Since our ultimate destination is Rome we started the day, appropriately, at the medieval parish church (Anglican) in Charing dedicated to Saints Peter and Paul, the apostles of Rome. The vicar signed our pilgrim passports.
We can now feel the gravitational pull of Canterbury. The archdiocese of Canterbury bought the manor here in Saxon times and, since Charing is a day's travel (about 18 miles) from Canterbury, built a pal
ace here for the archbishop, the ruins of which are still standing, incorporated into some farm buildings beside the parish church:
Pretty easy going today and we made good progress. It rained lightly off and on in the morning, but by 11:30 we had reached Boughton Lees and the rain stopped. We stopped too and had a cup of tea in the Flying Horse Inn and bought some sandwiches for our lunch:
After Boughton Lees the trail turned north, up the Stour Valley towards Canterbury. And it went up again, to the top of the Downs to the King's Wood. In medieval times Pilgrims hurried through here in fear of the robbers who hun
g out in the woods. Even today, there are dangers: as we entered the woods there was a prominent sign warning of wild boar. We hallooed for a while to scare him/them off, but this seemed a little silly after a while and we stopped, by now quite unconcerned, for lunch:By 3:30 pm we
had reached the delightful town of Chilham, our destination, where we found a 19th century B&B for lodging and a 14th century pub for supper. Our room had a TV and spiritual reading went out the window as we watched a crime drama.10.6 miles tramped today in 5 hours of walking. Everything is so much nicer in the sun.
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