The blog today is just to put a marker in the ground and let people know where the blog can be found. So, nothing poetic or profound, just a note of the day and some photos.

Today we left our home at 7am and joined the pilgrim way to Canterbury, which is the first phase of our pilgrimage.

The route aims to follow as much of the original pilgrim way from Southwark to Canterbury as possible and, surprise, surprise, the original route from London takes you along major roads that have been in use since the early middle ages or earlier times. So, we walked down the Old Kent Road and ploughed our way through New Cross, Deptford, and up Shooters Hill to Blackheath, then on to the edge of Thames Meade where we encountered Lesnes Abbey (where many pilgrims stopped) and on to Erith.

Because Erith is both a day’s walk (15.5 miles from our home) and also 20 minutes train ride from our home, and, because there is not much in Erith to keep us, we came home for the night and will head off to Erith first thing in the morning to continue our journey and will not be back home until the 25^th of October (we hope).

As it was expected to be one of the hottest days of the year, so far, many of our friends and relatives didn’t want us to start today, but we have booked our ferry crossing and intend to walk with care, in the shade and only in the mornings and early afternoons.

Significant sights along the way today were the North Peckham civic centre (now the church of everlasting arms) with amazing mosaics featuring Chaucer’s pilgrims, but sadly, these are poorly preserved. Next to this odd building is the longest pub sign in London which no longer has a pub below it and has been declining steadily ever since we first noticed it about 10 years ago.

At New Cross we walked past the site of the terrible fire on January the 18^th 1981. Please look it up if you are not familiar with this. Prayers are still needed here, as is justice.

After Deptford we began to climb Shooters Hill which is probably London’s longest hill. It does it in a mix of long steady inclines and a couple of steep slopes. It cuts across Black heath, which is lovely but, when you get to the very top (near the Bull pub) you can turn back and glimpse a fabulous view of central London. Not in my photo from that spot the dark line above the city. That shows the pollution held over the centre of London as a thick, dense layer…. We were well beyond it when this was photo was taken.

Lesnes Abbey has a great centre beside it where we could get a cold drink and sit in the shade listening to a play being rehearsed in the hall next door – Ally in Wonderland – due to be performed there in early August. Sounded good!

In the Abbey grounds there is an ancient mulberry tree planted in time of King James the 1^st of England (6^th of Scotland). His big idea for this and a very large number of other Mulberries was for the nation to get into the silk trade. Sadly, Silk worms don’t eat black mulberry leaves, they eat the leaves of white mulberry trees…. Ho hum.

The day was really varied, starting with really urban walking, then over a great London heath and eventually through a council estate and mixed suburbia. Then we dropped into a couple of large wooded areas and some wide open spaces with parched, yellow grass, and after an encounter with ancient ruins that allowed us another long view of the city, we were into a very mixed, urban backwater that eventually brought us to Erith train Station. The last sign I photographed was at the beginning of a neglected dead end side road, but it lifted our spirits… I hope these photos give you an idea of the day.