So I went on the Canterbury pilgrimage a few months back…

Yeah, you heard that right? I went on the Canterbury pilgrimage. This is an interesting thing for me because I’ve never really done a long-distance hike like this before.

I wasn’t even sure I was capable of completing it to be quote honest about it. Well, we jumped in with both fett so to speak and went headlong into this trip ill prepared. The first thing we decided to do was limit our equipment to what we could carry in our respective backpacks. This eliminated a literal mountain of gear that we had deemed needed but optional. It also made the journey much nicer. We finally decided on a couple of changes of clothes, I took a small amount of camera gear in a dry bag (since it rains in the UK alot) and a water bottle. We would pick up snacks along the way and add that to our loadout as we needed it.

This also generated another benifiit with our travel, the airport processing got ALOT simpler this way. We literally didnt check anything so we just went through the TSA check point and carried our packs right to the gate and they were not really encumbering as we had literal backpacks so our hands were free to do things like buy coffee or get out credit cards… it made traveling so much less stressful to be quite honest that I might be adjusting my future travel to operate in this mode. You never lose your luggage as you walk onto the plane with it and it fits into the over head space without issue…every time. This was glorious for me as I worry about the luggage making it to the same place as me or even worse, not arriving at all…

Well, once on the ground in England we checked into our hotel and went for some food, what we found is that the food in the UK is … different… from what we are accustomed to here in the US. We had to adjust to this as it seemed that they have a very specific diet and do not vary from it for any reason. We joked about how for a country that conquered most of planet earth at one point for spices, they dont use them!

Well, we spent the next couple of days being tourists in London for the sake of brevity then we embarked on the mission to Winchester to start the pilgrimage. Once in Winchester, we found the cathedral where we attended the service the next morning and also got our blessing from the preist at the same time.

So first things first, hiking this trail is actually really fun. It could be monotonous for someone who isn’t comfortable with their own thoughts for hours at a time, but it was fine to me. I didn’t even listen to music on this trip, I was just …there…

We ate at so many restaurants and pubs that I am not even going to get into that. Suffice it to say that we enjoyed them all. Since we didn’t take gear that allowed us to cook we really didn’t have a choice. Which is kinda cool since I love to go out to eat. Lol.

As for hiking gear, here is my load-out for this trip, I had a full change of clothes plus extra socks, I also took my phone charging gear, a Katadyn water filter as I was not sure if I would have ready access to clean water. Sometimes you don’t have that access to be honest and I wished I had taken another water bottle. I took a single Nalgene quart water bottle, a ziplock bag of snacks from the grocery store, a rain coat and my dry bag with my camera gear in it.

I picked up a set of trekking poles in Winchester that I almost wore out by the end. My backpack is a Mystery Ranch Pitch 40 which is actually geared toward rock climbing but worked just fine for this trip. I am going to take a moment here to point out that a really well engineered backpack makes all the difference in the world. I was carrying about 25 to 30 pounds from day to day and my back was NEVER sore or painful from the pack. Not once. I can absolutely with certainty recommend Mystery Ranch backpacks after this trip. They work. I never really understood how to properly use a backpack, but after using this one, I figured it out and got it dialed in. It is not really designed for this kind of trek, but rather it is engineered for route climbing and carrying rope and chalk and harnesses and such instead. I just used it anyway…

Below are links to the YouTube videos where I documented some of the trip. We cover lots of ground in those videos so be prepared to keep up and not wander off during the video as you might not understand what is happening when you come back. Pause it instead and then hit play when you come back from the kitchen…

Well, we strike out and head for the next town and I must say at this point that the English countryside is absolutely gorgeous! We couldn’t get over how everywhere we looked that it looked like a postcard! We walked by beautiful fields, streams and all these little communities with some of the nicest people we have ever met!

One of the many churches we explored on our pilgrimage to Canterbury.

Over the course of the next two weeks we would explore numerous old churches as well as eat is many of the most quaint pubs you have ever seen! The bulk of the trek though is through the country with some parts being out in farmland for hours at a time on trail. You really need to make sure you take enough water when you leave too as there are times when water just isn’t available. I ran out on one long day and had debilitating leg cramps later that night because of dehydration. It is a thing ya’ll, don’t scoff at this part, drink electrolytes and water, it matters.

PSA out of the way, let’s talk about the camera gear I decided to take with me on this trip. For this trip I decided to travel light so I took my Leica CL and two prime lenses. The 17mm f1.4 and the 35mm f0.95 prime lens. Turned out I wished I had taken the 35mm f1.4 as it is smaller and lighter than the 0.95 aperture lens and would have saved me some weight. I don’t know if I even once opened up to f0.95 on this trip, even at night. I just didn’t need it so it was wasteful to bring it.

When you would cross from one field to another or maybe pass from the forest to the fields, you would come to one of these gates in a variety of forms, all of them would work in a pretty similar fashion, but none the less, it would be there. This is a simple cattle gate but in the United Kingdom, it is called a kissing gate for some reason.

This is a modern steel kissing gate and they are all over these trail systems in England.

This hike was a two fold event, first it was a way to explore England in a more intimate way than seeing the usual tourist sites and then hopping on a plane for the states. This way we get to talk to the locals and see parts of the country that other visitors will never see, eat food that they will never taste, and just enjoy the country like a traveler should. The second part or probably what should be considered the first part is the pilgrimage part of the trip. A pilgrimage is a trek to a significant location for the purpose of reflection and to be able to spend time with the Lord. I had ample time for this too, you get to be with your own thoughts a lot if you keep your cell phone put away and this gave me a lot of time to reflect. I am glad I did this as it allowed me to just disconnect from life for a while and to be able to just enjoy where I was at the time without having to think about what I was going to do the next day or what ever.

This was so important to me that I didnt even post much about the trip while on it. I used the map function most of the time (there is a website where you can get the route and it overlays on google maps). This was wonderful for someone who has grown VERY accustomed to using their phone alot.

Here is a perfect example of what I am talking about. This bridge is pre-war era construction. The reason I know this is because the whole thing is riveted together. Any other modern form of metal joining would be significantly cheaper than rivets. Arc welding wasn’t really common place till after world war 2 so rivets were used everywhere till then. If I had been a typical traveler heading to the next destination, I most likely would not have noticed this.

In closing, I am going to wrap this with the following quote that I made up just for this blog, but it does seem fitting to me. “If you dont stop to look at the flowers along the way, you wasted part of your trip”

I am really one of those people that likes the journey as much as the destination and this was the perfect blend for me. Daily goal oriented activity with lots to do and see along the way…

Until next time, get your camera out and go take a picture with it.

Going on a hiking trip across England (Part 1)

When I first heard about this I was intrigued to say the least. I had never really considered doing a pilgrimage before or even doing extended length hiking trips of any kind. Enter Kelly, a lifelong friend and adventurer. She tells of this adventure in England where she was planning to hike from town to town and follow the original Pilgrims Way laid out in the Canterbury Tales.

Well, us being the adventurous types that we are, we asked if there was room in the group for us too! As it turned out, the three of us would be that group which actually worked out really well. So we started planning the adventure of a lifetime.

We decided early on to only being what we could carry in our backpacks. Gone would be the “checked bag” at the airport as well as bringing computers and the associated baggage required for their operations. This actually made the airport part of the journey very easy as we didn’t have to stand in lines for the check bag counter nor did we have to deal with baggage claim at all. It was very liberating to be honest.

Since we had decided to travel so light, i took a hard look at the camera kit I would use on the trip as well. I whittled it down to just the Leica CL, the TTartisan 17mm f1.4 L mount lens and the 35mm f0.95 L mount lens. That’s it, no other gear what so ever. Well… there were batteries and a charger, but you get the point here. So I quickly learned that I liked the 17mm in London and then once we got to Winchester I switched to the 35mm and left it in place almost the rest of the trip. Enough about the camera gear and back to the trip…

Once in England we started in London where we did the usual tourist stuff for a couple of days ahead of starting the pilgrimage proper. This included a bus tour and a short trip to the British museum as well. We even took in the Phantom of the Opera while in town. What a treat.

Old city gate to Winchester.

Then it was off to Winchester to start the official pilgrimage. When there we attended a service at Winchester cathedral and received a blessing from the priest before we started which was a really nice touch to add to the whole experience to be honest. If you do this hike, I recommend attending a service at the cathedral even if your not really religious and hear the boys choir. The singing is beautiful. It also just adds a little something special to the trip in my opinion.

Now the adventure officially begins and we strike out for the next town on the list. Alresford is a quaint little village in the countryside that has several really old buildings (which becomes a reoccurring theme on this trip). One of which was constructed before the USA even existed.

Some of the things we have learned are that stinging nettle is a legit plant you don’t mess with and it is literally EVERYWHERE. Another ones is the locals are very friendly, especially the older one and are a real treat to chat with when you find them here and there. The trail also isn’t just a hiking trail through the woods, but more of a “way” which will cross fields, go down designated paths or even along roads at times. You really have to pay attention to make sure you don’t miss your turn…ask me how I know.

All that aside we had a wonderful first day on the trail, albeit a long one where we ran into really interesting people and also learned a few things about the local flora and fauna we didn’t know either. Tune in for Episode 2 to see what we find next on our adventure across England!