DAY 1 - CANTERBURY TO CHILHAM

DAY 1                            Saturday 20^th September 2014

ROUTE                           Canterbury to Chilham

DISTANCE                      10 miles

START POINT                 Canterbury Cathedral - TR 151 579

FINISH POINT                 Chilham (end of Mountain Street) - TR 063 519

WEATHER                      Misty on drive to Canterbury
Overcast but warm all day with occasional light drizzle

WALKERS                       Cally Charman, Rod Boreham and Graham Palmer

SUPPORT DRIVER           Fiona Ford

SUFFER SCORE               3
(On a scale of 1-10 with 1 being easy and 10 being unbearable!)

CTOG AWARD                Lorna Bedford of Canterbury Street Pastors
                                     www.canterbury.streetpastors.org.uk

                                     Awarded for generously hosting us at St. Andrews Church on our arrival
                                     at Canterbury with toast and hot drinks and then sharing a special time
                                     with the Bishop of Canterbury at the Cathedral before finally escorting
                                     us to the city limits and bidding us farewell at West Gate Tower



Well what a fantastic day it turned out to be on Day One!  A big thank you to Lorna Bedford, co-ordinator of Canterbury Street Pastors who welcomed us at St. Andrews Church and offered us coffee and toast before we set off for the Cathedral. 

The CTOG team with Lorna (left) at St. Andrew's Church

There we were met by the photographer from The Canterbury Times (Brian) at the entrance to the Cathedral grounds and shortly after were greeted by the Bishop of Canterbury, Bishop Trevor Wilmott.  Having presented us with letters to the people of Guildford, not only from himself but also from the Dean of Canterbury, Bishop Trevor sent us on our way with a blessing at the Pilgrim’s Stone adjacent to the Cathedral’s main entrance. 

Bishop Trevor gives a potted history of the Pilgrim Stone

Rod leading the way with Lorna and Cally in hot pursuit

Lorna kindly escorted us to West Tower Gate on the city limits, wished us well and we then made our way out on to the North Downs Way with the prospect of just 110 miles ahead of us to return us to Guildford.  In charge of navigation was Graham (quickly nick-named the ‘mapmeister’ by Cally) who successfully guided the team out of Canterbury and onto the North Downs Way without incident.

Always a reassuring sign!

The support van proved invaluable and our Street Angels Co-ordinator, Fiona Ford, very kindly offered to do the driving over the weekend.  The idea is that all our overnight gear can go in the van and therefore reduce the weight in our daypacks.   

It was damp and drizzly as we set off onto more rural tracks - full waterproofs were carried but fortunately heavy rain held off so these remained in our daypacks .  
 

The natives introduce themselves....

Apples......

And yet more apples in the Garden of England!

The van drove on ahead and met up with us at pre-arranged liaison points mid-morning, at lunchtime and then mid-afternoon.  All went smoothly to plan and our thanks go to Fiona for taking on the important role of support driver over the weekend.

The team grabbed a quick bite to eat at the Chapter House, a very good village country pub in Chartham Hatch, before setting off on the afternoon leg.   

Rod proudly shows off hs Tilley hat, a present from his wife Trudy

The route for the rest of the day took us to Old Wives Lees where Rod met up with a fellow ‘Essex man’ (making him feel right at home) and then onwards to the picturesque village of Chilham as we approached the finish point. 

Chilham...but Rod seems far more interested in the Jaguar!

Angels consorting with pilgrims in Chilham

A sneaky view of Chilham Castle

At the end of Mountain Street it was a blessed relief when we were once again reunited with the van so we could head off to our overnight stop at The George Hotel in Ashford. 

Finish point - Day 1

A warm refreshing shower awaited us, followed by dinner and the prospect of an early night.  However the early night was not to be as the George Hotel is a famous music venue and live music continued to blare out until after 11.00pm!

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