A rebel without a clue.

Mike and I walked slowly on the Pilgrim's Way. After the morning onto the South Downs I realise how steady we were. Talking was the main gear of the travel. Here it has been the need to reach respite, repase, rest, relaxation, shoes off, etc. My left foot finally played silly buggers so I reduced to sandals and, in the final few pastures, I took to barefoot and minded where I stepped around cow pats, nettles and over gravelly styles. Expensive but excellent: The Shoe Inn. I've stopped long enough to recharge all batteries. Then I must pick up something for the evening... setting off for the Sustainability Centre up ahead: it has an eco hostel, but no dormitories, just a small private room @ £48. Two other walkers overlook me, but they're carrying a fraction of my weight and only started out from Winchester this morning. One gave me a couple of snack bars and the other slowed me down. It helped me get to Exton. Food in the Shoe Inn £28 with a beer. I had another Wadworth 6X ...

We reached Winchester at around 5 yesterday, but things were clearly not the same. The silly 'argument' about noise levels around the verge, where we waited for the number 64 bus the short 8 miles distance, had grown into a disgruntlement at each other. After a shower in our room I went to find calm, a beer, a dog, or two, and to read a little. Once I'd reached Stables, to meet Mike for dinner, the tension in the air... ... Something fundamental. *** We just ate breakfast together, but there is an unspoken antagonism towards each other. So we went from laughing at the bottom of our ribs to not speaking, beyond auto response, in 24 hours. Having never walked with anyone for more than a day on The Way I've no experience of the conflicts we humans conjurer up. But we did have a bit of fun along the Pilgrim's Way and we did reach Winchester in one piece. That road and them cars were loud, but what can be done about it right there right then? And we all have our own perc...

Phew! Michael is at the other end of this room. However my head is towards those Hampshire tones as Liverpool plays Spurs on the box alongside Church Street. He's gone for a walk... And I am over. £42 on Thai food. Why is it so very expensive? It was very warming, the Duck, and I scoffed the lot, but it's twice as expensive as Chinese food from a takeaway and no more complex?!? *** Just about Lunch time as we reach the Treehouse Café. It was another good morning. The cheese shop sketch, fish licence and Dickkens (two Ks) and a detectorist who was heading up into the landowner's space to discover Roman, Saxon and Bronze age gold - the Golden Triangle is the specific area know by enthusiasts. In another 7ish kilometres we will hit the A31 once more, it's easy to be lulled into pastoralism in Hampshire, but Southampton and London are very heavily tied together. There appears to be a Bishop's Sutton village (just after) ahead which is where we resist following the main ...

Gorgeous breakfast at Gorge on the corner before we head up to the Castle and join the Saint Swithins Way. Bubble and squeak, beans, sausage, bacon, toast, coffee and Zumo de Naranja(£9.90). I am happier! The café on the main road wasn't open and the number 65 was late, (so we caught it)! We were very lucky! I didn't want to hitch without a full belly and to put Michael ill at ease. Now time to be ready to climb out of this road focused Way: the North Downs Way is very near to that perpetual thunder, droning on and on, on the A31. *** It's a rather nice morning on the Way, but I am ready for cake and a pot of liquid gold!   Teacake from the Post Office and a larger pork pie to eat before we reach Alton. We're neither so tired nor so crabby today. In fact the entire morning has been a pythonesque/Fawlty Towers accompanyment of me talking to the horses, us searching for eels in hovercrafts and female riders, in their jodhpurs, which twist and turn (riding high) slippery w...

Beginning of day two. Coffee in the glorious sunshine. We're going to walk about and first we go to Farnham for breakfast. Michael must shave I will not. But later I will wash and change into boxfresh  clothing for the next couple of days heading west to Winchester! *** After Brunch and we have gone our separate ways. Lovely sausage baguette and earl grey Brack and a French press of coffee in the Tea Room in the Craft Centre Seale. Now I am finding an alternative route back onto the North Downs Way, which is the same as the Pilgrim's Way until Farnham and then joins the Saint Swithins way into Winchester. *** Farnham was a long tailback. Is this all The South has to offer? Bumpers... Michael appears to have withdrawn himself so I don't know if it is valuable to continue on this meander without getting serious about walking. There are many more options on the South Downs Way... Or there is Lola, allotment and mum. So far this is not as I foresaw it. The noise on the main roa...

May the 4th be with me?  I think it was. First going to see JC, who now works at the YHA on Euston Road, opposite the British Library, who was very happy to see me - I got a proper happy feeling seeing that warm honest individual! Then a fantastic hours walk to Spitalfields, via Smithfield, Farringdon and the  Barbican Centre to The English Restaurant to wait for Michael - where I got lost a little unable to locate the café I used to frequent (it was the same but had become a restaurant since 2009 absorbing the next door establishment). I drank a couple of halves to keep the pennies... The proprietor - called Kay - was a great warm lady originally from Oxford, with a place on Ramsgate, and living above the premise and it would be nice to return there for some food on the 13th before heading to Cambridge or if we just stay in London? Next down through Tower Hill to Monument and over new London Bridge (which replaces the ones which have fallen down and the one which was taken to...

Yesterday suddenly something happened to Michael. He went very anxious about people and COVID. Also he was absolutely exhausted. But rather than complain he went very silent. We'd walked hard most of the afternoon to Nonsuch and Ewell until we reached Epsom which was busy and abysmal. In Epsom he wanted to stop so we looked for accommodation, but luckily the Travelodge was only available online and the Premier Inn was fully booked. We were forced to catch the train, a packed commuter train, the short distance between Epsom and Guildford and then catch a bus for the short journey to Puttenham. The train was slightly delayed, and I could find no sign of a bus stop alongside Guildford Station, so we were virtually out of time to get the 65 to Alton. After the longest day we stepped onto the bus just as it was leaving the bus station, within the Trinity Centre, and couldn't pay because the ticket machine wasn't functioning. The bus driver said I don't go to Puttenham, which...