Photo courtesy of Will Walking and The Old Way: Southampton to Canterbury, an Ancient British Camino.

Today’s guest post is by Will Walking.

Will Walking is the admin and moderator of the Facebook group: The Old Way: Southampton to Canterbury, an Ancient British Camino. Walking, himself a pilgrim, contributes regularly to The Old Way group and agreed to let me repost one recent essay about pilgrimage in Britain in Brexit and COVID times. His words could as easily be about Americans who are restricted from pilgrimage abroad and might have to find alternatives at home this year.

British folk are allowed 90 days in Europe without a visa, under the new [Brexit] rules.

That’s just enough time to walk the Via Francigena from #Canterbury to #Rome, through France, over the Alps, and down through Italy. But you’ll have to get a train back.

And like Medieval pilgrims, you’ll probably need Testimoniales (in this case a health passport) before being allowed into the land.

I see pilgrimage as a metric of freedom. When I first started the British Pilgrimage Trust, I asked Lord Sumption, then the youngest ever Supreme Court judge, if pilgrimage was technically a lawful activity, following all the bans. He said, “Yes, certainly, as the ordinances of Henry 8, Edward and Elizabeth, have all been overwritten by newer laws’.”

When I started making pilgrimage journeys, in 2004, I was amazed at the unclaimed freedoms of the footpath that were open and waiting for anyone to claim.

But now, a few years later, pilgrims are no longer permitted, or indeed safe, to wander freely.

What a time of change! How I miss the freedom and simplicity of <2019.

But, though the well is capped, we can still sip the waters of freedom. Small journeys on foot, starting and ending at home, remain legal and plausible. And more full of promise than we perhaps realise.

And if we are willing to cold harbour, rather than take hospitality or claim sanctuary, we can walk still far. It is currently not allowed (advised?) to stay overnight away from home. But this is due to spreading/catching Covid risks. So if you embrace the quasi-legality (and joy) of sleeping outside, along the footpath, far from people, and you carry all your own food, multi-day journeys still remain plausible.

In fact, this may be the most authentic form of pilgrimage! Most Medieval pilgrims began and ended their journeys at home. Home is the ultimate wholesome place and destination, the place we aim to bring the blessing back to.

Britain and Europe’s current ‘set route’ pilgrimage culture is a modernism, conveniently designed to focus all pilgrims on a pre-arranged path, which allows the concentration of improved facilities.

Pre-set routes are obviously defunct for the next few months (years?), but we can embrace the practice of walking out from home, with a backpack and staff, to seek our wholesome places on foot. Just be sure to taken your own food, and sleep wild. There is more to find in the local landscape than you realise.

My new website will offer advice on Pandemic pilgrimage and wayfaring soon.

Walk well all! Our peregrine freedom has not disappeared, but we do need to grasp and hold it strongly at this time.

Alternative Footpaths in COVID Times