Having reached central London in 2021 as part of my pilgrimage to St Albans, I was keen to return to this great international city in order to walk from there to Canterbury. In doing so I would be following one of the most famous pilgrimage routes in Britain as I made my way to this ancient Christian centre of southern England.
Unfortunately, the intense heat at the time meant that I needed to take a break from walking for two days although this then gave me time to see more of the churches of Canterbury and even to walk a few miles on the Via Francigena which leads from there to Rome!
Above all this was a pilgrimage of great contrasts: the busy-ness of the capital city and the housing estates and parks surrounding the Thames estuary, historic sites such as Lesnes Abbey and Aylesford Priory which would have been known to medieval pilgrims, and the apple orchards and woodlands of rural Kent. Yes, it’s disappointing that this walk is somehow incomplete but I am already looking forward to returning to this unique corner of the British Isles to fill in the gaps.
