walk across england

last night i watched an episode of top gear where they travel the length of vietnam on motorbikes. i’d love to do something adventurous like that. i think when i get back home i need to start some sort of training schedule for this to make it a reality. it would be good to join a rambling club too to make some friends who like walking and maybe find someone who would like to do this walk with me.

This is one of the things on my list of things to do before I die.

Also on my list is attending the Spanish language school in Cuernavaca, MX.

I finished yesterday and my feet are killing me. In total it was just short of 400 miles. When I get the photos and my laptop back I’ll post a bit more on it.

I want to journey ascetically and mindfully, covering the length of england instead of working in a bar all summer and being unhappy.

I’m feeling a bit nervous about the journey but I know it’ll be fine. When I was 19 I hitch-hiked around Europe with just a sleeping bag and £140 to spend and that was without even a map so I figure this should be a doddle.

my father brought a book called Hiroshige’s Tokaido back from Japan when I was a kid. It had 55 prints of the scenes Hiroshige had sketched on the journey from Kyoto to Tokyo -I used to gaze at the prints for hours. I always wanted to walk the same journey but never got round to it. while sorting out my bookshelves a few months back I found the book and flicked through it again. In the preface it says he was 35 when he made the journey, I must have read this before but I guess it didn’t really mean much when I was younger. I’m 34 next year, 35 seems a fitting age to walk the Tokaido. Next year as a practice run I’m going to walk across England from London back to my hometown in the north. I doubt I’ll get a full month off to make the journey so I’ll divide it up into 4 10day walking holidays. Looking at the map the canal routes seem to cover most of the country and after that the Pennines could take me pretty much the rest of the way.

.Traveling.
 While traveling
I am all free from care
No man knows me;
No man betrays me there.
                         Watanabe Kohan
                         (Miyamori Asataro)