The Cumbrian
Member
- Time of past OR future Camino
- Primitivo.
St James Way, England.
St James Way, day 1.
Reading to Silchester. 17 miles.
To end my summer holiday, I'd originally planned to travel to Spain and walk the Camino San Salvador between Leon and Oviedo. Unfortunately I picked up a third bout of covid six weeks ago and I've had a low grade cold ever since, which morphed into a beefy cough and a bad chest over the last week. I'm just getting rid of the bad chest now, and I still have a cough that can clear a train carriage, so I'm not feeling fit enough to face a walk in the mountains.
This year though, I discovered the Saint James Way between Reading and Southampton. I might not feel fit enough to cross the mountains in northern Spain, but the rolling hills and tow paths of southern England seem doable in my current state.
I went to Reading museum to get my credencial and the first stamp of the trip. The very helpful woman at the front desk then directed me to St James' Church, where the walk begins. This proved to me much more of a faff than I expected. The signs took me to dead ends, and the map wasn't clear. In the end it took a combination of OS maps, Google maps, a leaflet from the museum and a bit of luck to get me on my way. This section of the walk could definitely do with better waymarking.
Once I was following the Kennet and Avon Canal though, things improved greatly. I stopped for a couple of pints, a snack and another stamp at the Cunning Man, and got back on my way. Further along, a mixture of complacency (I regularly cycle along these tow paths, and know them well) and inadequate signage meant that I ended up walking a mile or two more than I had to. I ended up backtracking along the canal after missing a sign at the swing bridge that should have pointed me towards the Fox and Hounds. After regaining the route I found that there wasn't a waymark at the junction, just a crumpled up, hard to spot sign about 30m down the road. When I finally reached the pub, I was unexpectedly greeted with a "buen camino" by a Californian couple who were walking the trail in reverse (hello Cindy and Robert, apologies if I haven't remembered your names correctly). They were on their last stage, and would reach Reading tonight. We chatted for a bit (I would have liked to have spoken for longer, but was conscious of having wasted time at the start and the missed waymark), and I was soon in my way with a warning about long stretches with no signs ahead.
This turned out to be true in places, but in most cases the junctions were well marked. You just don't have the frequent markers to reassure you like in Spain. After a fairly long first day on Camino I got to Silchester Roman town, found a stamp in the porch of the lovely old St Mary's Church and called it a day. I'm really quite impressed with the route, and when the niggles with the waymarking are sorted out it'll be a worthy addition to the Spanish leg of the Camino Ingles.
Reading to Silchester. 17 miles.
To end my summer holiday, I'd originally planned to travel to Spain and walk the Camino San Salvador between Leon and Oviedo. Unfortunately I picked up a third bout of covid six weeks ago and I've had a low grade cold ever since, which morphed into a beefy cough and a bad chest over the last week. I'm just getting rid of the bad chest now, and I still have a cough that can clear a train carriage, so I'm not feeling fit enough to face a walk in the mountains.
This year though, I discovered the Saint James Way between Reading and Southampton. I might not feel fit enough to cross the mountains in northern Spain, but the rolling hills and tow paths of southern England seem doable in my current state.
I went to Reading museum to get my credencial and the first stamp of the trip. The very helpful woman at the front desk then directed me to St James' Church, where the walk begins. This proved to me much more of a faff than I expected. The signs took me to dead ends, and the map wasn't clear. In the end it took a combination of OS maps, Google maps, a leaflet from the museum and a bit of luck to get me on my way. This section of the walk could definitely do with better waymarking.
Once I was following the Kennet and Avon Canal though, things improved greatly. I stopped for a couple of pints, a snack and another stamp at the Cunning Man, and got back on my way. Further along, a mixture of complacency (I regularly cycle along these tow paths, and know them well) and inadequate signage meant that I ended up walking a mile or two more than I had to. I ended up backtracking along the canal after missing a sign at the swing bridge that should have pointed me towards the Fox and Hounds. After regaining the route I found that there wasn't a waymark at the junction, just a crumpled up, hard to spot sign about 30m down the road. When I finally reached the pub, I was unexpectedly greeted with a "buen camino" by a Californian couple who were walking the trail in reverse (hello Cindy and Robert, apologies if I haven't remembered your names correctly). They were on their last stage, and would reach Reading tonight. We chatted for a bit (I would have liked to have spoken for longer, but was conscious of having wasted time at the start and the missed waymark), and I was soon in my way with a warning about long stretches with no signs ahead.
This turned out to be true in places, but in most cases the junctions were well marked. You just don't have the frequent markers to reassure you like in Spain. After a fairly long first day on Camino I got to Silchester Roman town, found a stamp in the porch of the lovely old St Mary's Church and called it a day. I'm really quite impressed with the route, and when the niggles with the waymarking are sorted out it'll be a worthy addition to the Spanish leg of the Camino Ingles.
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