Charlotte's Day

We named Day 1 of the walk "Charlotte's Day" after Charlotte, a young woman who lost her life to her eating disorder. At Southwark Cathedral Canon Jane led the prayers for all those whose lives have been lost. It was a fitting and prayerful start to our first step of the journey and the love and care we received at Southwark was to be replicated in many places along our journey.







The first steps were along the busy streets of South London, past well known landmarks and on to less familiar territory.














On Jamaica Road we experienced our first act of public hospitality from the staff of the most amazing MacDonald's. Andy and his staff offered us free drinks for our journey. Christine at Beckenham was as friendly, but I have to admit by the time we got there we were past the point of wishing to get our cameras out. At Greenwich we said goodbye to the girls, and the three of us set off past the palace. If you've never been to Greenwich, which until then I hadn't, please consider a visit - it's absolutely amazing.


After that there was still a long way to go to the end of the day and a lot to see. I'd promised Connie that as we were broadly following the Thames Estuary, the way would be flat. This was of course totally inaccurate. If we'd spent the kind of time Bill did researching the route we'd have known that we would be travelling along "Maze Hill" and might have guessed that it, along with Shooters Hill Road, wouldn't exactly be on the level. Sir John Vanbrugh built his house at the top of Shooters Hill, and let me tell you, he did it for the view not for the pleasure of walking up the thing!


I have more pictures of the rest of the day (I think) which I'll add to this when I finally retrieve them from the camera. In Bexleyheath we re-enacted the parable of the Good Samaritan when asking directions. With our matching T-shirts and folders we undoubtedly DID look as if we were selling something, and housewives and business men hurried on desperate to avoid us. The kids in hoodies smoking by the water feature however, were delighted to help, one of them even remarking delightedly "I've never been any good at this before". With their help we limped on and reached Crayford Station and the train to our first night's rest.