Day 7: Stage 6: Rochester- Thurnham, 16 kms: Sunny 25°

Duvets In August, Really?

We are beginning to get into the rhythm of distance walking. Get up in the morning, have a nice breakfast (unique to the UK), head out the door with our full packs on, find a place for a light snack and then continue on until we find a place for lunch. This is followed by the pleasurable process of completing the stage before a refreshing shower and lingering over a cold beer. If you’re telling yourself that this sounds almost ideal, you’d be right! This is our outside breakfast spot this morning. 

We are approaching the one week mark and I was commenting to Annemarie this morning that our packs are fitting almost perfectly, our boots are comfortable and the walking feels much more fluid. I’m not sure if Annemarie is quite there yet, but she’s definitely moving in that direction. Two shorter stages have helped to settle things, and even better, I’m still alive to tell the tale!😂

A few shots from this morning as we walked out of Rochester. Paul, if you think you have parking issues, take a look at this fellows problem. And he’s living on a busy street! Nice cars in the middle!

Given how United perform this past weekend I’m not too sure that I’m super excited to see this game on Saturday. I’ll be walking some 30 kms down to Dover on the first leg of the Via Francigena and I’ll have to hurry to be there in time. Don’t worry, Annemarie’s thinking about taking the train down (we my full support). If so, maybe she can find a pub where we can watch the game together! I should see at least one football game in an English pub while I’m here.

We stopped in a unique little café which was tied to a local church. The people eating inside and serving asked us where we were walking to. This of course led to a fun discussion about all things walking to Rome. It was kind of a camino like moment where there was a community discussing the walking route while we enjoyed homemade cake and drinks. The two ladies operating the café were very welcoming. By the way, that’s a really yummy piece of carrot cake that we shared. 

When we travel we try quite hard not to voice our own values concerning things that we might see and question along the way. However we have both been quite surprised by the amount of trash along the roads and in some parts along the trails. It doesn’t appear that there’s a great recycling program in this part of Britain, but perhaps there are many who are not participating? Lots of empty beer cans and trash along road sides.

Clearly there’s a pushback happening in some quarters and I hope with success because it’s really quite beautiful here. .

We eventually left the city behind and continued into the country first along a narrow road and then following the NDW. 

Over the highway! Memories of the big green crossing foot bridge in Astorga. This one is the same size, but crosses a major highway.

We came off the highway crossing and were directed to the local Detling Store and post office. The store operator gave us an official postal stamp in our credentials and we reciprocated by buying our lunch there. We had a pleasant talk with the post master and he told us about his visit to BC 3 years ago. He and his wife loved it! 

We set off down Pilgrims Way Road in search of our accommodation and a cold beer. Tomorrow we will start our day on the same road. It runs for quite a way along this route.

More vineyards. The postmaster told us that when he came here only a few years ago that whole area was pasture land and it’s now fast converting into Vineyards. If I had adequate resources I think it would be a brilliant investment!



We both commented about how the walk today felt more and more like walking in southern France, which we’ve been fortunate to experience previously three times It reminded us that just a week from now we will be walking there once again. Best to stay in the present moment for now!

At long last we found our pub and our accommodation. They see quite a few walkers here because there’s just not much accommodation around. The good news is, it’s a very high-quality stop. Everyone who asked us between Rochester and here where we were staying all knew of this place and raved about it. Clearly we are looking forward to our pub dinner! 



A great bar area!

A quick half pint while our room was prepared and then showers and time to write and communicate with folks. Nice to see our grandchildren haven’t forgotten who we are!

Concerning today’s title for this blog post, what’s with all the winter duvets on the beds in our accommodations? In every place we’ve stayed we found this situation with no top sheet. It must be the British humour as it’s been in the upper 20s every day we’ve been here. We’ve fooled them though, as we’ve taken the duvet out of the cover each night🙄

Tomorrow is a planned long stage. We were both aware of it before we left home figuring that by now it should be ok. When Annemarie just heard me read this out loud she said, “Annemarie is not allowed to complain!”. 🤣

We plan to have an early breakfast and be on the road before 7:30 in order to reduce our exposure to the heat. 

Lis and Peter (you don’t know each other quite yet) thanks for your supportive concerns, and know that I have squirrelled away and will carry lots of food for the ‘princess’. Princess is the name that our Aussie pals Peter and Dave gave to Annemarie when she was walking our first camino with a broken toe back in 2013. So it’s actually a term of endearment when used in this context. 

Here’s today’s video. Our granddaughter Saiorse has asked for more videos of La and Pa. We also had a lovely visit with Avery and his mom today as well. Growing up so fast!