- Day 48 bis – return to London and continue London Outer Orbital Path (LOOP)
- Monday, 25 May 2026
- 1 097 km on my Via Francigena (283 km for 2026)
Nadine agrees for me to walk with her for the first few kilometres towards her next destination, Altapascio.
But first is breakfast with the group of five. After the warm friendly discussion last night I decide to be quiet. But three of the others want to have haka and demonstrate with their hands. I try to explain there are thousands of haka and, as Ka mate (the one they clearly have seen) I explain this is not “my” haka and I cannot perform it. We were taught Ka mate at Wellington College and I have forgotten one line and the actions.
We say our goodbyes with the two hospitallers while our room-mate goes to get his bike.
Nadine and I make good progress, first up to and along the rampart then through the morning traffic to the start of a long section on the one road. As we say our goodbyes our room-mate arrives on his bike.
I return to the city centre and the bus terminus. A driver is very helpful getting me to the place to wait for the bus to Pisa where I will board the plane to London Gatwick that I booked last night. As with yesterday, I am impressed with the scale of civil engineering needed to get over and through this western branch of the Apennines.
On entering Pisa about 10h30 I note the crowds at this hour in the tourist spots. I continue on to the airport, transform my backpack into an edgeless carry pack with handle containing stuff that can’t go in the cabin (such as trekking poles and scissors). I now have more than five hours to bag drop and six hours to boarding. This is spent reading a recent Lesley Pearse novel on my phone. As with the journey down to Milan more than two weeks ago, we fly over the Swiss Alps and almost exactly along the route up to over and down the other side of the Great Saint Bernard Pass trail.
Arrival is at the north terminal of Gatwick Airport and I transfer to the south terminal and rail platform. By 21h I am seated st the William Webb Ellis hotel in Twickenham and then to my son’s home nearby. I weigh myself and am slightly horrified that I am 65.5 kg – my weight for many years has been around 71 kg.
Wednesday is washing day and travel to a street between Convent Garden and The Strand to get s replacement trekking pole for the one that was munted somehow in the packing process. Object achieved my son agrees to dine together at the William Webb Ellis.
Thursday sees me off about 07h30 to continue the London Outer Orbital Path (LOOP). This is a two hour journey – a short bus ride to Hounslow then Piccadilly Line tube to Cockfosters – more than half is standing in a very crowded carriage, which free up after Russell Square (and British Library). A large breakfast at a Costas leads to s return to LOOP stage 17 towards Waltham Cross and the M35 at its northern extremity. I book in at my accommodation for the night and bus to Waltham Cross and the monument (a highly ornamented cross) for the night the body of Queen Eleanor rested on its way to burial at Westminster Abbey In late 1290. Of the three monuments remaining this is the most exquisite. I have an evening meal.
Friday: I am early in the café for breakfast and have a massive feed. I intend to walk sections 18 and 19 for a total of 15 km plus about 4 km from the hotel to the start point for section 18. All goes well: the first section is done well before midday. I lunch at a cafe opposite a golf course. As it happens, this marks the boundary between the sections so the restart is easy. This stage of 7 km also passes quickly. I stop for afternoon tea in Chigwell and am told the Travelodge is about 1 mile away along a main road with a footpath. Dinner is at the adjoining pub and I meet a group of four and, when they have moved on, a couple who also take an interest in what I have done.
Saturday: off early without breakfast hoping to complete stages 20 and 21 of the London Outer Orbital Path. I make good progress with stage 20 but the heat is getting to me. I reach the stage end. A bus comes by and takes me to Romford. I had intended to get there at the end of stage 21 and had booked a bed there. I check in at the Travelodge and look around a very busy market town. And have a meal at the local Wetherspoon pub: this is the first time I see security physically patting down intending customers as I arrive. Even though I am carrying a potential weapon (my trekking pole) I am waved in.
Sunday:
A large breakfast at 08h and then across the road to the Anglican church of Saint Edward the confessor: this is a Eucharist with the service first used nearly 400 year ago is read by the priest in full Eucharist vestments – there is little congregational input. On the road about 10h with sections 22 and 23 still my intention. Section 22 is good and I stop for a sizable lunch at Upminster Bridge. I set off and almost immediately feel a discomfort in my right foot. Coupled with the increasing heat, I decide to call it a day and return to Twickenham.
Monday to Monday:
Wash clothes, repack my suitcases, book travel to stay with my niece in Canada, go to a hostel near Paddington Station, walk about half of Regents Canal from Paddington towards the junction with the Thames, see locks being used by a barge, on advice from my niece arrange visits to Ottawa and Quebec City on the way back to London, have a birthday dinner with my 17 year old grandson, his father and his partner in Soho.
Looking ahead:
The Great Saint Bernard Pass is part of the Via Francigena (from Canterbury Cathedral to Saint Peter’s Basilica, Rome. And is expected to open in early June after the shut down last October for winter. I may be suitably placed to give it a go this year!!!
And so to bed.
