And so the rubber hits the road....

Action Dude!

Time for the talk to stop and the action to begin!  Monday morning at 09:30 I take my first tentative pedals at the start of a long journey.  I'm simultaneously apprehensive and excited. Looks like it will be cool with some showers all the way into France. 

Send Off

Many thanks to Pick n Pay, Suzanne Ackerman, Widad Permall and the people of the Corporate Office for the wonderful send-off on thursday. FTH:K presented 20 minutes of their latest play Office Block which everyone enjoyed.

At the PnP Fresh Connection

and the the team came to see me off at the airport



What now?

I'm in a village, called Lydden, in Kent staying with my friend Maeve who will take me to the Cathedral and make sure I ride off into the sunrise.   Today we're going to visit Canterbury and the Cathedral and hopefully have my Pilgrim Passport stamped and validated for the start.  The passport is stamped frequently along the way to prove that you have actually been along the route.  Finally it is presented at the Vatican where one is given a certificate of completion of the pilgrimage.  More pics later!

It's Later

We went to the Cathedral - what a beautiful building.  At the welcome centre a friendly young lady stamped the first of many stamps in my pilgrim passport and showed us the official starting point.
So here I am at the Cathedral Entrance

and this is me - looking like I'm taking a picture of the official starting point but actually asking for a blessing....and wind at my back!

So this is it ....where pilgrim from centuries have started their quest

Exciting.  So the programme for Mon 27th is:

• Meet a reporter from the Kent newspapers at the starting point at 09:00 for a photo and chat
• Say fond farewells
• Leave about 09:30 - the route is
• Canterbury
• Shepherdswell
• Dover
• Ferry across the channel
• Calais
• Wissant
• Guines
• A total of 71 kms and I'll sleep at Guines camp site for the night

See you all here tomorrrow!