Day 1: 4th July 2008 - Thatcham to Little Bedwyn

Josh packs everything he needs for the next 2 months.


Josh and Beth make last minute adjustments.


A goodbye hug for mum.


And so off they went.

The first day of the journey, along the towpath of the Kennet and Avon canal, took them as far as Little Bedwyn where a kind local family allowed them to pitch the tent in their garden.


The first pitch.

Distance walked today: Approx. 16 miles.

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Independence Day

A short introduction by Josh's dad:
It was with pride, and some trepidation, that I watched Josh drive off with his mother, Sue, at around 5:30 AM on the morning of the 4th of July. He had been burning the candle at both ends for weeks, (or months), trying to fit everything into his busy life. He would get up early in the morning, have some breakfast and then walk the five miles, from our home in Hampton, (SW London), to his place of work in Richmond. He would do a full days work, that would often not finish until 7:00 in the evening, and then he would walk home again. If we were lucky we would catch a glimpse of him before he was off again to visit friends or to prepare for this journey to Edinburgh. Yes, he was planning to be in Scotland for the end of the Edinburgh Festival in August. But... he was planning to walk there! And... he was planning to walk there via Wales! Now we live near London, in the south eastern portion of England and Wales is right over there on the western side of the UK! Not quite as far as Ireland but far enough when you're doing it on foot. And to top it all he had decided, bless him, to use this opportunity to raise funding for the Motor Neurone Disease Association, a charity which is close to our hearts as we lost a very dear friend to this rare but devastating illness about three years ago. So here was Josh making all of these plans and working hard and often not home until the wee hours of the morning, (when he would put himself through a regular routine of weights and excercises). And, despite the lack of sleep, he was always up and raring to go again in the morning. But there was never much of an opportunity to go through the planning of his route or making certain that he had everything that he needed for such a long journey and now I was concerned that he would be too burned out to remember everything and that he may have overlooked some important aspect of the trip. After 20 years of having me and his mother fuss over him, worrying whether he had done this or that, I think he was determined to just show us that he is now capable of doing it all on his own. Well he has actually been pretty independent for a couple of years but planning and preparing for a 600+ mile walk through England and Wales to Scotland, on top of preparing for university, working hard and having a social life, was bound to tax anyone. But he did it all with care and without fuss.

So off they drove, in the early morning sunshine, to pick up Josh's friend, Beth, who would be his travelling companion for the first week of the journey. They initially intended to walk directly from Hampton but then conceded that it would take them the best part of a day to get out of the concrete and greyness, that makes up much of the sprawling suburbs of London, and agreed to start in the Reading area instead. So Sue dropped them off in the village of Thatcham, Berkshire, where they promptly said their goodbyes before making their way to the Kennet and Avon canal, which they would be following as far west as they could on their journey to Bristol.

Independence day indeed. Have a wonderful journey, Josh, but remember... when you get home you're going to tidy up your room! (LOL) - Your dad.