Day 9 and 10 – From Home to Home

Day 9

Yesterday we walked nearly 30 kilometres. We were very excited to finally reach Canterbury, that we have been marching like soldiers. The days start to merge; it feels that we have been walking for months, even if only for 10 days. I keep asking Carlos which day of the week it is, and like me, he doesn’t know. We have a strange perception of time; it seems like it doesn’t really matter anymore if it is 5 Am or 5 Pm. We are constantly hungry, and we always crave a nice cup of coffee or a delicious bar of chocolate.

The walking day was very nice, at time tough but enjoyable overall. While climbing a hill, we found two four-leaf clovers; let’s hope for some more good luck. The North Downs way is well kept, spacious, and easy to travel with the trolley, although we found an interesting obstacle blocking our way.

For our stay in Canterbury, we booked a cheap cabin in the YHA hostel, and to our surprise, we found HobbitVille. Our cabin is called Pippin.

Day 10

Today we spent the day in Canterbury. We woke up early; we were on a mission to sort out the PCR tests in order to cross the English Channel. This issue has been in the back of my mind since before the beginning of the journey, but today really started to become a problem. I called private clinics and pharmacies but without luck….some prices were outrageous. The quicker I wanted the results, the higher the price. For example, £210, £199 and then a pharmacy asked me to pay £175, but they couldn’t assure me that I would have received the result back within 72 hours. I was losing hope when we spotted another pharmacy, we popped in, and we finally found a suit to fly a PCR test at £65 with results within 48 hours. I felt relieved, although another shadow entered my thoughts. I Called Dover’s ferry companies, and none are allowing on foot passengers; we could get on board with a pushbike but definitely not on foot.

After all the morning stress, we went to the cathedral to collect the pilgrim credential, and we were lucky to meet Andrew, a canon who gave us his blessing. It has been a very emotional experience. Andrew read a beautiful walking prayer:

‘You call us to leave familiar things and to leave our “comfort zone”. May we open our eyes to new experiences, may we open our ears to hear you speaking to us and may we open our hearts to your love. Grant that this time spent on pilgrimage may help us to see ourselves as we really are, and may we strive to become the people you would have us to be’.

I am not much of a religious person, but those words describe my view on the idea of walking. I walk to leave behind the frenetic and material everyday life, looking to discover who I am, to be able to see the world from the eyes of a creature belonging to this environment and not just as a mere species above all others; to be able to listen to all the beauty surrounding me and to be there to be amused and observe the even small thing that we normally take for granted.

After leaving Andrew, my friend Daniel, on a week’s break from London, called me. Being very close to Canterbury, Daniel invited us to spend a few hours with him, Steph, and their baby girl Isabella, who I haven’t had a chance to meet since her birth because of the pandemic.

Daniel collected us and drove us to his place, where we chatted and had lunch. Isabella is a gorgeous little girl.