Day 6 Hollingbourne to Charing (Oct. 5, 2010)

After starting the day in Lenham with another full English breakfast, we took a taxi back to Hollingbourne where we had left the trail the day before.

The bad news: it rained all day. The good news: the trail was flat and quite straight. Now we were truly on the old Pilgrim's Way. In fact this route is probably pre-historic, linking the Straits of Dover ports to the centre of southern England. It follows the firm and well-drained land at the foot of the scarp of the North Downs, above the area of cultivation. It was wide enough to accommodate large numbers of people -- drovers, soldiers, pilgrims -- and livestock and it ran in an east-west direction, linking up with the superb ports of the Solent and the trails to the minerals of the West.

We saw nobody all morning on the trail with the exception of Brother Percival:


After four hours of walking we reached the lovely village of Charing at 1:30 pm and, as it was raining steadily and Wendy wasn't feeling well, decided to call it a day. We had made just over eight miles, so we were pleased.

This is a pilgrimage and not just a long distance walk. We try to start each day with prayer in a church and say the Rosary during the walk. The early stop gave me a chance to start the book I brought for spiritual reading: Introduction to Christianity by Joseph Ratzinger (now Pope Benedict XVI). I bought the book for Lenten reading this year, read it, was very impressed and now I'm reading it again.