London to Gateshead

Having completed the 790ish km of the Camino Frances across northern Spain I am now planning to walk a mere 600km from London to Gateshead. Glutton for punishment or what? The purpose of this is to support the work of Oasis Community Housing

Today was the day when the planning and the preparation ended. Today was the day when I woke up both excited and wondering what on earth had I let myself in for. Today was the day I packed my backpack for the final time making last minute decisions to take my small cookset and leave…

Slow Ways Routes – Lonpec one, Lonmon two, Monliv one, Livdal one, Dalwal one My journey across London on the tube and overground was quite painless even if it was the rush hour, not half as bad as I was expecting. I arrived at Peckham Rye Station and was immediately assaulted by the sights, sounds…

Slow Ways Routes – Enfiwal one, Enfiwalt two, Cheswal two, Chehod one Waking up to the familiar surroundings of my son’s house in Walthamstow – today felt like a second first day. This was the first solo walk of my journey, the first day I would be camping it was like a fresh start. I…

Slow Ways Routes – Herhod two, Wather one The pitch I had chosen for last night’s camp was just by the river and turned out to be shared with a lot of rabbits as i discovered by their plentiful droppings. It had a great view which I saw when I woke up. This was my…

Slow Ways Route – Walkwat one I woke early, and watched the sun rise illuminating the little valley stretched out before me. In other circumstances the mist hanging in the valley bottom would have been idyllic but there I was anxious about now being a day behind and with a phone which was about to…

Slow Ways Route – Balwal one, Stobal two It was a nice quiet night and I had a good sleep. I was packed up and ready to set off by 07.30. I felt calmer and confident that I could do this, but there were still problems with blisters and because of my slipping schedule I…

Slow Way – Bigsto one Today was a day for getting sorted. I desperately needed to get my clothes properly washed and last night I had discovered that there was a coin operated laundrette in Stotfold. Stotfold was technically the end of yesterday’s route and the beginning of today’s, I had camped just before reaching…

Slow Ways Routes – Sanbig two, Sanstn two I had booked breakfast at the hotel where I was staying so it was a leisurely start to the day. Yesterday had been a short walk so while not quite a day off it was the next best thing. It was a fine day, I was glad…

Slow Ways Routes – Stnhun one, Hunram one It was a fine sunny morning as I woke up, but once again there was loads of condensation and therefore a wet tent. I waited as long as I could before etting off to make use of the sunshine. The campsite was on the route so I…