{"id":22261,"date":"2025-03-15T20:30:14","date_gmt":"2025-03-15T20:30:14","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/georgiawasp.com\/?p=22261"},"modified":"2025-04-01T02:02:33","modified_gmt":"2025-04-01T02:02:33","slug":"next-up-hiking-the-canterbury-trail","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/georgiawasp.com\/?p=22261","title":{"rendered":"Next up – Hiking the Canterbury Trail…"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

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Something like what we’ll see after hiking the 12 or so days from Winchester<\/a>, in the UK<\/a>…<\/em><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

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March 15, 2025 – It’s that time of year again. Well, almost.<\/em> To explain, pretty much every September since 2019 I’ve done a Camino hike over in Europe. (To me a Camino hike<\/em> means at the end of each day you look forward to a warm bed, hot shower and a cold beer.) <\/p>\n\n\n\n

My brother and I started such hikes in 2017, on the Camino Frances<\/a>. I met up with him in Pamplona and from there we hiked – and biked* – the 450 miles to Santiago de Compostela. (The “Way of St. James.”) In 2018 we changed up and did an 11-day canoe trip, from Kingston on Lake Ontario up to Ottawa. (A break in the hiking action.) In 2019 my sister-in-law joined us for a hike on the Portuguese Camino, from Porto – home of port wine – back up to Santiago. In 2020 came another break in the action, thanks to COVID, but in 2021 it was back to the Camino Frances – or at least the part I missed in 2017 – hiking over the “dread Pyrenees.” (For reasons explained in Hiking over the Pyrenees, in 2021 \u2013 finally<\/a>!)<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In 2022 we three hiked the Way of St. Francis<\/a> in Italy, from Assisi down the 150 miles to Rome. In 2023 we hiked the Robert Louis Stevenson Trail in France, what the French call the GR 70<\/a> or “Chemin de Stevenson.” Last year – 2024 – we three hiked the Camino Finisterre<\/a> – to the “end of the known world” – then on to the Camino Ingles<\/a>. (Basically a round trip from Santiago, out to and up the northwestern coast of Spain, then back down to Santiago.) <\/p>\n\n\n\n

In all those hikes we had to learn important terms in a foreign language to get by. (In Spain for example, words like cerveza<\/em> and banos<\/em>, pretty much in that order.) But not this year!<\/strong><\/em> This August we’ll be hiking in Merry Old England, and so will be able to understand what the locals are saying. (Pretty much.) Which means it’s time for a bit of preliminary research.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

For example, in 2021 I posted Countdown to Paris \u2013 2021<\/a>, on August 8, the month before I flew over to do the over-the-Pyrenees hike. Then on July 24, 2023, I posted On visiting Paris and Lyon in 2023<\/a>, before flying over to hike the Robert Louis Stevenson Trail. (In the C\u00e9vennes Mountains<\/a> of south-central France.) Then on March 5, 2024, I posted Preparing for a Camino hike<\/a>, for the Finisterre and Camino Ingles<\/a> hikes – again in Spain.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The ’21 post covered the 2010 film, The Way<\/a>, starring Martin Sheen<\/a>. It’s central premise was not <\/strong><\/em>just that an old, out of shape Beverly Hills eye doctor went to France to recover the body of his son – who died while hiking over the Pyrenees. It also covered his spur-of-the-moment decision to go on and hike the 500 miles of the Camino Frances<\/a> himself, without any prior preparation or training. In other words, the film shows all the things you should not<\/strong><\/em> do when preparing for such a hike. (Including sitting on a bridge and taking off your pack, only to see it fall into the river below and float away. Or leave your pack unattended, to be stolen by a young gypsy.)<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The ’23 post discussed my early plans for climbing the towers of Basilique du Sacr\u00e9 C\u0153ur<\/a> in Paris and Basilica of Notre-Dame de Fourvi\u00e8re<\/a> in Lyon. (Neither of which panned out. “C’est la guerre<\/a>.<\/em>“) And finally, the ’24 post offered tips for such an adventure. It led off with a sentence, “Getting ready for a hike on the Camino de Santiago<\/a>? [Remember my definition.] Here are some useful tips.” Which as it turns out is always good for me to review. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

It talked mostly about the importance of having a good pack, not a “cheap low-hanging pack from a local ‘Yuppie Goodwill.’\u201d And about how the experts say your pack – including a full bottle of water \u2013 should weigh no more than ten percent of your body weight. (In my case 15 pounds, but for the last two hikes I’ve gone to 20.) And about the importance of packing only quick-dry clothes, good hiking shoes – along with some other incidental concerns. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Which brings up preparing for the next adventure, hiking the Canterbury Trail. The destination is Canterbury Cathedral<\/a>, home of the Archbishop of Canterbury<\/a>, “spiritual leader of the Church of England<\/a> and symbolic leader of the worldwide Anglican Communion<\/a>.” A pivotal moment in its history was the murder of Archbishop Thomas Becket<\/a>, “in the north-west transept<\/a> (also known as the Martyrdom) on Tuesday 29 December 1170, by knights of King Henry II<\/a>:”<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The posthumous veneration of Becket transformed the cathedral into a place of pilgrimage, necessitating both expansion of the building and an increase in wealth, via revenues from pilgrims, in order to make expansion possible.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n

And it looks like we needed to do this pilgrimage<\/a> sooner rather than later. It turns out, “Much of the stonework<\/a> at Canterbury Cathedral is damaged and crumbling, the roofs are leaking and much of the stained glass is badly corroded… [A] combination of centuries of weathering, pollution and constant use had taken its toll on the ancient building and some serious problems were in need of urgent action.” Which makes this trip kind of like that 2019 pilgrimage to Jerusalem,* what I rightly considered the chance of a lifetime. (I wouldn’t want to go back there now, or any time in the foreseeable future for that matter, and I am <\/strong><\/em>turning 74 in July.) <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Back to the August hike: We’ll start at Winchester Cathedral<\/a>, not just <\/strong><\/em>famous – for we of a certain age<\/em> – for the 1966 novelty hit song by the New Vaudeville Band<\/a>. But rather than “bringing me down,” this cathedral should make a good start for our UK pilgrimage. Among the largest of its kind in Northern Europe<\/a>, it is the “sixth-largest cathedral by area in the UK, surpassed only by Liverpool, St Paul’s<\/a>, York<\/a>, Westminster (RC)<\/a> and Lincoln<\/a>,” and a major tourist attraction.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I hope and plan to write more preparation posts in the coming months, but in the meantime, here’s a glimpse of some of the foresty terrain we’ll be hiking through…<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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“The Pilgrims’ Way as it passes to the south of the White Horse Stone, Kent.<\/em>..”<\/figcaption><\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n\n

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The upper image is courtesy of Canterbury Cathedral From The Pilgrim’s Way Uk – Image Results<\/a>. See also Pilgrims’ Way – Wikipedia<\/a>, Canterbury Cathedral – Wikipedia<\/a>, Pilgrims Way | Winchester to Canterbury | Pilgrim Walks<\/a>, and Home | Canterbury Cathedral<\/a>.<\/em> (The site Pilgrims\u2019 Way to Canterbury | The Natural Adventure<\/a> offers a different and shorter route.)<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Re: “Hiked – and biked.” Google Maps says it’s 234 miles from Pamplona to Le\u00f3n<\/a>, and from Leon, 182 miles to Santiago, though the official Camino mileage may differ. It took us 20 days, with one day off in Burgos<\/a>, to get to Leon, but we only had 10 days left to finish. So we rented mountain bikes in Leon. (Google Maps also says the full Camino Frances hike from Saint-Jean-Pied-de-Port in France – and over the Pyrenees – is 453 miles, but Camino guidebooks put the distance at 500 miles.)<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Re: 2018 canoe trip, see The \u201cRideau Adventure\u201d \u2013 An Overview<\/a>. For information on other past hikes use the search engine at the upper right.<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Re: That French term after the ’23 post review. See History of the phrase \u2018c\u2019est la guerre\u2019 (\u2018it can\u2019t be helped\u2019)<\/a>. It noted, “The French phrase c\u2019est la guerre – literally ‘it is war’ – expresses acceptance of, or resignation at, the situation engendered by war; it can be translated as ‘it can\u2019t be helped.'”<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Re: \u201cYuppie Goodwill.\u201d It\u2019s actually the Clothes Less Traveled store in Peachtree City GA. “And by the way, I ditched that low-hanging pack on the sidewalk, by a series of recycle bins, just outside our last lodging in Rome, at Viale Angelico 38. (A half-hour mile-and-a-half walk up from Vatican City.)”<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Re: Pilgrimage to Jerusalem. See the May 2020 post, This time last year \u2013 in Jerusalem<\/a>!<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Re: “Bringing me down.” The 1966 song begins, “Winchester Cathedral, you’re bringing me down. You stood and you watched as [pause] my baby left town…”<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

The lower image is courtesy of<\/em> Pilgrims\u2019 Way \u2013 Wikipedia<\/a><\/em>, which provided the caption.<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

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