Early last year, Jo Wotton gave a very interesting talk on her walk across Northern Spain, as she followed the Camino de Santiago pilgrimage route. Not to be outdone, her brother has given this presentation on his walk along the entire length of Britain. 

Roger’s journey began at Lymington, on the South Coast, just as the nation was emerging from Covid. His plan was to walk North at the same pace as the season of Spring. Signs of Spring, such as the leaves beginning to green, appear first in the warmer South of the country, then gradually spread further and further into the cooler North. To keep up with nature, he walked about 20 miles every day and ended up at Cape Wrath, some 950 miles away on the North coast of Scotland.

Fighting illness and blizzards

The main motive for this extensive perambulation was to examine the state of nature across the country (and to gather material for a book). As Roger went about on his journey, he encountered a variety of landscapes, from lowland pastures to peat bogs, from urban green projects to the seabed. However, he also had many opportunities to examine human nature, which came out surprisingly well. In 55 days, only three people were openly rude to him. Many more were helpful, sometimes beyond expectations. Among the walking fraternity, “All right?” is not so much a ritual pleasantry as an implied offer of assistance, should any be needed.

Some surprising statistics

Roger frequently illustrated his points with statistics, although not in a dull way. Did you know that domestic cats kill 120 million songbirds in this country, every year? Or that the land can only support 40,000 deer, but we currently have 160,000, four times as many? And yet, practically all our venison is imported from New Zealand, on the other side of the world.

Appropriately for a talk held in a Church, Roger concluded with some admonitions: bell your cat, keep your dog on a lead, don’t cut your grass and stop using weedkiller. Advice that the less industrious gardeners among us will have no trouble following! He also revealed the secret of avoiding blistered feet.

After the talk, 16 people took up Roger’s offer to buy signed copies of his book.

This event raised £1100 for the Friends.