Most commented posts
- Day 2 – Gone with the Wind — 7 comments
- Day 15 – Blenheim — 6 comments
- Day 6 – Rollright Stones — 5 comments
- Day 23 – Walking with the End in Sight — 5 comments
- Day 3: Brockenhurst to Lyndhurst — 4 comments
Author's posts
Sep 12
Day 14: Upton to Tiddington
Match Points A happy day with friends walking with us. Only a day left to go, and we won’t be sorry when it is finished. We have been fortunate with the weather: only one gruelling period of intense heat. Last night we watched the now world-famous Emma Raducanu win the US Open Tennis tournament. Clearly, …
Sep 11
Day 13: Whitchurch to Upton
Ailing Aylesbury Six walkers today, all friends. We talked endlessly as we walked; it was fun. We trailed through poor old, down-at-heel, litter-strewn Aylesbury, a once beautiful and elegant town. Its graceful Georgian centre was gutted by 1950/60s so-called “planners” and greedy developers. When next you visit Aylesbury, recall George Eliot’s quote: “Behind every great …
Sep 10
Day 12: Westcroft to Whitchurch
The day started warm and a tad drizzly. Set off at a sharp pace, but another case of here we go round the mulberry bush as we get lost in fields yet again. Tartan Titan Nicola Sturgeon has to be the most talented politician in the western world right now. She must be because she …
Sep 10
Day 11: Hanslope to Westcroft
Gone with the Wind A better day with warm mist and easy to discern walks. We walk through the old Whaddon Chase hunting grounds: all the old bittersweet memories flood back. Too many hunting ghosts and memories soar over fences in my mind’s eye to relate here, but… it was fun being young. Our children …
Sep 09
Day 10: Northampton to Hanslope
Can’t See the Route for the Trees Hot and hot again. Lost in the woods as usual. Our maps are dire, and we waste time. I am reminded of the eight POWs who escaped in 1944 and used a map of the route to England one of them had purloined: after they arrived in Dover …
Sep 07
Day 9: Weedon Bec to Northampton
A better day. Moses’ Crossing We nearly faced a disaster. Moses faced a major road: just before I grabbed him, he darted across the road towards our excellent driver, Richard. A lorry flashed by…it missed him by an inch. Benyon’s law of pain It’s simple: unless you have a clinical issue – in which case …
Sep 06
Day 8: Lower Shuckburgh to Weedon Beck
Honours and Shame Another roasting day and wandering around in circles. It could be worse. I might be Michael Fawcett, Chief advisor to Prince Charles. No one told Fawcett the way to extract millions from Mahfouz Mubarack in exchange for honours without breaking the 1925 Act. This act was passed to stem the gross activities …
Sep 06
Day 7: Rest Day
Counting Blessings A day away from roads, brambles, plough and paths that lead nowhere. A day to sort out the car, get clothes cleaned and have a good night’s rest. Breakfast with younger daughter – always a joy – and lunch with her beloved sister so our cup of happiness floweth over. Kariba danced with …
Sep 04
Day 6: Harbury to Lower Shuckburgh
Plough of Despond A sweaty day. Our joyful mood, stimulated last night by kind friends and a great dinner, gave way to irritation when we found our paths terminally blocked by the HS2 construction site. We zig-zagged to escape only to find the farmer had tractored the right of way into terminal extinction: we were …
Sep 03
Day 5: Hampton Lucy to Harbury
Relationships Used to Involve Relations I think we all regard mobile phones as an unalloyed blessing. However, I think these phones have a serious kickback from the law of unintended consequences. When I met Jane, I determined to marry her as soon as possible. I suffered what the Italians call “colpo di fulmine”- “a stroke …