolutely resisting the lure of the pub. The Wey Navigation is not the shortest way into Guildford, but it's easy to follow, and on a hot day a nice flat walk by the river is the most tempting. And my word, was it hot. We finished two litres of water between us on a three and a half hour walk.


Send Church, from the Wey.

The Wey, in its natural state, is not entirely navigable; thus stretches of canal-like navigation were put in from the late 1500s onwards. There are locks and all sorts, which add to the interest. Assorted wildlife (including, it is rumoured, parakeets, though I didn't see any). An ancient tree held together with an iron band. The bits of plain river aren't bad, either.







I had planned to eat at a hostelry in Guildford (to be decided when we got to it) and then attend the Easter Vigil at the cathedral. And that is, in fact, what we did - somewhat to my surprise. My hip was complaining all the way from Stoke Lock into town, and I was developing a splitting headache, and it was as much as I could do to cross the river from the pub to the cashpoint and order food. I wasn't feeling much more human at the end of the meal, so we decided to call it a day and get the train home.

Except... when we'd hauled ourselves to the station, it quickly became apparent that we wouldn't be getting home in a hurry. A lightning strike had taken out the signals between Guildford and Woking, and there were no signs of improvement. And, you know... it's not really that far from the station to the cathedral, if you go out the back. And my head was improving.

So I went to the Easter Vigil and, while it wasn't a patch on last year's (no fire inna bucket!) and I haven't got used to being in church and sweaty and filthy and horrible and therefore felt somewhat awkward, I'm glad I did. It starts Easter off properly, and it starts the pilgrimage off, too.

And when I got back down to the station the trains were running beautifully on time.



As it happens, the Wey Navigation is part of a long-distance path. The E2 European Long-Distance Path, in fact. We looked this up when we got home; it runs from Galway to Nice. They're not kidding when they call it long-distance.