One more push/plod to join this extraordinary 74 mile Chaucerian cavalcade (my 13th?) from the steps of St Martin-in-the-Fields in Trafalgar Square down to Canterbury over the second May Bank Holiday.

Main aim: to help raise well over £30,000 for the Homeless (numbers still on the increase). The Connection at St Martins can make a big difference to the lives of individuals sleeping rough.

Also to experience the wonderful camaraderie amongst about 100 wildly diverse folk, including some (ex-)homeless, some asylum-seekers, supporting each other through many challenges. We walk in small groups. Sometimes I walk quietly on my own.

Along the South Bank, down the cacophonic Old Kent Rd, out into the Spring-green Kentish countryside, across the Medway Bridge at Aylesford, over the chalkdown Pilgrim Way, along the final river miles into Canterbury.

The procession up thro' the city streets; the joyful Thanksgiving Service in the Crypt (including a pilgrim dog); then 100 relieved, footsore pilgrims troop out thro' the Cloisters  and gather around the waving grasses; remembering Dick Sheppard who inspired the genius care at St Martins, and Roger & Kath Shaljean who inspired the Pilgrimage; the choir gently singing "Sunset and Evening Star"; the screech of the peregrine (="pilgrim") chicks high up as the evening sun slants low on the Tower. Then it's suddenly over. Time to bid farewells. Next year?      £30,000 ++??

Support us by donating. All funds raised go directly to the charity.

Roger Shaljean who with Kath initiated the Pilgrimage.